Skip to content
Redmoon Calculators
Writing & editing

SEO Meta Tag Length Checker

Validate your title tag and meta description by character count AND pixel width — the metric Google actually uses to truncate snippets. Includes a SERP preview.

Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Changes and corrections

When to use this

Use the SEO meta length checker on every page before publishing. Both title and description should fit the SERP layout cleanly — too short wastes space, too long gets truncated with an ellipsis.

How it compares

Character-only counters miss the truncation rule (Google uses pixel width). This tool combines both metrics so you can defend either to a stakeholder.

0 chars

How it works

Google truncates titles and descriptions by pixel width, not character count. In Arial, i and l are narrow and M and W are wide.

Widths are measured with Arial's own character widths: titles at 20px against a 600px desktop cut-off (the convention SERP-preview tools use; Google publishes no limit), descriptions at 14px against about 920px on desktop and 680px on mobile, the figures most SERP-preview tools use.

Mobile titles wrap to a second line rather than being cut at a fixed width, so the title limit is the same 600px on both; the device selector changes the description limit.

FAQs

Why does Google sometimes change my title?

Google rewrites titles based on the search query and what it thinks the user wants. Your tag is a strong suggestion, not a guarantee.

Pixels or characters — which matters?

Pixels. Google truncates by visible width, so a description full of "iiiii" can fit more characters than one full of "WWWWW".

Mobile vs. desktop limits?

Titles are measured at 20px Arial against about 600px, where desktop results cut them; mobile results wrap a long title onto a second line instead, so 600px is the limit to write to on both. Descriptions are measured at 14px Arial against about 920px on desktop and 680px on mobile, where they run to fewer lines.

Worked example

Input

Title: "Free Online Readability Calculator — Redmoon" (44 chars / 422px). Description: "Check how easy your writing is to read." (39 chars / 244px)

Output

Title: good · Description: short (244px is under half the 920px desktop width)

Google truncates by pixel width, not character count. At 20px Arial, the 600px desktop cut-off is roughly 60 characters of ordinary text, so this 422px title has room to spare. The status flags short / good / long against those widths.

Common pitfalls

  • Google can rewrite titles and descriptions in the SERP — your tag is a strong suggestion, not a guarantee.
  • Descriptions have different pixel limits on mobile and desktop; check both.
  • Title and description rendering varies by query, device, and Google's own A/B tests.
  • Adding keywords to fill the limit hurts CTR — write for humans first.

Pixels, not characters

Search results truncate on rendered width, not character count, which is why "60 characters" is only ever a rule of thumb. Proportional type means a title of Ws and Ms is far wider than the same count of ls and is, and the one truncates while the other does not.

The practical target is about 600 pixels for a title, measured in 20px Arial as Google sets result titles, and about 920 for a description in 14px Arial on desktop, 680 on mobile. Google publishes no limit of its own: these are the conventions SERP-preview tools have converged on, and this tool uses them. On mobile, long titles wrap to a second line rather than being cut, so the desktop width is the one to write to. Counting characters gets you close; measuring width is what actually predicts the ellipsis.

What gets shown is not what you wrote

Search engines frequently rewrite both. Descriptions are the more volatile: a snippet is often assembled from whatever passage matches the query rather than from the tag, which means a description is an input to the decision rather than a guarantee of output. Titles are rewritten less often but still routinely, particularly when the tag is stuffed or repeats the site name.

That is a reason to write them well, not a reason to ignore them. A description that reads as a genuine summary of the page is more likely to survive intact, and it does double duty on social platforms and internal search where no rewriting happens.

Read more about this

· 8 min read

Why your meta tags get cut off: pixels, not characters

Google truncates titles and descriptions by pixel width, not character count — which is why two snippets of the same length can be cut differently. Here are the real limits, why the rules of thumb mislead, and how to write tags that survive.

Related tools

Writing & editing

Reading Time Estimator

How long does your text take to read?

 Writing & editing

Cloze Test Generator

Turn text into fill‑in‑the‑blank exercises.

 Writing & editing

Tweet / X Length Checker

Twitter-weighted character counter with thread split.

 Writing & editing

Sentence & Paragraph Counter

Counts sentences, paragraphs, and length distribution.

Send feedback

We read every message. Tell us what could be better or what you love.