Character Limits for Social Media, SMS and SEO in 2026

At the time of writing, a standard post on X allows 280 characters, Threads allows 500, LinkedIn allows 3,000, TikTok captions allow 4,000, Instagram captions 2,200 and Facebook posts over 63,000. Google shows roughly 50 to 60 characters of a page title and about 155 of a meta description before cutting them off. A plain SMS holds 160 characters. The table below collects every limit worth knowing in one place, and the sections after it explain the traps hidden inside those numbers.

The reference table

All figures are correct as far as we can verify at the time of writing. Platforms change limits without announcement, and paid tiers often have higher ones, so treat the "notes" column as part of the number.

Platform and field	Maximum	Shown before truncation	Notes
X post	280 characters	Full post	Premium subscribers can post up to 25,000; emoji and CJK characters count as 2
X display name / bio	50 / 160	Full	Username up to 15 characters
Threads post	500 characters	Full	Links count their full length
Bluesky post	300 characters	Full	Counted in graphemes, so one emoji is 1
Instagram caption	2,200 characters	About 125 characters, then "more"	Up to 30 hashtags at the time of writing; bio is 150
Facebook post	63,206 characters	Roughly 3 to 5 lines, then "See more"	Comments up to 8,000; page description 255
LinkedIn post	3,000 characters	About 210 characters on desktop, less on mobile	Headline 220, About section 2,600, comments 1,250
LinkedIn article	About 110,000 characters	Not applicable	Article headline 100 characters
TikTok caption	4,000 characters	One line, then "more"	Bio 80 characters
YouTube title	100 characters	About 70 in search and suggestions	Front-load the first 50
YouTube description	5,000 characters	First 2 to 3 lines under the player	Shorts share the same limits
Pinterest pin	Title 100, description 500	Title about 40, description about 50	Board name 50
SMS	160 characters (GSM-7)	Full	70 if any character needs 16-bit encoding; longer messages split into 153 / 67 segments
Google page title	No hard limit	About 600 pixels, roughly 50 to 60 characters	Google may rewrite it
Meta description	No hard limit	About 155 on desktop, 120 on mobile	Google rewrites most of them
Google Ads responsive search ad	Headlines 30, descriptions 90	Full	Up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions
Email subject line	No hard limit	About 30 to 40 on mobile, 60 on desktop	Depends entirely on the mail client

The Character Counter shows these limits next to your text as you type, so you can see at once which platforms will accept it in full.

Two limits on every platform: the maximum and the fold

The number people search for is the maximum, but the number that decides whether anyone reads your post is the fold: the point at which the feed stops rendering and shows "more", "See more" or an ellipsis. On Instagram that is about 125 characters. On LinkedIn it is around 210 on desktop and nearer 140 on a phone. On Facebook it is a few lines. On TikTok it is a single line under the video.

This changes how you should write. A 2,000-character Instagram caption is allowed, but only the first sentence is guaranteed to be seen. The practical rule is to treat the fold as the real limit for the message and the maximum as the limit for the supporting detail: hashtags, credits, links, the longer story for people who tap through.

How platforms actually count

Three counting methods are in use, and the difference can be the reason a post that looks fine is rejected.

• Graphemes. What a human sees as one character counts as one. Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and most web forms work this way. A thumbs-up emoji with a skin tone is one.
• Weighted code points. X counts most Latin, Cyrillic and Greek letters, digits and punctuation as one, and everything else, including emoji and most Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters, as two. A post made entirely of emoji holds 140 of them.
• Encoding units. SMS counts bytes in the chosen alphabet. GSM-7 covers basic Latin letters, digits and common punctuation. One character outside it, such as an emoji, a curly apostrophe or a letter with an accent that GSM-7 lacks, forces the whole message into UCS-2 and the capacity drops from 160 to 70. Some common characters, including the euro sign, square brackets and the tilde, cost two units even within GSM-7.

Line breaks count too. Every platform in the table treats a line break as at least one character, and some web forms store it as two. A post laid out as six short lines with blank lines between them spends ten or more characters on layout alone. That is rarely a problem on LinkedIn, where the limit is generous, but it matters on X and in an SMS, where a couple of blank lines can be the difference between one message and two.

Links are another special case. X wraps every link so it counts as 23 characters regardless of its real length. Threads, LinkedIn and Bluesky count the actual characters of the URL. Facebook does not count a link preview against the post at all once the link is removed from the text.

Google titles: measured in pixels, not characters

Google does not truncate page titles at a character count. It truncates at a width, roughly 600 pixels on desktop results at the font it uses, and somewhat more on mobile where the title can wrap to two lines. The "50 to 60 characters" guidance is a translation of that width into typical English text. Titles made of wide letters are cut sooner; titles made of narrow letters survive longer.

Title text	Characters	Approximate width	Likely result
WORLDWIDE WOMEN'S MARATHON RESULTS	34	Over 400 pixels	Fits, but 20 more capitals would not
Illinois Lilies: Little Hill Trail Guide	40	Under 300 pixels	Fits with room to spare
How Mortgage Overpayments Reduce Your Term and Interest	55	About 550 pixels	Usually fits on desktop
Complete Guide to Mortgage Overpayments for UK Homeowners in 2026	65	About 650 pixels	Cut after "Homeowners" on desktop

The first two rows make the point: a capital "W" or "M" is three times the width of a lowercase "i" or "l". A title in Title Case is wider than the same title in sentence case, and a title in all capitals is wider still. If you need to squeeze in a long title, the cheapest fix is often to drop capitals rather than words.

