Every platform counts differently
“280 characters” on X doesn’t mean 280 of what you see. Platforms measure length in different units, and a post that fits on one can fail on another:
- X (Twitter) uses weighted length from its open-source twitter-text library: most Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters count as 1, but every emoji, and every Chinese, Japanese or Korean character, counts as 2. Every link counts as 23, however long or short, because X wraps it in a t.co link.
- Bluesky limits posts to 300 graphemes (what you see as characters) so an emoji family counts once.
- Mastodon counts links as 23 and only counts the username part of a remote mention.
- LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and most others count characters, with very different limits.
Textkiln applies each platform’s method to your text at once. The bars turn amber near a limit and red over it.
The fold
On LinkedIn, roughly the first 210 characters show before “…see more”; on Instagram about 125 before “…more”. The exact cut-off depends on the device and line breaks, but those first lines decide whether people expand your post, put the hook there.
Limits in this tool
| Platform | Limit |
|---|---|
| X post | 280 weighted (25,000 for Premium) |
| Bluesky | 300 |
| Threads, Mastodon (default) | 500 |
| Instagram caption / bio | 2,200 / 150 |
| LinkedIn post / headline / About | 3,000 / 220 / 2,600 |
| TikTok caption | 4,000 in the app |
| YouTube title / description | 100 / 5,000 |
| Pinterest title / description | 100 / 500 |
| Reddit title | 300 |
| Discord message | 2,000 |
| Telegram message | 4,096 |
| Google Business Profile post | 1,500 |
Platforms change limits occasionally; we review them regularly.
Worked example
Here is what the Social Media Character Counter returns for its built-in example. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
Big news 🚀 Textkiln now checks your posts against every platform’s real limits, including emoji and links. Try it: https://example.com/social-media-character-counter #writing #tools| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Characters | 181 |
| X weighted length | 155 / 280 |
| Platforms over limit | 3 |
Questions
How are emoji counted on X (Twitter)?
Each emoji counts as 2 characters toward the 280 limit, even complex ones made of several code points.
How many characters does a link use in a tweet?
Always 23, because X shortens every link with t.co.
What is the Instagram caption limit?
2,200 characters, but only about the first 125 are visible before “more”.
Last reviewed · How Textkiln tools work