The limits at a glance
| Where | Limit | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| X post | 280 | Emoji count as 2, every link as 23. X Premium allows up to 25,000. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Up to 30 hashtags and 20 @ tags. |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | For anything longer, LinkedIn points you to an article. |
| YouTube title | 100 | The description can be up to 5,000. |
| Threads post | 500 | Per post. |
| Bluesky post | 300 | An emoji counts as 1 here. |
| Text message | 160 | Drops to 70 with an emoji, a curly quote or a letter from another alphabet. |
The Character Counter checks X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and text messages for you. For Threads and Bluesky, keep an eye on the main Characters number.
Why X says your post is too long
X does not count every character as one. Its developer docs spell it out: every emoji counts as 2, however simple it looks, and so does every Chinese, Japanese and Korean character. Every link is shortened through t.co and counts as 23, whether the address is short or very long.
So a post of 250 plain characters with two emoji and one link counts as 250 + 4 + 23 = 277. Add a few more words and X stops you, even though the box still looks half empty. The Character Counter's X post row uses the same rules, so its number is the one X uses.
Do emojis, spaces and line breaks count?
- Spaces count on every app in the table.
- Emoji count as 2 on X and 1 on Bluesky. In a text message, a single emoji drops the limit from 160 to 70.
- Line breaks count as 1 each in the apps. The counter's app rows include them. The big Characters number leaves them out, the way Microsoft Word does.
Why a text message splits in two
A normal text uses a small alphabet called GSM-7 that fits 160 characters. Add one emoji, a curly quote or a letter that alphabet lacks, and the whole message switches to a bigger format called UCS-2 that fits only 70. Longer messages go out in parts of 153, or 67, because each part keeps a few characters to tell the phone how to join them back together.
A few everyday symbols, such as { } [ ] ~ ^ | \ and the euro sign, take two places in GSM-7.
Phones often turn straight quotes into curly ones as you type, and that alone can cut a text from 160 characters to 70.
Check your text, step by step
- Open the Character Counter and type or paste your text.
- Read Characters and Without spaces next to your text.
- Look at the rows for X post, Instagram caption, LinkedIn post and YouTube title. Each one turns red when you go over.
- Text message shows how many messages your text takes and how many characters are left.
- Writing for a form with its own limit? Type it into Character limit to get a bar.
Your text never leaves your device. It is counted right in your browser.