Two more things about titles. First, Google rewrites a large share of them, especially when the title tag is longer than the width allows, is stuffed with repeated words, or is the same on every page of a site. Writing within the width is the best way to keep the title you wrote. Second, the brand suffix (" | Acme Ltd") counts towards the width, so a 45-character title plus a 12-character suffix is already at the edge.

Meta descriptions are also truncated by width, around 920 pixels on desktop, which is where "about 155 characters" comes from. On mobile it is closer to 120. Google replaces most descriptions with a passage from the page that matches the query, so a description is a suggestion rather than a guarantee; make the first 120 characters carry the message in case only those are shown. If you are writing the tags for a page, the Meta Tag Generator builds the title, description, Open Graph and X card tags in one block and warns when the title passes 60 characters or the description passes 160. Those warnings are simple character counts, so they will not catch a title of wide capitals that is cut earlier in pixels.

Writing to the limit

Counting is the easy part. Writing something that works inside the count takes a method. This is the one that professional copywriters use, and it applies to a tweet, a meta description or an SMS alike.

1. Write the full version first. Do not try to write short from the start; write the whole message in as many words as it takes, then edit down. Cutting is faster and produces better results than composing under pressure.
2. Put the point in the first sentence. Whatever gets truncated, the first sentence survives. Lead with the outcome, the offer or the news, not the preamble.
3. Cut from the end. The last things written are usually the least important: hedges, sign-offs, a second call to action. Remove them before touching the opening.
4. Replace phrases with words. "In order to" becomes "to". "At this point in time" becomes "now". "We are pleased to announce" becomes nothing, because the announcement itself is the news.
5. Use digits and symbols. "20%" is shorter than "twenty per cent". "&" is shorter than "and" where the platform tolerates it.
6. Check in the platform's own counting method. A tweet full of emoji and a text message with one curly quote are the two cases where a general counter will mislead you.
7. Leave a margin for edits. If the limit is 280, aim for 260. You will want to change a word after you post, and the margin lets you do it without rewriting.

Character limits versus word limits

Social platforms and forms count characters. Editors, examiners and most writing briefs count words. English averages between 4.7 and 5.1 letters per word in ordinary prose, plus one space, so a working conversion is about six characters per word including the space.

• 280 characters is roughly 45 to 50 words.
• 500 characters is roughly 80 to 85 words.
• 3,000 characters is roughly 480 to 520 words.
• 4,000 characters, the UCAS personal statement limit, is roughly 600 to 700 words.

The arithmetic for the last one: 4,000 characters divided by 6 characters per word gives about 667 words. Technical writing with long words runs nearer 7 characters per word and fits fewer; chatty writing with short words fits more. If a brief gives you a word count and the form gives you a character limit, check both with the Word Counter, which reports the two side by side.

Where to go next

Paste your draft into the Character Counter to see it measured against the social and SEO limits above, or use the Word Counter when the brief is in words rather than characters. Both run entirely in your browser, and nothing you type is uploaded.

Related guides: how word counters count.

Frequently asked questions

How many characters can a tweet have in 2026?

A standard post on X allows 280 characters at the time of writing. Premium subscribers can write much longer posts, up to 25,000 characters, although the feed shows only the opening and a "Show more" link. Most letters, digits and punctuation count as one character, but emoji and most Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters count as two. Any link counts as 23 characters regardless of its real length because X wraps every URL.

How long should a meta title be?

Aim for 50 to 60 characters including any brand suffix. Google cuts titles by width rather than character count, around 600 pixels on desktop, so a title full of capitals or wide letters such as W and M is cut sooner than one of narrow letters. Put the most important words first, keep the brand name at the end, and avoid repeating the same phrase, which makes Google more likely to rewrite the title altogether.

How long should a meta description be?

About 120 to 155 characters. Desktop results show roughly 155 before truncating; mobile results show closer to 120. Google replaces a large share of descriptions with text from the page that better matches the search, so write the first 120 characters as a complete sentence that can stand on its own, then add a second sentence up to the limit. Keep it plain and specific rather than a list of keywords.

What is the character limit for an SMS message?

A single SMS holds 160 characters when every character is in the basic GSM-7 alphabet. If the message contains even one character outside it, such as an emoji, a curly quote or certain accented letters, the whole message switches to 16-bit encoding and holds only 70 characters. Longer messages are split into segments of 153 or 67 characters respectively, and each segment is usually billed separately by the carrier.

How many characters does Instagram show before "more"?

Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters, but the feed shows only about 125 characters before hiding the rest behind a "more" link. The exact point varies with line breaks and screen width. Write the main message in the first sentence, then use the remaining space for context, credits and hashtags. At the time of writing, Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags, and the bio field is limited to 150 characters.

How many characters can a LinkedIn post have?

A LinkedIn post allows 3,000 characters, but the feed truncates it after about 210 characters on desktop and fewer on mobile, showing a "see more" link. The profile headline allows 220 characters, the About section 2,600, and comments 1,250. LinkedIn articles are separate and allow around 110,000 characters with a 100-character headline. Links in posts count their full length, so shorten URLs if space is tight.