Social Media Character Limits 2026
The complete reference for character and word limits across every major platform. Verified against official docs, updated monthly, with changelog. Free to cite, link, or embed.
24
Platforms tracked
103
Surfaces documented
Monthly
Update cadence
Recent Changes
What changed on major platforms in the last 24 months. This is why that outdated character-limits blog post you bookmarked in 2022 is lying to you.
Monthly audit corrections: Pin description limit is 800 characters (Pinterest Help Center), Google sets no hard title tag limit and truncates by device width (Google Search Central), Performance Max allows up to 15 headlines (Google Ads Help).
No limit change; user base crossed 35M users, making it more relevant for multi-platform publishing strategies.
Grok AI post generation integrates Premium 25,000-char limit when invoked.
Reaffirmed 3,000 post character cap. Algorithm testing suggests posts under 1,300 still see best engagement.
Video caption limit raised from 2,200 to 4,000 characters.
Feed post limit more than doubled from 1,300 to 3,000 characters.
X Premium post cap raised from 4,000 to 25,000 characters. First 280 displayed, rest behind "show more".
Launched with 500-character post limit, positioning against Twitter/X.
Complete Character Limits Reference
Every platform, every surface, in one reference table.
X / Twitter
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post (free) | 280 | ~50 | Hard cap |
| Post (Premium) | 25,000 | ~4,000 | Shown as "show more" after 280 |
| Direct Message | 10,000 | ~1,600 | Up from 140 historically |
| Bio | 160 | ~25 | |
| Display name | 50 | ~8 | |
| Username (handle) | 15 | — | Alphanumeric + underscore |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caption | 2,200 | ~350 | Only first 125 shown before "more" |
| Bio | 150 | ~25 | |
| Username | 30 | — | |
| Comment | 2,200 | ~350 | |
| Reel description | 2,200 | ~350 | Same as caption |
| Hashtags per post | 30 max | — | Caption + comments combined |
TikTok
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video caption | 4,000 | ~640 | Raised from 2,200 in May 2024 |
| Bio | 80 | ~13 | |
| Username | 24 | — | |
| Comment | 150 | ~25 | Short by design |
| Display name | 30 | ~5 |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed post | 3,000 | ~480 | Raised from 1,300 in May 2024 |
| Article body | ~110,000 | ~17,500 | Up to roughly 40 print pages |
| Headline | 220 | ~35 | One of most-read fields |
| About / Summary | 2,600 | ~415 | |
| Comment | 1,250 | ~200 | |
| Company description | 2,000 | ~320 | |
| Message | 8,000 | ~1,280 | InMail and standard DMs |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post | 63,206 | ~10,000 | No practical limit |
| Comment | 8,000 | ~1,280 | |
| Page name | 75 | ~12 | |
| Bio | 101 | ~16 | |
| Group description | 3,000 | ~480 | |
| Ad feed headline | 40 | ~6 | Hard truncation |
YouTube
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video title | 100 | ~16 | 70 shown on mobile |
| Description | 5,000 | ~800 | ~125 chars shown above fold |
| Community post | 2,000 | ~320 | |
| Comment | 10,000 | ~1,600 | |
| Channel description | 1,000 | ~160 | Shown in About tab |
| Shorts description | 100 visible | ~16 | Underlying limit is 5,000 |
Threads (Meta)
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post | 500 | ~80 | Launched July 2023 |
| Bio | 150 | ~25 | |
| Username | 30 | — | Linked to Instagram handle |
Bluesky
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post | 300 | ~50 | No current plans to raise |
| Bio | 256 | ~40 | |
| Display name | 64 | ~10 |
Mastodon
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post (default) | 500 | ~80 | Instance-configurable |
| Post (some instances) | 5,000+ | ~800+ | Many fediverse instances raise this |
| Bio | 500 | ~80 | |
| Display name | 30 | ~5 |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pin title | 100 | ~16 | |
| Pin description | 800 | ~130 | SEO-important |
| Board description | 500 | ~80 | |
| Board name | 50 | ~8 | |
| Bio | 160 | ~25 |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post title | 300 | ~48 | Hard cap |
| Post body (self-post) | 40,000 | ~6,400 | |
| Comment | 10,000 | ~1,600 | |
| Username | 20 | — | |
| Subreddit name | 21 | — | Minimum 3 |
Discord
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Message (free) | 2,000 | ~320 | |
| Message (Nitro) | 4,000 | ~640 | |
| Username | 32 | — | New system, no discriminator |
| Server name | 100 | ~16 | |
| Channel name | 100 | ~16 |
Slack
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Message | 40,000 | ~6,400 | Effectively no practical limit |
| Channel name | 80 | ~13 | |
| Display name | 80 | ~13 | |
| Status | 100 | ~16 |
Snapchat
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caption | 250 | ~40 | |
| Bio | 80 | ~13 | |
| Display name | 50 | ~8 |
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status / Story | 700 | ~112 | |
| Group name | 100 | ~16 | |
| Business description | 256 | ~40 | |
| Broadcast message | 4,096 | ~655 |
SMS
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single SMS (GSM-7) | 160 | ~26 | Basic Latin alphabet |
| Single SMS (UCS-2) | 70 | ~11 | Emoji/non-Latin forces Unicode |
| Concatenated SMS | 153/segment | ~24 | 7 bytes for segment header |
Email - Gmail
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject line (desktop) | ~60-70 visible | ~10 | Underlying is unlimited |
