Every platform has limits — and they're not always obvious. Instagram truncates captions after 125 characters in the feed. LinkedIn clips posts before the fold at around 700 characters. Twitter counts all URLs as exactly 23 characters regardless of actual length. Knowing these limits before you write saves last-minute scrambling and helps you front-load your most important message where it actually gets read.
Twitter / X Character Limits
Post (tweet): 280 characters for free accounts. X Premium users get 4,000 characters per post and up to 25,000 characters for long-form posts.
URLs: Always count as exactly 23 characters, regardless of the actual URL length — Twitter wraps them with t.co shortener.
Images: Don't count toward the character limit. A post with an image still has 280 characters available for text.
Bio: 160 characters. Display name: 50 characters. Location: 30 characters.
For content that needs more space, use threads. Each tweet in a thread has its own 280-character limit, and threads can be algorithmically amplified as a unit.
LinkedIn Character Limits
Posts/updates: 3,000 characters total. However, LinkedIn shows only the first ~700 characters before a "see more" link — your hook must land within those 700.
Article title: 150 characters. Article body: 125,000 characters. About/Bio section: 2,600 characters. Headline: 220 characters.
Comments: 1,250 characters. InMail subject: 200 characters. InMail body: 1,900 characters.
LinkedIn compresses posts aggressively on mobile. Write the most important point in your first sentence — that's what appears in the preview before any tap or click.
Instagram Character Limits
Captions: 2,200 characters maximum. In feed, only the first 125 characters are visible before a "more" tap. Lead with your hook in those first 125.
Bio: 150 characters. Username: 30 characters. Comments: 2,200 characters. Hashtags per post: 30 maximum (though 3–7 targeted hashtags outperform 30 generic ones).
Stories and Reels have no official text character limit, but on-screen readability drops sharply after about 60–80 characters per text block. Use multiple text elements rather than one long block.
Facebook Character Limits
Status/post: Technically 63,206 characters. In practice, anything over 480 characters shows a "See More" link. Organic reach data suggests posts under 80 characters get higher engagement rates.
Ad primary text: 125 characters (longer text gets truncated in most placements). Ad headline: 40 characters. Ad description: 30 characters.
Page name: 75 characters. Group description: 3,000 characters. Event description: 65,000 characters.
Facebook events and groups tolerate longer text better than posts — their audiences are opting in to see more detail.
YouTube Character Limits
Video title: 100 characters maximum, but only 60–70 characters show in search results — keep your keyword in the first 60 characters.
Video description: 5,000 characters. Search results show the first 120–157 characters — use those for your core keyword and value proposition. The remaining description is valuable for links, timestamps, and supporting keywords.
Tags: 500 characters total. Community posts: 500 characters. Comments: 10,000 characters. Channel description: 1,000 characters.
Email Subject Lines and Preview Text
Subject line sweet spot: 6–10 words, 41–50 characters. Gmail clips after approximately 70 characters on desktop and 40 on mobile. Apple Mail on iPhone shows roughly 40–64 characters depending on the device.
Preview text / preheader: 85–100 characters. This is the short text that appears next to (or under) your subject line in the inbox. If you don't set it explicitly, email clients pull the first text from your email body — often boilerplate like "View in browser."
The first 40 characters of both subject line and preview text are the most critical. They're always visible on any device. Write for those 40 characters, then let the rest support them.
Try the Free Tool
Paste your caption or post copy to instantly count characters, words, and see if you're within limits.
Check Your Character Count →Frequently Asked Questions
How many characters is a tweet on Twitter/X?
280 characters for standard (free) accounts. X Premium users can post up to 4,000 characters per tweet, and long-form posts can go up to 25,000 characters. URLs in tweets always count as 23 characters regardless of actual length.
Does Instagram count emojis toward the character limit?
Yes. Most standard emojis count as 2 characters because they use Unicode surrogate pairs. Complex emojis with skin tone modifiers or sequences can count as more. Always check your actual character count with a counter tool rather than estimating.
What is LinkedIn's character limit for posts?
3,000 characters total. However, LinkedIn shows only the first approximately 700 characters before a 'see more' link. Put your most important content within those first 700 characters to ensure it gets read without requiring a click.
How long should an email subject line be?
41–50 characters (6–10 words) typically produces the highest open rates. More importantly, keep the critical message within the first 40 characters — that's what's visible on any mobile device without truncation.
What happens to Facebook posts over 480 characters?
Facebook adds a 'See More' link after approximately 480 characters, hiding the rest of the post. Most users don't click. Write your core message within the first 480 characters, and ideally within the first 80 for maximum organic reach.