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Character Counter

A free, real-time character counter built around social-media limits — no signup, no install. Paste your text, pick a platform, and see character, word and line counts update live, with the actual limit each platform enforces.

Each Google Ads headline caps at 30 characters.

0 / 30 characters

Counting graphemes (the characters you see). Some apps count emoji as 2.

Characters
0
No spaces
0
Words
0
Lines
0
Sentences
0
Bytes (UTF-8)
0

Why character limits matter

Every platform truncates differently. Twitter/X cuts hard at 280, Instagram hides anything past ~125 chars behind "more", LinkedIn collapses long posts at 210, and Google Ads rejects headlines past 30. This counter shows both the hard cap and the "visible before truncation" mark so your hook lands before the fold.

How this counter counts

By default it counts graphemes — the characters you actually see, so a family emoji counts as one rather than the seven code points it's built from. That's "what you see" and matches how most platforms behave. Switch the platform to X / Twitter and the count changes to X's own rules: every link is wrapped to 23 characters and most emoji and CJK characters count as 2 — the number X will actually enforce, not the number that looks right. Bluesky also counts graphemes, so its count matches the default here.

Character limits by platform

Hard cap and the "visible before it truncates" mark for every platform in the counter.

PlatformHard limitVisible before "more"Guide
Twitter / X280no foldRead
Instagram caption2,200~125Read
Instagram bio150no fold
Facebook post63,206~477Read
LinkedIn post3,000~210Read
LinkedIn headline220no fold
Pinterest pin description500no fold
Threads post500no foldRead
Google Ad headline30no fold
Google Ad description90no fold
Bluesky post300no foldRead
Mastodon toot500no fold
TikTok caption2,200~150Read
YouTube title100~70
YouTube description5,000~157Read

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

A character counter shows how long your text is in real time, so you can fit it inside a platform's limit before you post — not after it's been cut off. It matters because every network truncates differently: X stops you at 280, Instagram hides a caption past the first ~125 characters behind 'more', and LinkedIn collapses a post around 210. Counting as you write lets you land your hook before that fold and trim the rest, instead of discovering your call-to-action got buried. Paste your text, pick the platform, and the bar tells you exactly how much room is left.

Count your text now

Paste or type your text into the counter, choose the platform you're posting to from the dropdown, and watch the live bar. It turns amber as you near the 'visible before truncation' mark and red once you pass the hard limit, so you can see at a glance whether your hook survives the fold. Trim from the middle, keep the first line tight, and re-check. It works the same in a phone browser as on desktop — no app to install — so you can run the check from wherever you happen to be writing.

Open the counter

The caps most people hit: X/Twitter 280, Threads and Mastodon 500, Bluesky 300, Instagram caption 2,200 (bio 150), LinkedIn post 3,000 (headline 220), TikTok caption 2,200, Pinterest 500, and YouTube title 100 / description 5,000. But the number that usually matters is the 'visible before more' fold, which is far lower — roughly 125 on Instagram and 210 on LinkedIn. The counter has every one of these built in, and the on-page table links each platform to a full guide on how it counts.

See every platform limit

Because they count different things. This counter reports graphemes — the characters you actually see — so a family emoji counts as one, not seven. Word counts its own way, and X is stricter still: it wraps every link to 23 characters and charges 2 for most emoji and CJK characters. That's why a tweet that looks like 250 characters can be rejected at 280. Switch the platform to X here and the counter applies X's weighting, so the number you see is the number X will actually enforce — no surprise in the compose box.

Compare the counts

On most platforms an emoji counts as the single character you see, even though it's several bytes under the hood — this counter reflects that by counting graphemes. X is the big exception: it counts many emoji as 2 and wraps every URL to a fixed 23 characters regardless of the link's real length. So one link plus a few emoji can quietly eat 30+ of your 280 on X. Pick X in the platform dropdown and the counter switches to that weighting; on other platforms the plain grapheme count is what you'll be charged.

How X counts

No. This is a free, in-browser tool — nothing to download, no extension, no sign-up, no account. Open the page in any phone or desktop browser, paste your text, and it counts instantly; bookmark it if you want it one tap away before every post. Because it runs in the page, your text never leaves your device. If you specifically want a toolbar extension or a native app those exist elsewhere, but for a quick count before posting the web tool does the job without the install.

Use the free web tool

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