Free Social Media Character Counter

Social media character limits at a glance

Every limit below comes from the platform's own help or developer documentation, checked on 23 October 2026. Many lists online repeat outdated numbers, so we went to the source for each one.

Why one post gets different counts

Because "a character" means different things to different software. What you see as one character can be several pieces underneath. A flag emoji is two code points; a family emoji can be seven joined together. The Unicode standard calls the visible unit a grapheme cluster (UAX #29), and browsers can split text that way with Intl.Segmenter, which is what this counter uses.

X's rules are public in its counting configuration: code points in four ranges, covering Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and common punctuation, weigh 1, and everything else weighs 2, against a 280 limit. Threads' documentation says emoji count as their UTF-8 bytes. TikTok's API measures in UTF-16 "runes". Bluesky's post schema caps both graphemes (300) and bytes (3,000).

Worked example: one launch post, four platforms

We counted this post with the tool:

It fits everywhere, but notice the gap: on X the long link costs 23 characters, on Bluesky and Threads it costs its full length. For platforms that count links in full, a shorter URL buys room for words. Tag it with the UTM Builder first so you can still see which post brought the visit.

Writing to each limit

X: 280

Write the idea in one sentence, then cut. Links are cheap on X (23 characters each), but emoji cost two. For longer ideas, a short thread of posts that each stand alone works better than cramming.

LinkedIn: 3,000

Room for a full story, but only the first lines show before "see more". Our guide to formatting LinkedIn posts covers hooks and line breaks.

Instagram: 2,200

The caption supports the visual. Put the key line first, keep hashtags under the cap of 30, and avoid tagging more than 20 accounts in one caption.

Threads: 500

Short and conversational. Watch emoji: five of them can cost 20 or more characters. At most five links per post.

TikTok: 2,200

The caption is read after the video starts, so the video carries the hook. Use the caption for context and searchable words.

YouTube: title 100, description 5,000 bytes

Front-load the title with the words people search; long titles get cut in results. In the description, the first two lines matter most.

Bluesky: 300

Counted as you'd count by eye, so emoji are cheap, but links count in full and aren't shortened.

One message, every platform: a quick workflow

1. Write the long version first, for LinkedIn, and paste it here.
2. Cut to 500 for Threads, then to 300 for Bluesky and 280 for X, watching each row turn green.
3. Check the opening line in the preview: it must make sense on its own.
4. Swap long links for tagged short ones where links count in full.
5. Schedule them across the week rather than all at once; our Social Media Calendar Template spreads them evenly.
6. Check the link preview with the Open Graph Checker before posting.

Bold "fonts", accents and other languages

The "bold" and "italic" letters you can paste into posts aren't fonts; they're maths symbols, and they cost double on X. Generators that turn text into 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 or 𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤 swap each letter for a character from Unicode's mathematical alphanumeric block. They sit outside X's weight-1 ranges, so each one counts as 2 there, they take 4 bytes each toward YouTube's and Bluesky's byte limits, and search features and screen readers may not read them as the words they look like. Use them for a word or two, never a whole post.

Accented letters such as é, ü or ñ count as one character on every platform here. Text in Chinese, Japanese or Korean counts as 2 per character on X, which is why a full X post in those languages holds about 140 characters. Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic and Greek letters fall inside X's weight-1 ranges and count as 1. If you post in several languages, paste each version here rather than assuming the English count carries over.

Opening lines that survive the cut

Whatever the limit, readers decide in the first line. A few patterns that make the opening carry the post:

Each of these makes sense alone, which matters because the feed may show nothing else. Write the opening last: once the post is done, pick its most specific sentence and move it to the top.

Common character-count mistakes

• Trusting your word processor's count: it counts letters, not platform rules, so emoji-heavy or multilingual posts come out wrong.
• Forgetting hashtags and mentions count: they're part of the text everywhere.
• Pasting a long tracking link into Threads or Bluesky: it can use a third of the limit.
• Burying the point: anything after the first line or two is hidden until someone taps "more".
• Using old limits: limits change, so check against the source when a post is close to the line.

What the character counter can't check

• Paid tiers: some platforms allow longer posts for subscribers; the counter uses the standard limits.
• In-app differences: TikTok's app may accept longer captions than its API's 2,200. When in doubt, the app's composer has the final word.
• Where the feed cuts off: platforms don't publish it and it varies by device, so the preview shows your opening line rather than a guessed cut-off.
• Link detection: the counter recognises full links and common domain endings; unusual endings may be counted as plain text.

Social media character limits on one map

Your next step

Paste your next post before you schedule it, cut it until every platform you use shows green, and make sure the opening line works on its own. Then plan the week's posts so each platform gets a version written for it.

Sources

1. Counting characters, X Developer Platform, 2026
2. twitter-text configuration v3 (character weights), X / GitHub, 2026
3. Post and share updates, LinkedIn Help, 2026
4. IG User Media: caption limits, Meta for Developers, 2026
5. Threads API: posts, Meta for Developers, 2026
6. Content Posting API: direct post reference, TikTok for Developers, 2026
7. YouTube Data API: videos resource, Google for Developers, 2026
8. app.bsky.feed.post lexicon, Bluesky / GitHub, 2026
9. Unicode Text Segmentation (UAX #29), Unicode Consortium, 2025
10. Intl.Segmenter, MDN Web Docs, 2026