| Subject line (mobile) | ~30-40 visible | ~5-7 | Keep first words strong |
| Preheader | ~80 visible | ~13 | Follows subject in inbox |
Substack
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post title | 150 | ~24 | |
| Subtitle | 255 | ~40 | Critical for preview |
| Newsletter name | 50 | ~8 | |
| Bio | 250 | ~40 |
Medium
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post title | 100 | ~16 | |
| Subtitle | 140 | ~22 | |
| Response (comment) | 4,000 | ~640 | |
| Tags | 5 max | — | Up to 5 per post |
WordPress
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post title | No hard limit | SEO: ≤10 | 60 char display cap in SERPs |
| Excerpt | No hard limit | Rec: 25 | Default shown: 155 chars |
| Slug / URL | No hard limit | Rec: 3-5 | Keep short for shareability |
Meta Title (SEO)
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google desktop display | ~60 | ~10 | Pixel width ~600px |
| Google mobile display | ~50-55 | ~8-9 | |
| Hard tag limit | None | — | Google truncates by device width, not count |
Meta Description (SEO)
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google desktop display | 155-160 | ~25 | Varies by query |
| Google mobile display | ~120 | ~20 | |
| No hard HTML limit | — | — | But longer gets truncated |
Google Ads
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSA Headline (each) | 30 | ~5 | Up to 15 headlines per ad |
| RSA Description (each) | 90 | ~14 | Up to 4 descriptions per ad |
| Display path | 15 | — | Two path fields |
| Final URL | 2,048 | — |
Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads
| Surface | Characters | Words (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed headline | 40 | ~6 | Strict truncation |
| Primary text | 125 (visible) | ~20 | Shown before "See more" |
| Description | 30 | ~5 | |
| Stories text | 150 max | ~24 |
How We Verify These Numbers
Character limits sit in a weird place: technically trivial to measure, but surprisingly easy to get wrong because platforms change them quietly. We verify every limit against three sources:
- Official platform docs. Developer pages, help centers, and ad product guides. These are the source of truth for API limits and displayed caps.
- Empirical testing. We post actual characters up to the claimed limit and past it, on real accounts, and record what gets truncated, rejected, or displayed.
- Community reports. Developer communities (r/socialmedia, r/marketing, platform-specific subreddits, Stack Overflow) catch undocumented changes fast. We track these as early signals and verify before publishing.
This page is updated monthly. When a platform changes a limit, we add the change to the changelog within two weeks, never silently.
Why Character Limits Still Matter
It is 2026 and most platforms have raised their hard caps. Facebook posts can run to 63,000 characters. LinkedIn articles handle book-length content. So why care about limits at all?
Because the displayed cap and the engagement cap are different things. LinkedIn allows 3,000-character posts but their algorithm consistently shows better performance for posts under 1,300. Instagram captions can run to 2,200 characters, but only the first 125 appear before the "more" link, and 80% of readers never click it. Twitter/X Premium lets you write 25,000 characters but users still see a 280-character snippet before "show more." Everywhere you look, there are two limits: what the platform accepts and what readers actually see.
For SEO and for ads, hard limits still bite. A Google Ads headline over 30 characters gets rejected at submission. A meta description over 155 characters gets truncated in search results. A TikTok caption over 4,000 gets cut off mid-sentence. Writing to the displayed limit, not the hard limit, is how professionals work.
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FAQ
What is Twitter's current character limit in 2026?
Free X accounts: 280 characters. X Premium: up to 25,000 characters, but only the first 280 display before "show more". DMs are 10,000 characters.
Did LinkedIn actually raise their post limit?
Yes. In May 2024, LinkedIn raised feed posts from 1,300 to 3,000 characters. This doubled the maximum but algorithm engagement testing still suggests posts under 1,300 perform best.
What is TikTok's caption limit now?
4,000 characters, raised from 2,200 in May 2024. First ~80 characters appear before the "more" cutoff on mobile.
How often does this page update?
Monthly at minimum. When a platform announces a limit change, we verify and update within two weeks. The last-updated date at the top of this page shows the most recent review.
Why do platforms have character limits at all?
Originally technical (SMS had a 160-character protocol limit). Now mostly UX and algorithmic: shorter content is more shareable and easier to scroll past. Some limits (Google Ads, SMS) remain strict technical caps. Most social platforms now have very loose hard limits with tight displayed limits.
Can I cite this page in a blog post?
Yes, please. A link back is appreciated. The data is free to use with attribution.
How do I check my text against these limits?
Use our character counter tool. It shows live character counts and flags platform limits as you type. For chat messages on Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack or SMS, the message length checker compares one message against every app at once and splits it into parts.