User Guide
Paste or type your text
Characters, words and lines update as you type. Write here or paste a finished draft — either works.
Watch the platform bars
Every supported platform shows its own progress bar simultaneously, so you can see at a glance that a caption fits Instagram but overruns an X post.
Note when a bar turns red
Red means you are over that platform’s limit. The counter is a hard limit, not a recommendation — the platform will refuse or truncate the text.
Mind the first two lines
Most feeds truncate long captions behind a “more” link. Whatever must be read has to come before that cut, well inside the character limit.
Remember links and emoji count
A URL counts as characters, and many emoji count as two because of how they are encoded. Both regularly push a post over a limit unexpectedly.
If it will not fit, split it
For long text on X or similar, the Thread Splitter breaks it into correctly numbered posts that each fit the limit.
About the Social Media Character Counter
This tool counts characters, words and lines and checks the result against every major platform’s limit at once, live as you type. Nothing is submitted anywhere.
The limits it checks
| Platform & field | Limit |
|---|---|
| X / Twitter post | 280 |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 |
| Instagram bio | 150 |
| Facebook post | 63,206 |
| YouTube title | 100 |
| YouTube description | 5,000 |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 |
| TikTok caption | 2,200 |
| Threads post | 500 |
| Meta description (SEO) | 160 |
Platforms adjust these occasionally, so treat the figures as current rather than permanent. LinkedIn Help and each platform’s own help centre are the authoritative sources if a limit looks wrong.
The limit is not the target
Fitting inside a limit and being read are different problems, and the second one is harder.
Instagram truncates captions after roughly 125 characters behind a “more” link, even though it permits 2,200. Anything after that point is read only by people who choose to expand it — a small minority. Whatever matters most belongs in the first line or two.
YouTube titles are cut short in search and on mobile well before the 100 character ceiling. Around 60 characters is the practical figure for a title that displays in full everywhere.
Meta descriptions are truncated by pixel width, not character count. The 160 figure is a convention rather than a rule — capital letters and wide characters consume more space than the count suggests.
LinkedIn hides posts behind “see more” after about 210 characters despite allowing 3,000.
Limit versus visible length
The two rarely match. This is the more useful table for writing, because it shows where a reader actually stops rather than where the platform does:
| Field | Hard limit | Shown before truncation |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | ~125 |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | ~210 |
| YouTube title | 100 | ~60 |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | ~157 above the fold |
| X / Twitter post | 280 | All of it |
| Instagram bio | 150 | All of it |
Treat the right-hand column as approximate — truncation depends on device width and client. The principle holds regardless: write the essential message inside the visible length and use the remaining budget for detail that rewards anyone who expands it.
Why your count sometimes disagrees with the platform
Emoji. Many are stored as more than one unit, and composite emoji — skin tone variants, family groupings, flags — can consume several characters each. A caption that fits with plain text may not once emoji are added.
Links. Every character of a URL counts. Some platforms substitute a fixed length for links, others count them literally, so a long URL can silently cost a large share of a short limit.
Line breaks. A newline is a character. Heavily formatted posts with blank lines between paragraphs spend more of the budget than they appear to.
Non-Latin scripts. Some platforms count characters in these differently, so Japanese, Chinese or Arabic text may behave unexpectedly against a Latin-based count.
Privacy
The calculation runs in your browser. No account is connected, nothing is submitted and no figures are stored. That matters more than it sounds — drafts pasted into a counter are often unpublished campaign copy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my count differ from the platform?
Usually emoji or links. Many emoji occupy more than one character, and composite ones such as skin tone or family variants can take several. Some platforms also substitute a fixed length for URLs rather than counting them literally.
How long should an Instagram caption actually be?
Instagram allows 2,200 characters but truncates after roughly 125 behind a “more” link. Anything important belongs before that cut — most readers never expand. The limit and the useful length are very different numbers.
What is the ideal YouTube title length?
Around 60 characters, even though 100 are permitted. Longer titles are cut short in search results and on mobile, so the end of a 100-character title is frequently invisible.
Do line breaks count as characters?
Yes. Each newline is one character, so a post formatted with blank lines between paragraphs uses more of the limit than the visible text suggests.
Why is 160 characters recommended for meta descriptions?
It is a convention rather than a hard rule. Search engines truncate by pixel width, not character count, so capitals and wide letters consume more space. Treat 160 as a guide and front-load the important words.
What happens if I go over a limit?
The platform will either refuse the post or truncate it, depending on where you are publishing. The counter turns red before that point so you can edit rather than discover the problem after posting.
Do hashtags count towards the limit?
Yes, in full, including the # symbol. A block of fifteen hashtags can easily consume 200 characters, which is why they are often placed in the first comment on Instagram rather than the caption.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. Counting happens in JavaScript inside this page, so drafts and unpublished campaign copy stay on your device.
