Social Media Character Counter
Check your post length against every major social platform's character limit.
Start typing above — all platform limits update in real time.
About Social Media Character Counter
Every social network enforces its own character limits — Twitter/X caps posts at 280 characters (counting each t.co-shortened URL as 23 characters regardless of original length), LinkedIn posts at 3,000, Instagram captions at 2,200 (though only the first 125 show in-feed), Facebook ad headlines at 40, and YouTube titles at 100. Keeping copy within these limits prevents truncation, preserves formatting, and avoids last-minute edits when you try to publish. This counter checks your draft against all twelve limits simultaneously and highlights which platforms are close to or over their ceiling. Every calculation runs locally in your browser — your text is never sent to any server.
Two different counts, on purpose.X is the only platform here that publishes how it counts, and it is not a string length: most Latin characters cost 1 while emoji and CJK cost 2, so a Chinese post hits the 280 limit at 140 characters. The Twitter/X row uses that published algorithm. Every other row — and the “Characters” total above — counts what you actually typed, measured in grapheme clusters, so an emoji counts as one character rather than the two or more code units it is stored as. No per-platform weighting is invented for networks that don't document one.
Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated
What this tool is used for
- Checking a post against several platforms' limits at once.
- Trimming copy to fit the shortest limit you need to satisfy.
- Seeing how many characters remain as you edit.
- Checking whether a caption fits before scheduling it.
- Comparing the same message's fit across platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do platforms count characters differently?
- Because they count different things. X uses a weighted budget where most Latin text costs 1 and other scripts cost 2; others count code points or UTF-16 units. The same post can be over on one and comfortable on another.
- How are links counted?
- X replaces every URL with a fixed 23-character cost regardless of length, so shortening a link saves nothing there. Other platforms count the literal characters, where shortening genuinely helps.
- Why does one emoji count as several characters?
- Because it is several code points — a ZWJ sequence such as a family emoji is many. Counters using UTF-16 length report even more, which is why the same emoji costs differently across tools.
- Does the limit include the preview card?
- No. A link's title and description come from the page's own metadata and are not part of your character budget, which is why a well-tagged link adds context for free.
- Should I write to the limit?
- Rarely. Posts near the limit read as crammed and leave no room for someone quoting you, which is a real constraint on platforms where quoting is the main way things spread.
Common errors and gotchas
- Counting characters when a platform counts differently, since links and emoji are often weighted specially.
- Forgetting a link will be shortened or expanded to a fixed length.
- Assuming limits are stable, since platforms change them without notice.
- Counting code points rather than what the platform counts, which differ for emoji.
- Writing to the limit rather than to the point, which produces cramped copy.