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Social Media Character Limits: Every Platform in One Table (2026)

Every social media platform has different character limits. Twitter/X allows 280 (free) or 25,000 (Premium). Instagram captions cap at 2,200. Facebook posts allow 63,206. LinkedIn posts max at 3,000. This page lists every limit for 16 platforms in one table, plus the optimal post lengths for engagement (which are much shorter than the technical limits).

Shreyas Bagal·Aug 21, 2026·6 min

Every social media platform has different character limits. Twitter/X allows 280 (free) or 25,000 (Premium). Instagram captions cap at 2,200. Facebook posts allow 63,206. LinkedIn posts max at 3,000. This page lists every limit for 16 platforms in one table, plus the optimal post lengths for engagement (which are much shorter than the technical limits).

Key takeaways

  • Twitter/X allows 280 characters (free) or 25,000 (Premium). Instagram captions cap at 2,200. Facebook posts allow 63,206. LinkedIn posts max at 3,000.
  • Optimal post lengths for engagement are much shorter than technical limits — Facebook engagement peaks at 40-80 words, Twitter at 70-100 characters, Instagram at 138-150 characters.
  • Emoji, URLs, formatted text, and line breaks all count differently across platforms — always check your final count after formatting.
  • Bio limits vary wildly: TikTok gives you 80 characters, Facebook 101, Instagram 150, Pinterest 160, LinkedIn's headline 220, and Mastodon 500.
  • Some platforms count URLs at full length (Facebook, LinkedIn), while Twitter shortens all links to 23 characters regardless of actual URL length.
  • Use a character counter to check text against platform limits before posting — especially after adding emoji, formatted text, or special characters that may count as multiple code points.
Social Media Character Limits: Every Platform in One Table (2026)
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Data

Every social media platform enforces character limits, but they're scattered across help docs, API references, and trial-and-error. This page puts all of them in one table — 16 platforms, every major field — so you can write to the right length the first time.

Bookmark this page. It's the only character limit reference you'll need.

Master character limit table — all platforms (2026)

PlatformPost / CaptionBioCommentOther key limits
Twitter / X280 (free) / 25,000 (Premium)160280DM: 10,000 · Username: 15
Instagram2,200 (caption)1502,200Hashtags: 30 per post · Username: 30 · Reel caption: 2,200
Facebook63,2061018,000Ad headline: 40 · Messenger: 20,000 · Page description: 255
LinkedIn3,000220 (headline)1,250Article: 125,000 · About section: 2,600 · Company page: 2,000
TikTok4,000 (caption)80150Username: 24 · Display name: 30
Pinterest500 (pin description)160—Board title: 50 · Board description: 500 · Pin title: 100
Threads500150500Username: 30
YouTube100 (title)1,000 (About)10,000Description: 5,000 · Playlist title: 150 · Channel name: 100
Reddit40,000 (text post)—10,000Post title: 300 · Flair: 64 · Display name: 30
Snapchat~250 (Story caption)——Display name: 30 · Username: 15 · Chat: 31,000
Discord2,000 (free) / 4,000 (Nitro)190 (About Me)—Username: 32 · Server name: 100 · Nickname: 32
Twitch—300500 (chat)Display name: 25 · Whisper: 500 · Stream title: 140
Tumblr475,000 (text post)80 (blog title)—Ask: 500 · Answer: 475,000 · Tags: 140 per tag
WhatsApp700 (status)139 (About)—Message: 65,536 · Group name: 100 · Group description: 2,048
Mastodon500 (default, varies by instance)500500Display name: 30 · Some instances allow 5,000+
Bluesky300256300Display name: 64 · Username: up to 253 (handle)

These numbers are sourced from each platform's official documentation and developer APIs, verified against what the platform actually enforces as of 2026. Some platforms (especially Mastodon) vary by instance or server settings.

Use the character counter to check your text against any of these limits before posting.

Best post length for engagement

The table above shows technical limits — how much you can write. But what you should write is shorter. Every platform truncates or buries long posts behind "See more" or "Read more" links, and most users never tap through.

