How to use it
- Type or paste your post. Line breaks, emoji and spacing are kept as you typed them.
- Watch the counter on each preview. It turns amber near the limit and red when you're over.
- Flip between Mobile and Desktop to see where the cut lands. Click "see more" on a preview to expand it.
- Read the hook checker. That's your real headline on each network.
- Hit Copy on the network you're posting to and paste it into the app.
Social media character limits 2026
| Network | Post limit | How it counts | Cut on mobile (approx.) | Cut on desktop (approx.) | Hashtags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,000 | Characters, spaces and line breaks included | ~140 chars or 3 lines | ~210 chars or 3 lines | No hard cap, 3 to 5 recommended | |
| X | 280 (25,000 with Premium) | Weighted: emoji and CJK = 2, links = 23 | None under 280; Premium posts fold at ~280 | Same | Count toward 280 |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Characters | ~125 chars or 2 lines | ~125 chars or 2 lines | 5 per post (rolling out since late 2025) |
| Threads | 500 (+ 10,000 text attachment) | Characters; each emoji counts as its UTF-8 bytes (usually 4) | Usually shows the whole post | Usually shows the whole post | 1 topic tag per post |
| 63,206 | Characters | ~125 chars or 5 lines | ~477 chars or 6 lines | No hard cap | |
| Bluesky | 300 | Graphemes (and max 3,000 bytes) | Shows the whole post | Shows the whole post | Count toward 300 |
Twitter character counter: how X counts
X doesn't count characters one by one. It uses a weighted count from its open-source twitter-text library, and this tool uses the same rules:
- Latin letters, numbers, most punctuation, smart quotes and dashes count as 1.
- Every emoji counts as 2, even a family or a flag built from several pieces.
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters count as 2. So do the "bold" and "italic" letters from the styler above, which is a sneaky way to run out of room.
- Every link counts as 23, because X wraps them in t.co. A short link doesn't save you anything.
- Text is normalized first, so an accented letter counts as 1 however it was typed.
One small gap: X recognizes bare links like example.com against the full list of domain endings. I only check the common ones (.com, .ca, .io, .org and so on), so an odd one like .museum without https:// gets counted as plain text here.
Instagram caption length
The limit is 2,200 characters, but the feed only shows about two lines (roughly 125 characters) before "more". Front-load the point. Hashtags count toward the 2,200, and Instagram began capping posts at 5 hashtags in late 2025. Some accounts still see the old limit of 30, so the counter warns you past 5 rather than blocking.
LinkedIn post preview: the 210 character problem
LinkedIn gives you 3,000 characters and then hides almost all of them. On desktop you get about 210 characters or three lines, on a phone closer to 140. Short punchy lines eat the line budget fast: three one-liners and a blank line and you're cut off at 60 characters. The preview uses both a character budget and a line budget so you can see that happen.
FAQ
What is the LinkedIn post character limit in 2026?
3,000 characters for a normal post, spaces and line breaks included. Only about the first 140 characters show on mobile and about 210 on desktop before the see-more link, and fewer if you use short lines.
How does X (Twitter) count characters?
X uses a weighted count with a 280 limit. Most Latin letters, numbers and punctuation count as 1. Emoji, Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters and most other symbols count as 2. Every link counts as 23 no matter how long it is. This tool uses the same weighting rules as X's open-source twitter-text library.
How long can an Instagram caption be?
2,200 characters. The feed shows roughly the first 125 characters, about two lines, before the more link. Instagram also began limiting posts to 5 hashtags in late 2025.
Where exactly does the see more cut happen?
No network publishes it, and it changes with screen width, font size and app version. The cutoffs here are approximate, based on observed behaviour in 2026: a character budget plus a line budget, whichever runs out first.
Is it a good idea to use bold or italic text on LinkedIn?
Use it sparingly. The bold and italic letters are actually math symbols, so screen readers may read them letter by letter or skip them, and they don't show up in search. Keep them off names, keywords and anything important.
Why does my emoji count as 2 on some counters?
Many emoji are stored as two or more code units, and skin tones or families join several together. This tool counts what you see (a grapheme) as one, except on X, where every emoji counts as 2, and Threads, whose docs count an emoji as its UTF-8 bytes (usually 4).
Does this tool save or send my post anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Drafts, your name and photo are saved only in your browser's local storage, and you can delete them any time.
What are the Threads and Bluesky character limits?
Threads allows 500 characters per post, plus an optional text attachment of up to 10,000. Threads' developer docs count each emoji as its UTF-8 bytes, so a typical emoji uses 4. Bluesky allows 300 graphemes per post.
Privacy
No accounts, no analytics, no cookies. Your post, drafts, name and photo stay in this browser's local storage. The share link puts the post text in the part of the URL after #, which browsers don't send to the server.
Last updated October 2026.