What the checker counts
- Etsy title: the number of characters, against 140.
- Etsy tags: the number of tags, against 13, and any tag that appears twice.
- Etsy tag length: the characters in each tag, against 20.
- Shopify meta title and meta description: the number of characters, compared with target lengths of 60 and 155.
The Shopify numbers are the checker's own target lengths, chosen to make truncation in search results less likely. Shopify does not enforce them, and a longer text is reported as a warning, not as an error.
The counter under each field updates while you type. Pressing Check lists every problem found. The check runs in your browser, and the text is not sent anywhere.
Drafted with AI assistance. Examples are fictional listings made for illustration. If your Etsy listing editor shows a different count or limit, the editor wins.
How characters are counted
- Every letter, digit, space, comma and other punctuation mark counts as one character.
- Spaces at the start and end of a field are removed before counting. Spaces between words count.
- An emoji such as the herb emoji in example 2 counts as one character. The checker counts Unicode code points, so an emoji built from several code points, such as a flag or a skin-tone variant, counts as more than one.
- Tags can be separated with commas or typed one per line. Each tag is trimmed and then counted on its own, spaces included.
Three worked examples
1. A title inside the limit
Title (85 characters)
Personalized Leather Keychain, Hand Stamped Initial Key Fob, Anniversary Gift for Him
The counter shows 85 / 140 characters. That leaves 55 characters unused, which is fine: 140 is a ceiling, not a target.
2. A title with an emoji
Title (57 characters)
🌿 Eucalyptus Soy Candle, 8 oz Amber Jar, Spa Gift for Her
The emoji is 1 character, the space after it is 1, and the rest of the title is 55, so the checker shows 57 / 140 characters. A counter that counts UTF-16 code units instead of code points would report 58 for the same title, because this emoji takes two code units.
3. A title over the limit, and a tag that is too long
Title before (154 characters)
Personalized Leather Keychain, Hand Stamped Initial Key Fob, Custom Monogram Keyring, Anniversary Gift for Him, Third Anniversary Leather Gift for Husband
The checker reports the title as over the 140-character limit by 14. Cutting the last phrase, comma included, fixes it.
Title after (110 characters)
Personalized Leather Keychain, Hand Stamped Initial Key Fob, Custom Monogram Keyring, Anniversary Gift for Him
Tag before (29 characters)
personalized leather keychain
This tag is 9 characters over the 20-character limit, so it becomes two tags.
Tag after, first (16 characters)
leather keychain
Tag after, second (20 characters)
personalized keyring
The phrase the title lost, a third anniversary gift for a husband, can go into the remaining tag slots in the same way.
Formulas that fit the limits
The Etsy & Shopify Listing SEO Bundle: Rewrite Kit + 2 Formula Packs is 3 Markdown files for USD 15. It holds a fill-in rewrite prompt with a 12-point QA checklist, 20 Etsy title formulas with 20 tag sets, and 30 Shopify meta title and meta description formulas.
What a character count cannot do
The checker looks only at lengths, tag count and repeated tags. It does not judge keywords and cannot predict search position, traffic or sales.
Next guide: Etsy title and tag limits, with 3 fill-in title formulas.