Social media character limits in 2026
Every platform draws the line somewhere different — and several limits changed in the past two years. Here are the current caption and post limits this counter checks against:
| Platform | Post / caption limit | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| X | 280 characters | Premium allows 25,000, but the timeline still truncates at 280. Links always count as 23 characters. |
| Threads | 500 characters | Longer thoughts can be split into a thread. |
| 2,200 characters | Only the first ~125 characters show in feed before "… more". | |
| 3,000 characters | Raised from 1,300 in 2023. Roughly the first 200 characters show before "see more". | |
| TikTok | 4,000 characters | Bio is just 80 characters; comments are 150. |
| 500 characters (description) | Pin titles cap at 100 characters; only ~40 are visible in feeds. | |
| 63,206 characters | Posts between 40–80 characters tend to earn the most engagement. | |
| YouTube | 5,000 characters (description) | Titles cap at 100 characters; ~60 display in search results. |
Why the visible cutoff matters more than the limit
Staying under the hard limit keeps your post publishable — but the visible cutoff decides whether anyone reads it. Instagram folds captions after roughly 125 characters, LinkedIn after about 200, and X truncates long Premium posts at 280 in the timeline. Front-load your hook: the first sentence has to earn the tap on "more".
How X really counts characters
X doesn't count characters the way your keyboard does. Every link is wrapped in t.co and billed at a flat 23 characters, no matter how long the URL is. Most emoji count as 2. This counter applies both rules to the X row, so what you see here is what X will accept.
Write once, publish everywhere
A 600-character caption fits Instagram and LinkedIn but dies on X and exceeds Threads. If you cross-post, you have two options: write to the lowest limit, or customize per platform. A scheduler like Zilfu lets you compose once and tailor the text per network before publishing to all of them in one go — free for up to 2 accounts.