Character Limits on Social Platforms, a 2026 Reference

The number that matters is the slice the feed shows, which is almost always shorter than the composer maximum. On LinkedIn, a post can allow about 3,000 characters while the feed shows roughly 140 to 210 characters before "see more." A 400-character draft can collapse to two lines for anyone who does not expand it. Count the draft with the Character Counter. Pair it with the Word Counter when readability or speaking time matters more than the raw cap. The published maximum is a ceiling. Write to the lines people see, or put the point in those lines. Limits change. Check them before a major campaign. The 2026 figures below reflect public documentation and common behavior.

Platforms cap text because the phone screen is finite, because a denser feed shows more posts per scroll, because APIs want predictable payload sizes, because a wall of text is easier to use as spam, and because shorter organic posts leave room for ads.

X (formerly Twitter)

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Standard post | 280 characters | Most accounts | | Premium / long posts | Higher tiers vary | Check current X subscription docs | | DM | about 10,000 characters | Not the public feed | | Bio | 160 characters | | | Display name | 50 characters | | | URL in a post | Counts after t.co shortening | Links often use about a 23-character budget |

Front-load the hook. The first 100 characters survive a repost and a notification. A thread gets around the single-post cap, and each post still stops at 280. An image does not reduce the text budget. It often affects engagement more than extra words do.

Count before you schedule. The Character Counter catches an emoji that is one glyph and more than one code unit.

LinkedIn

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Post body | about 3,000 characters | Hard max in the composer | | Feed truncation | about 140 to 210 characters | Before "see more." It varies by device | | Article headline | 100 characters | | | Article body | 110,000 characters | Long-form native articles | | Company update | about 700 characters | Page posts | | Headline (profile) | 220 characters | | | About section | 2,600 characters | |

Put the point in the first two lines. That is the limit people actually see. Line breaks count as characters. Use them when they help scanning. Do not paste 2,800 characters and expect the feed to show all of it.

Those opening lines have to carry the point, because that is what is on screen before anyone chooses to expand the post.

Instagram

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Caption | 2,200 characters | | | Bio | 150 characters | | | Username | 30 characters | | | Hashtags in the caption | 30 hashtag maximum (policy) | They count toward 2,200 | | Comment | 2,200 characters | | | Story text | A visual constraint | No hard character limit. Readability still limits you |

Hashtags can sit at the end or in the first comment. If they are inline, they count toward the caption. On many feed views, about the first 125 characters show before truncation. Image alt text allows 1,000 characters. That field is for accessibility, separate from the caption.

Facebook

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Status post | 63,206 characters | The practical limit is much lower | | Feed truncation | about 477 characters | Before "See More" on desktop. Mobile shows less | | Comment | 8,000 characters | | | Page description | 255 characters | | | Ad primary text | 125 characters recommended | Before truncation in many placements |

Facebook allows a very long post. Readers do not read those posts. In engagement studies, 40 to 80 characters often outperform an essay. On a link post, the headline and description can come from Open Graph. Optimize those meta tags separately.

TikTok

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Caption | 2,200 characters (expanded from 300) | Check the current app version | | Video overlay text | Screen space | Few words stay readable | | Bio | 80 characters | | | Comment | 150 characters | |

The caption carries search context. The video carries the message. Hashtags count, so balance discovery against clutter.

YouTube

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Video title | 100 characters | Search truncates around 60 to 70 | | Description | 5,000 characters | About the first 150 show before the fold | | Comment | 10,000 characters | | | Playlist title | 150 characters | |

Put keywords in the first 60 characters of the title. The first lines of the description are what search snippets use.

Threads (Meta)

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Post | 500 characters | | | Thread posts | 500 each | |

A single Threads post is shorter than a single post on X. Count it.

Bluesky

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Post | 300 characters | |

The discipline is close to classic Twitter.

Mastodon

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Post | 500 characters by default | An instance admin can raise it to 5,000 |

If you cross-post, know the instance setting.

Pinterest

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Pin title | 100 characters | | | Pin description | 500 characters | | | Board name | 50 characters | |

Reddit

| Element | Limit | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | Post title | 300 characters | | | Post body | 40,000 characters | | | Comment | 10,000 characters | |

Title length affects clicks in a subreddit feed. Treat it like a headline.

Email subject lines

Not a social network, and the same counting problem shows up:

| Context | Practical limit | | --- | --- | | Email subject | 40 to 60 characters visible on mobile | | Preheader | about 100 characters | | SMS | 160 characters (GSM-7); 70 with Unicode |

Use the Character Counter on subject-line drafts.

Emoji and Unicode

Platforms count UTF-16 code units or graphemes differently.

• A simple emoji such as 😀 is often 2 code units and displays as 1
• A family emoji such as 👨‍👩‍👧 is several code points and one glyph
• A combining accent, such as é built from e plus an acute, is more than one unit

Near a limit, paste the text into the Character Counter. Mental math fails here.

A skin-tone modifier adds length. A flag emoji uses a pair of regional indicators.

URLs and mentions

| Platform | URL behavior | | --- | --- | | X | t.co shortening; about 23 characters in practice | | LinkedIn | The full URL counts | | Instagram | A link in the caption is not clickable. The usual workaround is the bio link |

An @mention counts toward the limit on most platforms.

One draft, several cuts

Do not truncate one blob and hope.

1. Write the core message in two or three sentences.
2. Expand that for LinkedIn or for an article.
3. Compress the hook for X or Threads.
4. Cut a visual-first version for Instagram or TikTok.

The Word Counter helps when you are repurposing a blog post. Word count and SEO makes the same point for social: a longer text is not automatically better. The Case Converter is there if a headline needs title case before you count it. See the case converter guide.

A posting workflow

1. Draft in a notes app.
2. Count with the Character Counter.
3. Check truncation in the platform preview, or post to a private test account.
4. Schedule in the native tool or a third-party tool, and confirm the count survived the paste.
5. Test hook variations inside the first-line limit.

Accessibility

Short text is not automatically accessible. Alt text, captions, and clear language still matter inside the cap. Do not give up clarity to save 10 characters. Restructure the sentence.

Related articles

• Word Count SEO Myths: when a length target misleads
• Case Converter Uses: title case for a social headline
• Lorem Ipsum, When to Use It: placeholder copy versus the final text

Limitations

Platform character caps and link-wrapping rules change. A multi-code-point emoji sequence, such as a skin-tone modifier or a family emoji, can count as 2 to 7 characters in UTF-16 and as 1 or 2 characters in a platform composer. Leave a 5-to-10-character buffer when you are near a hard cutoff.

The official limit is a ceiling. The feed shows a shorter slice. Count the draft, put the point in the first visible lines on LinkedIn and Instagram, stay inside 280 on X, and do not assume a 3,000-character LinkedIn post is read in full. Fit the smallest window that still delivers the message, then expand for the reader who chooses to open it.