Meta description: Character limits for X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and more, plus the cut-off point where text is hidden behind “more”. Checked October 2026.
If you post to several platforms, you know one size never fits all. Every platform has its own limits, its own audience and its own habits. This guide puts the limits in one place and covers a second number that matters just as much: how much of your text people see before they have to tap.
Two limits, two different problems
- A hard limit is a wall. The platform won’t let you post past it.
- A fold is invisible. You can write far more, but the feed hides everything after the first line or two behind “more”.
The first decides whether your post sends. The second decides whether anyone reads it. So for every platform, ask two questions: does it fit, and does the important part land before the fold?
The limits at a glance
| Platform | Hard limit | Visible before the fold (approximate) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| X (free) | 280 weighted characters | The full post | Premium accounts: up to 25,000, shown collapsed |
| 2,200 (caption) | About 125 | Bio 150; hashtags capped at 5 per post | |
| 3,000 (post) | About 140 on mobile, about 210 on desktop | Varies by device and layout | |
| About 63,000 | A line or two | Limits are rarely a problem | |
| TikTok | 4,000 in the app (2,200 via scheduling tools) | The first line or two | Comments 150; bio 80 |
| YouTube | Title 100; description 5,000 | Roughly the first 100–160 characters | Varies by device and placement |
| Title 100; description 800 | Truncated early in the feed | Use keywords at the start | |
| Threads | 500 | The full post | Text attachments allow longer text |
| Snapchat | Varies by feature | n/a | Check the limit in the app |
| Title 300; body 40,000 | The title | Depth is valued | |
| Mastodon | 500 by default | The full post | Instance admins can raise it |
| Bluesky | 300 graphemes | The full post | Emoji count once |
These figures come from platform documentation where available and published reference guides where not. Platforms change them quietly, so treat the table as a starting point and confirm anything critical in the app. Last checked: October 30, 2026.
Platform notes
X. Free accounts get 280 characters, but X uses weighted counting. Every link costs 23 characters, most emoji cost 2, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters cost 2 each. Premium subscribers can write up to 25,000 characters, though the feed collapses long posts behind “Show more”. The culture still rewards short, direct writing.
Instagram. Captions allow 2,200 characters, but only about the first 125 show in the feed before “…more”. Your opening line carries the post. Hashtags count toward the caption total, and Instagram now caps them at five per post or Reel.
LinkedIn. Posts can run to 3,000 characters, which makes it the most generous of the major feeds for long writing. The feed still cuts posts off early, roughly 140 characters on mobile and around 210 on desktop, so the first line has to be a hook.
Facebook. The limit is so high (about 63,000 characters) that it rarely matters. Write for the fold, since the feed shows only the opening lines before “See more”.
TikTok. Captions support up to 4,000 characters in the app, though scheduling tools and the posting API use 2,200. Comments are capped at 150 characters. Because TikTok indexes caption text for search, keywords help more than length.
YouTube. The title allows 100 characters, and the description allows 5,000. Titles may be cut shorter on mobile, so put the main keyword first. Only the first line or two of the description shows before “more”, so front-load the most important information.
Pinterest. Pin titles allow 100 characters and descriptions 800. Pinterest works like a search engine, so use the words your audience searches for, and put them at the start.
Threads. The 500-character post limit sits between X and Instagram. Longer text can go in a text attachment.
Snapchat. Limits depend on where you’re writing (a snap caption, Spotlight, a profile), and sources disagree, so check the app before you plan copy around a number.
Reddit. Titles are capped at 300 characters, and bodies and comments have far more room. Reddit rewards depth and specificity over polish.
Mastodon. The default is 500 characters, but each server’s administrator can set a different limit, so check your instance.
One message, adapted to each platform
Here is the same announcement written for four limits, with counts checked:
- X (111 characters, plus 23 for a link): “We just cut page load time by 40% — no plugin, no migration, just a rebuilt render pipeline. Full writeup here:”
- Instagram (95 characters, so the whole hook survives the 125-character fold): “40% faster load times. No plugin, no migration — just a rebuilt pipeline. Here’s what changed 👇”
- LinkedIn (87 characters, inside the 140-character mobile fold): “We cut page load time by 40% without a new plugin or migration. Here’s what we changed:” followed by several paragraphs of detail.
- Meta description (130 characters, within the roughly 155-character desktop estimate): “See how we cut page load time 40% with no plugins or migrations — just a rebuilt render pipeline. Full technical breakdown inside.”
Same facts, four structures, because each platform’s fold works differently.
How to use the limits well
- Write the first line as if it’s all anyone will read. For most readers, it is.
- Adapt the tone, not only the length. What works on LinkedIn rarely works on TikTok.
- Put keywords early on YouTube, Pinterest and Reddit, where people search.
- Write your message first, then add hashtags, so they don’t crowd out the content. Instagram now allows five at most.
- Count before you post. Drafting in a character counter catches cut-offs before they go live.
The bottom line
The best social writers treat limits as a framework, not an obstacle. Check that your post fits, then check that the part that matters is visible. You can draft and count your text with Open Character Counter, which is free and needs no sign-up. For X, remember that links and emoji count differently, so confirm the final number in X’s own composer.
Last updated: October 30, 2026.
About the author
Kent Williams is the founder and developer of Open Character Counter, a free browser-based tool for tracking character counts, word counts, and readability. He writes about writing constraints, platform limits, and SEO. Read more about Open Character Counter →
Before you publish
- Confirm the shaky rows yourself in the apps or help pages. I’d check TikTok captions, Snapchat, the LinkedIn and YouTube cut-offs, and Pinterest. Replace “about” with an exact number only where you’ve tested it.
- Set a review date. A guide like this goes stale quickly, which is why your older posts were out of date. Add a calendar reminder to re-check it every quarter and update the “last checked” line.
- Keep this post consistent with the others. It now agrees with the Instagram, X, SMS and meta description guides. After these, only the LinkedIn post and the older “Character Limits for Every Major Platform” post in your archive are left to check.
- Think about what makes this guide original. The tables are available on many sites. Your counted examples, your explanations of hard limits and folds, and any screenshots from your own testing are what set it apart.
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