Every platform has a limit, most of them are stricter than people think, and the ones that matter are counted in characters, not words. A tweet that fits on your screen gets cut in the feed. A meta description that reads well loses its last clause in Google. A LinkedIn post that runs long hides everything after line three behind “…see more”. Knowing the actual numbers, and how each platform counts, saves the rewrite. Here they are, current as of writing, with the counting rules that trip people up.
The limits
| Where | Limit | What actually shows |
|---|---|---|
| Google title tag | ~60 chars (~580 px) | Truncated with an ellipsis beyond that |
| Google meta description | ~155 chars desktop, ~120 mobile | Google may replace it entirely |
| X (Twitter) post | 280 (4,000 for Premium) | Links count as 23 regardless of length |
| X bio | 160 | — |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Truncated after ~125 chars in the feed with “more” |
| Instagram bio | 150 | — |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | First ~210 chars (3 lines) visible before “see more” |
| LinkedIn headline | 220 | — |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | First ~480 chars before “See more” |
| TikTok caption | 4,000 | Truncated at ~100 chars until tapped |
| YouTube title | 100 | ~70 visible in most layouts |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | First ~150 chars visible before “…more” |
| Pinterest pin description | 500 | First ~50–60 in feed |
| SMS | 160 GSM / 70 Unicode | Longer messages split into segments |
| Email subject | No hard limit | ~40–50 chars visible on mobile, ~70 desktop |
| Amazon product title | 200 (category rules vary, often 80) | — |
| App Store app name | 30 | — |
The Character Counter shows characters with and without spaces, words, sentences and paragraphs as you type, so you can watch the number instead of guessing.
How platforms count (it’s not always one character = one)
- X counts most characters as one, but CJK characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) as two, and every URL as 23 no matter its length. Emoji count as two.
- SMS drops from 160 to 70 characters the moment you include a single non-GSM character: a curly quote, an em dash, most emoji. That is why a short message with one emoji sometimes sends as two texts.
- Google measures pixels, so “WWW” uses far more space than “iii”. A 58-character title in wide letters can truncate while a 62-character narrow one doesn’t.
- Line breaks count as characters on most platforms and as two (
\r\n) in some form fields. - Combining characters and emoji sequences (a flag, a family, a skin-tone emoji) can count as one on screen and several in the API. If a post is rejected as too long when the counter says it fits, this is usually why.
The visible limit matters more than the hard limit
Instagram allows 2,200 characters and shows 125. LinkedIn allows 3,000 and shows about 210. The hard limit tells you when the platform will reject the text; the visible limit tells you when the reader will stop. Write for the second: put the hook, the point, or the question in the first line, and treat everything after the fold as a bonus for people who tap.
Word counts vs. character counts
Editors and academic submissions use words. Platforms and databases use characters. A rough conversion for English: one word is about 5 characters plus a space, so 100 words is roughly 600 characters and 280 characters is roughly 45–50 words. That varies with vocabulary; technical writing runs longer per word. Count directly rather than converting when the limit is strict.
Common word-count targets, for reference: blog posts 1,000–2,000 words for informational queries; email newsletters 200–400; press releases 400–600; academic abstracts 150–300; a novel 70,000–100,000. The Readability Checker gives word and sentence counts alongside reading level for longer pieces.
Practical workflow
- Write freely, then paste into the counter.
- Check against the visible limit first, then the hard limit.
- Cut from the end. Openings are usually tight; endings are where writers pad.
- For SMS, watch the character set: replace curly quotes with straight ones and em dashes with hyphens to stay in the 160 tier.
- For titles and descriptions, check pixel width in the SERP Snippet Preview, not just the count.
Frequently asked questions
Do spaces count as characters?
Yes, on every platform and in every limit listed above. “Characters without spaces” is a separate figure used mainly for typesetting and translation quotes.
How many characters is a tweet?
280 for standard accounts, with links counting as 23 and CJK characters and emoji as two each. Premium subscribers get 4,000.
How many characters should a meta description be?
Under 155 for desktop and ideally with the key point in the first 120 for mobile. Google may replace it regardless.
Why did my SMS split into two messages?
You included a non-GSM character (emoji, curly quote, em dash), which drops the per-message limit from 160 to 70 characters.
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