Hi makenzi.exc,
Use length property for calculating the characters count.
Refer below sample.
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title></title>
<style type="text/css">
body { font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<textarea id="txtMessage" rows="5" cols="20" onkeyup="CountCharacters()"></textarea>
<br />
<span id="lblMessage">0</span>
<script type="text/javascript">
function CountCharacters() {
document.getElementById("lblMessage").innerHTML =
document.getElementById("txtMessage").value.length;
};
</script>
</body>
</html>
Demo