Here are the optimal post lengths based on engagement data:

PlatformTechnical limitOptimal for engagementWhy
Twitter / X28070-100 charactersShort tweets get more retweets and replies
Instagram2,200138-150 charactersText is cut after 125 chars in feed; front-load the hook
Facebook63,20640-80 words (~250-480 chars)Posts under 80 chars get ~66% more engagement
LinkedIn3,0001,200-1,500 charactersLong enough for a story, short enough to read without "See more"
TikTok4,00080-150 charactersCaptions are secondary to the video; keep them tight
Pinterest500100-200 charactersDescriptions should be keyword-rich but scannable
Threads500100-250 charactersShort, punchy posts perform best on the feed
YouTube5,000 (description)200-300 characters above the foldFirst 150 chars show in search; front-load keywords
Reddit40,000Varies by subredditLong, detailed posts often outperform on Reddit

The pattern is clear: write to the engagement length, not the technical limit. Start with your point in the first line, then add detail below it. The character counter shows you exactly where you stand.

How character counting actually works

Not all characters cost the same. A few things trip people up across platforms:

Emoji inflate your count. A simple smiley is one Unicode code point. But compound emoji — skin-toned thumbs-up, family groups, flag sequences — can be 4-11 code points. If you're close to the limit, one emoji could push you over. This affects every platform.

URLs count differently by platform. Twitter shortens all links to 23 characters regardless of the actual URL length. Facebook and LinkedIn count the full URL. Instagram doesn't allow links in captions at all (except for ads). Know the rule for your platform before budgeting characters for a link.

Formatted text can cost more. Bold, italic, and special Unicode characters sometimes count as more than one character. This matters if you're using the Instagram text formatter or the Facebook text formatter — check the final count after formatting, not before.

Line breaks count. Every newline is a character. If you're using spacing to format a list or create visual breaks, those line breaks eat into your total.

The safest approach: write your post, format it the way you want, then paste it into the character counter to get the true count.

Platform-specific deep dives

Each platform has more nuance than fits in a summary table. For the full breakdown — including ads, DMs, Stories, and edge cases — see the dedicated guides:

Tips for staying within limits

  1. Write, then trim. Get your message down first. Cut filler words second. It's easier to shorten good writing than to pad thin writing.
  2. Front-load your point. The first 1-2 lines are all most people see. Put the important information there.
  3. Use the right tool. The character counter tells you the exact count for any platform, including emoji and special characters.
  4. Cross-post smart. If you're repurposing content across platforms, check each platform's limit separately. A 500-character LinkedIn post fits Twitter Premium but won't fit standard Twitter, Threads, or Bluesky.
  5. Don't hit the ceiling. Just because you can write 63,206 characters on Facebook doesn't mean you should. The engagement data tells you to aim much lower.
  6. Check after formatting. If you're adding bold, italic, or special characters with a text formatter, count the final version — formatted characters can be longer than plain text.

Ready to put this into practice?

Open a formatter

Sources

Spotted an error? Email hello@boldlytype.com — we update guides quarterly and welcome corrections.

Frequently asked questions

Latest questions readers ask us about this topic.

What social media platform has the highest character limit?

Tumblr has the highest character limit at 475,000 characters for text posts. For mainstream social platforms, Facebook comes next at 63,206 characters per post, followed by Reddit at 40,000 for text posts and WhatsApp at 65,536 for messages. LinkedIn articles allow up to 125,000 characters.

What social media platform has the lowest character limit?

Twitter/X has the lowest post limit for free accounts at 280 characters. Bluesky is next at 300 characters per post. TikTok has the tightest bio limit at just 80 characters, and Tumblr's blog title is only 80 characters.

Do emoji count as one character on social media?

Simple emoji like a smiley face typically count as one character (one Unicode code point). But compound emoji — such as skin-toned gestures, family groups, and flag sequences — can count as 4 to 11 characters because they combine multiple code points. This applies across all platforms. Check your count after adding emoji if you are near the limit.

What is the best post length for social media engagement?

Optimal post lengths are much shorter than technical limits. Twitter performs best at 70-100 characters, Instagram captions at 138-150, Facebook at 40-80 words (250-480 characters), LinkedIn at 1,200-1,500 characters, and TikTok captions at 80-150 characters. The pattern is consistent: front-load your message and keep it concise.

