Free Text Truncator Online
Truncate text by characters, words, sentences, or lines. Free, fast, and works entirely in your browser with no sign-up required.
Updated
Text Truncator
Truncate text by characters, words, sentences, or paragraphs with smart boundaries, platform presets, bulk processing, and history.
Input Text
Truncation Settings
Truncated Text
Truncated text will appear here...
Comparison
Characters
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Words
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Sentences
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Paragraphs
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About Text Truncator
Truncate long text to fit character limits, word counts, or other restrictions. Perfect for creating excerpts, meta descriptions, social media posts, and more.
- Characters - Cut at exact character count
- Words - Keep only N words
- Sentences - Keep only N complete sentences
- Paragraphs - Keep only N paragraphs
- Word and sentence boundary breaking
- Middle truncation for file paths and URLs
- Custom ellipsis / suffix options
- Real-time character counter and progress bar
- Before/after preview with highlighted cut point
- Twitter / X (280 chars)
- Instagram Caption (2,200 chars)
- Meta Description (160 chars)
- Title Tag (60 chars)
- SMS (160 chars)
- YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Text Truncator?
The Text Truncator is a free online tool that shortens text by characters, words, sentences, or lines, with customizable ellipsis options.
Is the Text Truncator free?
Yes, it is completely free with no registration required. All processing happens client-side in your browser.
Can I truncate by word count?
Yes, the Text Truncator lets you truncate by character count, word count, sentence count, or line count for flexible text shortening.
Is my data safe with this tool?
Absolutely. The Text Truncator processes everything client-side in your browser. No data is uploaded to or stored on any server. Your content remains private on your device at all times.
Does the Text Truncator work on mobile devices?
Yes, the Text Truncator is fully responsive and works on smartphones and tablets. You can use it on any device with a modern web browser -- no app download required.
Do I need to create an account to use this tool?
No account or registration is needed. Simply open the Text Truncator in your browser and start using it immediately. There are no sign-up walls or usage restrictions.
Can I process large amounts of text?
Yes, the Text Truncator handles text of any length with fast, real-time processing. Since everything runs in your browser, performance depends on your device but works well for most use cases.
How do I use the Text Truncator?
Simply enter your input in the provided field, adjust any settings to your preference, and the tool will process it instantly. You can then copy the result to your clipboard or download it.
Which browsers are supported?
The Text Truncator works in all modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. For the best experience, use the latest version of your preferred browser.
How many characters should a meta description be before it gets cut off?
Google typically truncates meta descriptions around 160 characters on desktop, and title tags around 60 characters, though the exact point varies because Google measures pixel width rather than a hard count. Staying near 155-160 characters keeps your full message visible in search results instead of trailing off mid-sentence. Title tags get clipped even sooner, so aim for 50-60 characters there. This tool has one-click presets for both: the Meta Description preset sets a 160-character limit and the Title Tag preset sets 60, both measured by characters including spaces, exactly how these limits are defined. A live counter shows your current length and the reduction percentage as you trim. Paste your snippet, pick the preset, and it cuts the copy to fit while a word-boundary break keeps the last word whole.
What is the difference between truncating by characters and by words?
Truncating by characters cuts the text at an exact count of letters, spaces, and punctuation, which matches how platforms like Twitter, SMS, and meta tags define their limits. Truncating by words instead keeps a set number of whole words regardless of how long each one is, so the result never ends in a partial word. Character mode is right when a hard ceiling is involved, such as fitting a title under 60 characters. Word mode is better for summaries and excerpt fields where readability matters more than a precise length, for example keeping the first 50 words of an article. This tool offers both, plus sentence and paragraph modes, and a live counter that reports characters, words, sentences, and paragraphs at once. Choose the unit that matches your limit, set the number, and copy the trimmed result.
Why does truncating text sometimes cut off a word in the middle?
A plain character cut stops at the exact position you set, so if your limit lands inside a word you get a fragment like "the quick brown fo" instead of a clean ending. That happens because the tool is counting raw characters, not looking for a natural stopping point. To avoid it, switch the Smart Break setting from an exact cut to a word boundary, which snaps the cut back to the last complete word before your limit, or to a sentence boundary, which falls back to the last full sentence so an excerpt never ends mid-thought. A cut-point preview highlights in red exactly what will be removed before you commit. Set your limit, choose word or sentence breaking, and the trimmed text reads cleanly while still staying under the ceiling, since the suffix length is subtracted from your limit too.
How do I shorten a long file path or URL while keeping both ends visible?
