Character counter

1. 1

   Add your text

   Type in the box, or copy your draft and click Paste text.

2. 2

   Read the counts

   Characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, characters without spaces and reading time update in real time.

3. 3

   Compare with the limit

   Find your network in the limits table below and check the "with spaces" figure against it.

4. 4

   Trim or expand

   Edit until the text fits. Put the most important words in the part that shows before "more".

5. 5

   Copy and post

   Copy the final text into your post, caption, bio, ad or email.

Characters with spaces: the total number of all characters, including spaces, punctuation and line breaks. This is the standard most social media platforms use when they enforce character limits. When X (Twitter) says you have 280 characters, it counts every space.

Characters without spaces: the total count excluding space characters. Some word processing requirements, academic formats and CMS fields use this measure.

Does character count include spaces? Yes, for social media platform limits. Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube all count spaces toward their character limits. When you check whether a caption fits, use the characters-with-spaces count.

Each network sets its own limit, and most cut the text off in the feed long before the limit. Here are the current limits in one table, checked in October 2026. Platforms change these numbers, so recheck before a big campaign.

Writing titles and descriptions for a web page? The Meta tags generator warns you when a title passes 60 characters or a description passes 160.

Instagram has several text fields with different character limits. The character counter handles all of them.

• Instagram caption: 2,200 characters maximum. Instagram truncates captions in the feed at roughly 125 characters on mobile before showing "more". Put the hook or key message in the first 125 characters.
• Instagram bio: 150 characters maximum. The bio displays in full on the profile page, so every character counts.
• Instagram comment: 2,200 characters maximum, matching the caption limit.
• Hashtags: since December 2025 Instagram allows up to 5 hashtags on a post or Reel. Hashtags in the first comment count toward the same 5.

Instagram word counter: Instagram has no word limit, only a character limit. The 125-character feed preview is about 18 to 22 words, depending on word length.

LinkedIn post character limit

A LinkedIn post can hold up to 3,000 characters. Only the opening lines show in the feed before "see more", so treat the first one or two lines as your headline. Your profile headline allows 220 characters and the About section 2,600. Paste each draft here first, because LinkedIn's composer doesn't show a running count.

How many characters in a tweet?

A standard X post allows 280 characters. X Premium subscribers can write longer posts, up to 25,000 characters. Two details catch people out: every link counts as 23 characters no matter how long it is, and most emoji count as 2 characters. That is why X's own counter can differ slightly from a plain character count.

Threads (Meta's text-based app) allows up to 500 characters per post. The composer shows a progress indicator that fills as you approach 500. For longer writing, Threads added text attachments in 2025: a separate block of up to 10,000 characters that readers open from your post. Keep the hook inside the main 500 characters. Use this counter to draft and check Threads posts before you open the app.

TikTok captions: the app now accepts long captions (widely reported as about 4,000 characters), but captions posted through TikTok's API or a scheduling tool are capped at 2,200. Only the first line or two show before "more", so keep the hook short. Your TikTok bio allows 80 characters.

Bluesky posts: 300 characters maximum. Bluesky counts graphemes (what you see as one character), so a single emoji usually counts as 1. Pasted URLs count toward the 300 unless Bluesky turns them into a link card.

Different apps count the same text in slightly different ways. These are the cases that cause most "it fit here but not there" problems:

• Emoji: many emoji are stored as two or more code units. X counts most emoji as 2 characters, while Bluesky counts each as 1. Leave a little room if your post is emoji-heavy.
• Links: X shortens every link to 23 characters. Other networks count the full URL, so shorten long tracking links before you post.
• Line breaks: each line break counts as one character on most networks.
• Styled text: bold and italic letters made with Unicode (like those from the Bold and italic text generator) can count as 2 characters each on some networks.

Write for the preview, not the limit

On every network the visible preview is far shorter than the limit. Put the hook, offer or question in the first 100–125 characters.

Cut filler words first

Words like "really", "just", "in order to" and "that" can often go. That alone often saves 10% of a draft.

Adapt one message per network

A 2,000-character LinkedIn post won't fit in 280 or 300 characters. Write the long version first, then a short version for X, Threads and Bluesky.

Count before you schedule

Fixing a post after it fails to publish wastes time. Check the length here, or let your scheduler warn you per network before the post goes out.

Microsoft Word: select the text (or nothing, for the whole document), then open Review > Word Count. The window shows characters with spaces and without spaces. You can also click the word count in the status bar at the bottom.

Google Docs: open Tools > Word count or press Ctrl + Shift + C (Cmd + Shift + C on Mac). Tick "Display word count while typing" to keep it on screen.

Both give the same totals as this counter for plain text. For social posts, paste into this tool instead, because it sits next to the limits table above.