Social Media Character Counter

Character limits on social media platforms exist for a few good reasons. They keep feeds scannable, force you to get to the point, and make sure the user experience stays consistent across devices.

From a marketing perspective, staying within these limits is pretty important. If your post gets cut off, you might lose your call-to-action or have your message come across as incomplete. And on platforms like Twitter/X where the limit is strict, going over means your post simply won't go through.

Knowing these limits also helps you plan your content strategy. A LinkedIn post gives you 3,000 characters to work with, so you can go deep on a topic. Twitter only gives you 280, so you need to be more concise or plan a thread.

Just because you can use all the characters doesn't mean you should. Here's what tends to perform well on each platform.

• Twitter/X. Posts between 71-100 characters typically get the most engagement. Short and punchy works best here.
• Facebook. Posts under 80 characters get 66% more engagement than longer ones. Save the long-form stuff for articles.
• Instagram. Captions between 138-150 characters perform well, though longer captions work if the content is genuinely valuable.
• LinkedIn. Posts around 1,300 characters tend to get the most engagement. Long enough to provide value, short enough to read quickly.
• TikTok. Keep captions short - around 150 characters. The video is the star here.

It depends on the platform. On Twitter/X, all URLs are automatically shortened to 23 characters regardless of how long the original URL is. So a 100-character link still only takes up 23 characters of your limit.

On most other platforms, URLs count at their full length. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram all count every character in your URL. If you're sharing a long link, consider using a URL shortener like Bitly to save space.

One thing to keep in mind - some platforms show a link preview that takes up visual space even if it doesn't count toward the character limit. Plan your posts with that in mind.

This varies a lot by platform. Here's what the data suggests.

• Instagram. You can use up to 30 hashtags, but 5-10 relevant ones tend to work best. Quality over quantity.
• Twitter/X. Stick to 1-2 hashtags. More than that actually decreases engagement.
• LinkedIn. 3-5 hashtags is the sweet spot. Use industry-relevant ones.
• TikTok. 3-5 hashtags works well. Mix trending hashtags with niche ones.
• Facebook. Hashtags don't really help much here. Skip them or use 1-2 at most.

Remember that hashtags count toward your character limit on all platforms, so factor that into your post length.

The behavior varies by platform. On Twitter/X, you simply can't post if you're over 280 characters - the tweet button stays grayed out until you trim it down.

On platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, you can post longer content but it gets truncated with a "See More" link. Only the first portion shows in the feed, so make sure your hook is in those first couple of lines.

Instagram captions get cut off after about 125 characters in the feed view. Users have to tap "more" to see the rest. If you're using longer captions, front-load the important stuff.

This tool shows you exactly where you stand on each platform so you can make informed decisions about your post length.