When you trim a long path or URL, cutting only the end hides the filename or the part that identifies the resource, while cutting the start hides the directory. The fix is middle truncation, which keeps the beginning and the end and collapses the center into an ellipsis, producing something like start...end. This is the standard way file managers and breadcrumbs display long paths, because the most meaningful pieces usually sit at both ends. In this tool, set Truncate From to Middle, choose a character limit, and the text keeps roughly half from each side around your chosen suffix, with the suffix length subtracted so the final string still fits. You can swap the marker for a true ellipsis or a custom string. Paste the path, pick Middle, and copy a compact version that stays readable at a glance.
Does the ellipsis or suffix count toward the character limit?
Yes. If you set a 160-character limit and add a three-character suffix like "...", the visible text plus the marker would otherwise total 163 and overflow. This tool prevents that by subtracting the suffix length from your limit first, so the final string of text plus marker still fits the number you set. That matters most for tight ceilings like a 60-character title tag or a 280-character post, where a few extra characters from the ellipsis can push you over. You can choose from built-in markers including three dots, a true single-character ellipsis, an arrow, [more], [read more], a divider, or none at all, plus a custom field for your own. Pick the suffix that suits the destination, set your limit, and the output is guaranteed to land at or under it every time.
Embed This Tool
Add a free, live version of this widget to your own website or blog post — it runs entirely in your visitors' browsers, with a credit link back to The Toolbox.
<iframe src="https://getthetoolbox.com/embed/text-truncator" title="Free Text Truncator Online — The Toolbox" width="100%" height="300" style="max-width:480px;border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font-size:12px;margin:4px 0 0"><a href="https://getthetoolbox.com/text-tools/text-truncator?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=widget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Free Text Truncator Online</a> by The Toolbox</p>Related Tools
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About the Text Truncator
The Text Truncator is a free tool for shortening any block of writing to a precise length. Paste your text, set a limit, and it trims the content down to fit — by characters, words, sentences, or paragraphs — while keeping the result readable. It is built for anyone who has to make copy fit a hard ceiling: marketers writing meta descriptions, social media managers squeezing a post under a platform cap, developers generating excerpts and previews, and editors trimming summaries.
Everything runs locally in your browser. Your text is never uploaded to a server, so drafts, internal notes, and unpublished copy stay private on your device. There is no sign-up, no length cap, and nothing to install.
Four ways to measure the cut
Truncation only helps if you can cut by the unit a limit actually uses, so the tool offers four modes:
- Characters — counts every character including spaces, the way most social and SEO limits are defined.
- Words — keeps a set number of words, useful for summaries and excerpt fields.
- Sentences — keeps whole sentences, detected by terminal punctuation (
.,!,?), so an excerpt never ends mid-thought. - Paragraphs — keeps a number of blank-line-separated blocks, ideal for "read more" previews.
A live counter shows the original length and the reduction percentage, so you can see exactly how much was removed.
Smart boundaries and where to cut
A naive cut at character 160 often lands in the middle of a word. The Smart Break setting controls this: choose an exact cut, snap back to the nearest word boundary, or fall back to the last complete sentence. Word-boundary trimming is what keeps a truncated headline from reading "the quick brown fo".
You also choose where the text is removed with the Truncate From option:
- End keeps the start of the text (the normal case — a title or opening line).
- Start keeps the end, handy when the meaningful part is the file extension or closing.
- Middle keeps both ends and collapses the center, e.g. a long path shown as
start…end.
Finally, pick the marker that signals omission. Built-in suffixes include ..., a true ellipsis (…), →, [more], [read more], a --- divider, or none at all, plus a custom field for your own. The tool subtracts the suffix length from your limit so the final string — text plus marker — still fits.
Platform presets that match real limits
Knowing the exact ceiling is half the job, so the Text Truncator ships with one-click presets that set both the mode and the correct limit:
- Title Tag — 60 characters, the point where Google typically truncates a title in results
- Meta Description — 160 characters
- Twitter / X post — 280 characters
- SMS — 160 characters per single segment
- Instagram caption — 2,200 characters
- LinkedIn post — 3,000 characters
- YouTube title — 100 characters; YouTube description — 5,000 characters
- Facebook post — 63,206 characters
- Summary — 50 words; Excerpt — 3 sentences; Preview — 2 paragraphs
These reflect the published caps each platform enforces, so you can format copy for the destination without looking the number up.
Built for repeat work
For batches, Bulk Truncation applies your current settings to multiple inputs at once, so you can trim a column of titles in one pass. A History panel records recent truncations in your browser's local storage, letting you restore an earlier configuration without re-entering it. Every result can be copied to the clipboard or downloaded as a file.
Because all of this runs client-side, the Text Truncator works offline once the page has loaded and handles large documents quickly — speed depends on your hardware, not a server queue. Paste your text above, choose a mode and limit, and the result updates instantly.