Do URLs count toward character limits on social media?

It depends on the platform. Twitter shortens all URLs to 23 characters regardless of actual length. Facebook, LinkedIn, and most other platforms count the full URL length. Instagram does not allow clickable links in captions at all (except for ads). Always factor in URL length when writing posts with links.

How often do social media character limits change?

Platforms update their limits irregularly, usually without much notice. Major changes in recent years include Twitter expanding to 25,000 characters for Premium users, TikTok increasing captions from 300 to 4,000 characters, and LinkedIn expanding posts from 1,300 to 3,000 characters. This guide is updated for 2026 — check back periodically for changes.

Related questions

The sub-questions readers ask next — answered, with where to go.

LinkedIn's post box — used for feed posts, comments, your headline and your About section — is plain text with no formatting toolbar and no markdown, so there's no bold button. The workaround the whole creator economy uses is Unicode bold: type your line, convert it to bold Unicode characters (𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱) in a generator, then paste it back and the emphasis sticks, because the style is baked into the characters themselves. Bold only the hook — the part that shows before the “…see more” cut-off — to earn the click, and keep the rest plain so the post stays skimmable. Two caveats matter: Unicode text isn't read by LinkedIn's search and is announced poorly by screen readers, so never bold the keywords, names or hashtags you want found or read aloud. For true rich text (headings, lists), use LinkedIn's separate 'Write article' editor instead.

Format a LinkedIn post

Instagram's native composer collapses the line breaks you type, which is why captions paste in as one dense block — it's worst when you post from the web or through some schedulers. The reliable fix is to compose the caption with the spacing you want and paste it back with the breaks preserved, rather than relying on invisible-character hacks (blank Unicode characters can break Instagram's search and are read poorly by screen readers). Write the caption with your intended breaks, generate the spaced version, and paste it into the caption field. Put your strongest hook on line one, since that's the part that shows before the 'more' cut-off in the feed. Keep paragraphs short — two or three lines — so the caption stays skimmable on a phone, where almost everyone reads it.

Open the line-break tool

Yes — WhatsApp is the exception among messaging and social apps because it has its own built-in markup that it renders for everyone. Wrap text in *asterisks* for bold, _underscores_ for italic, ~tildes~ for strikethrough, and triple backticks for monospace; the symbols disappear and the styling shows. So you usually don't need Unicode characters on WhatsApp at all. Reach for a Unicode formatter only when you want a style WhatsApp's markdown doesn't cover — small caps or script for a Status, say — or when you're writing one message to post across several apps that don't share WhatsApp's syntax (Instagram, X and Threads strip these symbols and show them literally). For everyday bold and italic inside WhatsApp itself, the native markup is the better and more accessible choice.

Format for WhatsApp

Because that editor is plain text and strips anything it doesn't parse. Markdown (*bold*), HTML tags and rich-text styling only render where the platform explicitly supports them — paste them into Instagram, X/Twitter or a LinkedIn post and you see the raw asterisks, or nothing at all, because those boxes have no formatting engine. Unicode styling works differently: the bold or italic look is baked into each character (a Unicode bold 'A' is its own code point), so it survives any plain-text field and travels with a copy-paste. That's the whole reason Unicode 'fancy text' formatters exist. The trade-off is accessibility — because they aren't ordinary letters, screen readers can mis-read them and in-app search may not match them — so use Unicode for short emphasis, not for body copy or anything that must be searchable.

Generate paste-proof styles

Related in this series

See all in How-to format

Explore the topic cluster

More tools and guides across this topic cluster.

FormatterLinkedIn Text FormatterBold and italic for a plain-text editor.FormatterInstagram Text FormatterStyle captions, bios and comments.GuideHow to Format Text on LinkedInBold and italic in a plain-text editor, step by step.GuideMarkdown on WhatsApp, Discord & SlackWhich apps take native markdown vs need Unicode.FormatterWhatsApp Text FormatterBold, italic and strikethrough that stick.FormatterDiscord Text FormatterMarkdown plus Unicode for servers and DMs.

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