Yeah, I tend to use counters for escaping pressure. Axl has no jab, but counter comes out (as in becomes "open for business," so a hit will trigger it) in 1F. Think of it in those terms.
It also matters what level of move your opponent is doing. Since the counter comes out during hitstop, your opponent can have from 4 to 0 frames to act. That is to say, a lv. 5 move will be hit on the "same" frame as it hit you, meaning they can't do anything. A lv. 4 move will give them one frame to move, etc. This gives your opponent options. If they have a DP or something, they can cancel anything lv.4 and below into it. If they have enough frames to jump and faultless, they can block the counter (Which I've not once in my life seen happen, but still). If you want to be TOTALLY sure they can't avoid it, buffer the FB followup ASAP. The followup comes out in less frames, and can be started on frame 2 of the counter. Minimum startup is 11F, meaning it'll beat a lv. 1 jab on the first frame possible. Notably, RCs also take one frame to happen, which means this beats that, too.
tl;dr version of above paragraph: Target moves that are high-level, or aren't SCable. Or characters that have no invulnerable moves to cancel into.
Countering isn't always your best option though. You may want to jump out instead, or DP, or 2K under whatever they're doing. As a general rule, I'm most prone to do the counter (defensively. There are also a lot of offensive uses for it) when I don't think I'll have enough time to do anything else, or when I know I can get a juicy CH for wallbounce off of it.
EDIT: Oh, and if you're talking about the 214P one, just do something else. That thing is garbage.