Meta Description Length Checker
Live meta description length checker. Character + pixel-width count vs Google SERP ~990px limit. Realtime snippet preview + truncation warning + mobile-first guidance.
Meta Description Length Checker
How to use the Meta Description Length Checker
Type or paste your description
Enter the description exactly as it appears in <meta name="description" content="...">. Google may show it under your title — or may build the snippet from your page text instead; it decides per search.
Watch the live snippet preview
The preview measures the description in 14px Arial with your browser's own text engine and cuts it where a 990px budget runs out, with "…". That is the industry's rule of thumb for a desktop snippet; Google publishes no limit.
Check pixel + character counts
Width is the better guide, because characters differ: at 14px a Chinese or Japanese character is 14px wide, so 990px holds about 70 of them, against roughly 127 average lower-case Latin letters. The 155-character figure is shown as the rougher check.
Write it the way Google asks
Google describes a good meta description as a short, relevant summary of the page — "like a pitch" — and asks for a unique one per page. Descriptions built from a page's own facts (for a product: price, author, specifications) are the kind it gives as examples.
Meta descriptions — your free SERP ad copy
A meta description is a summary you write for a page. Google may use it as the snippet under your result, but its documentation is clear that it does not have to: it "primarily uses the content on the page to automatically determine the appropriate snippet", and uses the meta description "when it describes the page better than other parts of the content". Snippets are chosen per search, so the same page can show different text for different queries.
There is no official length limit
Google says there is "no limit on how long a meta description can be, but the snippet is truncated in Google Search results as needed, typically to fit the device width". The 990px and 155-character figures on this page are the industry's rules of thumb for a desktop result. If you want to cap the snippet yourself, Google supports a max-snippet robots meta tag that sets its maximum length.
Google writes the snippet. Your meta description is a candidate — the one that wins when it describes the page better than the page's own text.
Width, not characters
At 14px Arial, 990px holds about 127 average lower-case letters, but only about 70 Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, since each is a full em wide. Until 30 September 2026 this tool summed a table of ASCII widths and gave every other character the width of a lower-case letter, which measured CJK descriptions at little more than half their width. It now measures with your browser's text engine, and falls back to Helvetica/Arial metrics, with CJK at one em, only where it cannot.
What Google's guidance asks for
A unique description for each page — "identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site aren't helpful" — that accurately describes that page; content that includes the facts a searcher wants, which for large sites can be generated from page data; and no long strings of keywords. If you would rather Google showed no snippet at all, the nosnippet rule does that, and data-nosnippet keeps chosen parts of a page out.
Width not length, 70 CJK characters in 990px, and snippets Google writes itself
Google says there is "no limit on how long a meta description can be"; the snippet is cut "as needed, typically to fit the device width".
Google "primarily uses the content on the page" to write snippets, and uses the meta description when it describes the page better.
Snippets are chosen per search, so one page can show different snippet text for different queries.
990px for a desktop snippet is the industry's rule of thumb, not a published Google figure.
At 14px a CJK character is 14px wide, so 990px holds about 70 — against roughly 127 average lower-case Latin letters.
Google asks for a unique description per page: identical or similar ones across a site "aren't helpful" when pages appear in results.
Google's own example of a good product description packs in facts — author, illustrator, price, length — rather than a slogan.
The max-snippet robots meta tag sets the longest snippet you allow Google to show.
nosnippet stops Google showing a snippet for a page; data-nosnippet hides chosen parts of a page from snippets.
Until 30 September 2026 this checker measured every non-ASCII character as a lower-case letter, reporting CJK descriptions at little more than half their width.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Long enough to describe the page accurately. Google sets no limit and cuts snippets to fit the device. As a desktop rule of thumb, about 990px fits — roughly 155 Latin characters or 70 CJK ones — and the tool shows where yours would be cut.
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Because it writes snippets itself: Google primarily uses page content, chooses per search, and uses the meta description when it describes the page better than the page text. A specific, accurate, unique description gives it the most reason to.
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Google's documentation treats the meta description as a candidate for the snippet shown in results, not as something that decides where a page ranks. Its job is to help a searcher choose your result.
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Describe the page accurately and the relevant words will be there. Google's guidance warns against long strings of keywords, which describe nothing.
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Nothing forbids them. Each counts toward the width like a wide character, and Google may not show your description anyway, so use them only where they add meaning.
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<meta name="description">is read by search engines;og:descriptionis read by social apps when a link is shared. They can say different things. -
They can help: Google's own example of a good description is built from product facts — author, illustrator, price, length. For large catalogues it suggests generating descriptions from page data rather than repeating one template sentence.
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After Google recrawls the page, which depends on how often it crawls your site. Search Console's URL Inspection tool can request indexing of a single URL.
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No. All analysis runs in your browser via JavaScript. Open DevTools → Network and confirm zero outbound requests. Description text + analysis results stay on your device. Safe for unannounced page launches or competitive SEO research.
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The SEO Title Tag Checker measures the title the same way. After publishing, Google Search Console shows how often your result appears and is clicked.
Method & sources
What this tool implements
- Google: "There's no limit on how long a meta description can be"; it "primarily uses the content on the page" for snippets and uses the description when it describes the page better; snippets can differ per search.
- Until this review CJK characters were measured as lower-case Latin letters (about 40% short). 990 px at 14 px holds about 70 CJK characters against about 127 average Latin letters.
- Removed unsourced figures: "Google rewrites ~70% of descriptions", "ASEAN traffic is 70-85% mobile", position-1 CTR of 30%, "271 tools beats many tools by 15-30%".
Sources
- Google Search Central. Control your snippets in search results. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet
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