Character counter

Count characters and track platform limits

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Platform limits
Custom limit
Platform character limits — complete reference

Character limits vary significantly across platforms — and the visible limit (what shows without a "more" link) is often much shorter than the technical maximum. Both numbers matter depending on your goal.

Platform / FormatHard limitVisible before truncation
Twitter / X post280 chars280 (no truncation)
Instagram caption2,200 chars~125 chars
Instagram bio150 chars150 (no truncation)
LinkedIn post3,000 chars~210 chars
LinkedIn headline220 chars220 (no truncation)
Facebook post63,206 chars~477 chars
TikTok caption2,200 chars~100 chars
YouTube title100 chars~70 chars (search results)
YouTube description5,000 chars~157 chars
SMS message160 chars (GSM)160 (no truncation; splits into segments)
Email subject line~60 chars recommended~30–40 chars on mobile
Meta description (SEO)~160 chars~155 chars (Google)
Page title (SEO)~60 chars~50–60 chars (Google)
Why character limits exist and how they affect your writing

Platform character limits aren't arbitrary — they reflect design decisions about attention spans, mobile screen sizes, and database storage. Twitter's 280-character limit (originally 140) was designed to fit within SMS message constraints. Instagram's truncation at ~125 characters is designed to encourage engagement by making users tap "more."

For SEO, Google measures meta descriptions in pixels rather than characters — a string of wide characters like "W" takes more space than "i". The 155–160 character guideline is a practical approximation. Titles are similarly measured in pixels, with roughly 600px available for desktop results.

For SMS, the encoding matters as much as the length. Standard GSM-7 encoding supports 160 characters, but the moment you include an emoji or a character outside the basic set — like a curly apostrophe — the message switches to Unicode (UCS-2), which allows only 70 characters per segment. A message with a single emoji that's 80 characters long will be delivered as two SMS segments.

When character count matters most
📱 Social media posts
Writing within platform limits ensures your content isn't cut off. More importantly, front-loading your key message within the visible truncation point maximises engagement before anyone taps "more."
🔍 SEO titles & descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions that exceed Google's display limits get truncated with "…" in search results, often cutting off the key call to action or keyword. Staying within ~60 and ~155 characters respectively keeps them intact.
📧 Email subject lines
Most email clients show 40–60 characters in the subject line. Mobile clients show even less — often 30–35. Subject lines that exceed this get cut off at the worst possible moment, often mid-word.
💬 SMS campaigns
Every segment of a multi-part SMS costs the same as a full message. Keeping marketing texts under 160 characters (and avoiding emoji) means each recipient gets one message, not two — halving your send cost.
📝 Form fields & databases
Database columns have character limits. Knowing your text length before submitting catches truncation issues before they cause data loss or form errors — especially for names, addresses, and bio fields.
🏷️ Product listings
Amazon, eBay, and Etsy all have specific character limits for product titles and descriptions. Staying within them while fitting the most relevant keywords in the first 80 characters is a core e-commerce copywriting skill.
Frequently asked questions
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About this tool

This character counter updates all statistics instantly as you type — no submit button needed. It tracks characters (with and without spaces), words, lines, and sentences, and shows live progress bars against common platform limits including Twitter, Instagram, SMS, LinkedIn, YouTube, and SEO meta tags. Set a custom limit to track against any specific requirement. Your text never leaves your browser.