how many characters is this

The phrase given ("how\nmany\ncharacters\nis\nthis") consists of 21 characters in total, including the newline characters between the words. If counting only the visible letters and spaces (ignoring the newline characters), the total number of characters is 16. This count includes all letters and spaces but not punctuation or symbols since none are present here. The newlines add additional characters if considered. If a precise count including or excluding newlines is needed for a particular context, tools like the online character counters can provide this instantly.