About this tool
Every social platform counts characters differently and caps you at a different number. This counter shows your text length against every major platform's limit at the same time, live as you type — so you can write once and know instantly whether the same post fits on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.
It's useful when you're drafting a cross-platform post and need to write to the strictest limit, when you're tightening an Instagram caption to fit before the "…more" cutoff, or when you're rewriting a bio and want it to land cleanly on every profile you keep.
Nothing leaves the browser. No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry — type whatever you want.
The limits, in one place
- X / Twitter — 280 characters per post. Premium accounts can post up to 25,000, but readers see the truncated version first either way.
- LinkedIn — 3,000 characters per post. Comfortably long-form; the first ~210 characters are visible before "see more."
- Instagram caption — 2,200 characters total, but only the first 125 are visible in feed. Hook in the first sentence; everything else is for the people who tap.
- Instagram bio — 150 characters. The tightest limit anywhere; every word does work.
- Bluesky — 300 characters per post. Slightly more breathing room than Twitter, less than Threads.
- Threads — 500 characters per post. The middle ground between Twitter and a real long-form platform.
- TikTok — 2,200 characters per caption (same hard cap as Instagram), but TikTok cuts off after the first line or two in the feed UI.
- YouTube — 100 characters per video title; 5,000 per description. Titles are by far the harder constraint and the more important one for click-through.
How the count works
Most platforms count code points — the unit of text in Unicode that roughly corresponds to a single character. This tool counts the same way: each letter is one, each digit is one, most single-glyph emoji are one, but composite emoji built from multiple code points (skin-tone modifiers, family compositions, flag sequences) can count as several.
A few platform quirks worth knowing:
- Twitter shortens every URL to t.co, which counts as exactly 23 characters in the user-facing limit regardless of the original URL's length. This counter shows your URL's raw length, so if you're at the edge, the actual tweet may be shorter.
- Twitter also counts certain double-width emoji as 2 characters in its internal limit logic. Most platforms count the same emoji as 1.
- Instagram and several other platforms collapse repeated whitespace before counting; this counter doesn't, so if you're padding with newlines, the platform may report a lower count.
For posts that are right at the edge of a limit, the only authoritative count is the one the platform's own composer shows — paste yours in to confirm before publishing.
Practical tips for cross-platform writing
- Write to the strictest cap you plan to publish on. If you cross-post to X and Threads, write to 280. If you only post to LinkedIn and Instagram, you have more room.
- Front-load the hook. For Instagram, the first 125 characters are all the feed shows — your hook lives in that window, not buried after a paragraph break.
- Profile bios are searchable. Every platform indexes bios for in-app search. Keywords that describe what you do or make belong here more than they belong in posts.
- The "visible" cutoff matters more than the hard cap. A 1,800-character Instagram caption is technically legal and engagement-tanking. The 125-char visible window is the practical writing target.
- Lines and paragraph breaks count. Each newline is a character. If you're playing line-break tricks for visual rhythm (especially on LinkedIn), every blank line eats from your budget.
Frequently asked questions
Does an emoji count as one character or two?
This counter counts code points: most single-glyph emoji count as 1, but emoji built from multiple code points (skin-tone modifiers, family compositions, flag sequences) count as more. Twitter historically counted certain emoji as 2; LinkedIn and Instagram count code points. If you're at the edge of a limit, paste into the platform's composer to verify.
Do URLs count toward Twitter's 280-character limit?
Twitter shortens every URL to t.co, which counts as exactly 23 characters in the user-facing limit, regardless of the original URL's length. This counter shows the URL as it appears in your text — so if you've pasted a 100-character URL, your actual tweet will be shorter than what this tool shows.
Does this work for X Premium's longer character limit?
X Premium accounts can post up to 25,000 characters. This counter shows 280 because that's the limit most accounts hit and the limit cross-platform writing should respect — past 280, your post is truncated in most reader experiences regardless of your tier.
Are these limits accurate today?
Each platform updates its limits occasionally. The numbers here reflect the stable, widely-documented limits at the time of writing. If you spot a discrepancy, defer to the platform's own composer.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The counter runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, stored, or logged. Open the network tab in your browser's developer tools while typing — nothing fires.
What does the "first 125 visible" note for Instagram mean?
Instagram shows only the first 125 characters of a caption in feed before collapsing the rest behind a "…more" tap. The hard cap is 2,200, but anything past 125 is hidden unless someone expands. Practical writing target: 125 chars to land the hook; use the rest only if it earns the tap.