Character Limits for Every Social Media Platform in 2026
Social platforms change their character limits more often than you'd expect. Twitter doubled its limit in 2017. LinkedIn raised its post limit. Threads launched with its own limits. Keeping track is a genuine challenge for social media managers and content creators.
This guide consolidates every major platform's character limits in one place, updated for 2026. Bookmark it and use TextLoom's Character Counter alongside it to check your posts before you publish.
Character Limit Master Table (2026)
| Platform | Content Type | Character Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X | Post (tweet) | 280 | URLs count as 23 chars regardless of length. X Premium subscribers get 25,000 chars. |
| Twitter / X | Bio | 160 | — |
| Twitter / X | Display name | 50 | — |
| Caption | 2,200 | Only ~125 chars show before "more" truncation in feed. | |
| Bio | 150 | — | |
| Comment | 2,200 | — | |
| Post | 3,000 | ~210 chars visible before "see more" on desktop. | |
| Article | 125,000 | Title: 220 chars. | |
| Bio / About | 2,600 | Summary truncated at ~300 chars in search results. | |
| TikTok | Video caption | 2,200 | Hashtags count toward the limit. |
| TikTok | Bio | 80 | — |
| YouTube | Video title | 100 | ~60–70 chars shown in search results. |
| YouTube | Video description | 5,000 | ~157 chars visible before "show more". |
| YouTube | Comment | 10,000 | — |
| Post | 63,206 | ~477 chars shown before "see more" on mobile. | |
| Ad headline | 40 | Recommended. Hard limit is higher. | |
| Ad primary text | 125 | Recommended before truncation. | |
| Threads | Post | 500 | Meta's Twitter/X competitor. |
| Pin description | 500 | ~50 chars visible before truncation in feed. | |
| Board description | 500 | — | |
| Mastodon | Toot | 500 | Default; server admins can increase this. |
| SMS | Text message | 160 | GSM-7 encoding. Drops to 70 for Unicode/emoji messages. |
| Meta title (SEO) | ~60 | Approximately 600px display width. Varies by title. | |
| Meta description (SEO) | ~155–160 | Longer descriptions are truncated in SERPs. |
Why Character Limits Differ
Character limits are set by each platform based on their product design philosophy. Twitter's 140-character original limit (later doubled to 280) was designed to fit within an SMS message. Instagram's 2,200-character caption limit supports longer storytelling while keeping captions scrollable. LinkedIn's higher limits reflect its use for long-form professional content.
The "visible before truncation" numbers are arguably more important than the hard limits for engagement — most users won't click "see more" on a feed post, so your opening line carries the most weight.
Tips for Working Within Character Limits
- Write your core message first. Draft what you want to say without thinking about length, then cut until you're within the limit. This produces better content than writing "to the limit."
- Lead with the hook. Since many platforms truncate captions in the feed, put the most compelling sentence first — within the visible character window.
- Use a character counter. Copy your text into TextLoom's Character Counter and select the relevant platform preset. The color-coded progress bar tells you where you stand at a glance.
- Count URLs carefully. On Twitter/X, all URLs are wrapped and count as 23 characters regardless of actual length. On other platforms, the full URL counts — use a URL shortener if character count is tight.
- Emoji count differently across platforms. On most platforms, standard emoji count as 1–2 characters. Twitter counts emoji as 2 characters. On SMS, a single emoji can consume an entire message segment.
How to Use This Table
When drafting a social post, check this table for your platform's hard limit and visible-before-truncation length. Then open the Character Counter, paste your draft, and select the matching preset from the limit bar. The green-to-red progress indicator will show exactly how much headroom you have — or how far over you are.
Character limits change. If you notice a discrepancy, please let us know and we'll update this table promptly.