Social media character counter for every platform
Write once, check everywhere. See how many characters you have left on each platform, counted the way that platform counts.
Your post
| Platform | Used | Left | Hashtags | Status |
|---|
Caption limits by platform
| Platform | Caption limit | Hashtag limit | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,200 | 30 | Official: Instagram publishing API (2,200 characters, 30 hashtags, 20 @ tags). | |
| TikTok | 2,200 | none set | Official: TikTok Content Posting API (2,200 UTF-16 code units for the video caption). |
| 3,000 | none set | Commonly reported composer limit. LinkedIn’s Posts API rejects overlong text but does not publish the number. | |
| X | 280 | none set | Official: 280, with weighting (links count 23, emoji and CJK characters count 2). |
| 63,206 | none set | Widely reported since 2011; not stated in Meta’s current developer docs. | |
| YouTube | 5,000 | 60 | Official: YouTube Data API description limit is 5,000 bytes (not characters). |
Counting rules: most platforms count Unicode characters, so an emoji counts as one. TikTok counts UTF-16 code units, so most emoji count as two. X weights links as 23 and emoji or CJK characters as 2 (the X figure here is a close estimate of X’s own counter). YouTube limits descriptions to 5,000 bytes, so accented letters and emoji use more than one.
Questions and answers
What is the X (Twitter) character limit?
Posts can contain up to 280 characters. Links count as 23 characters and emoji count as 2, per X’s developer documentation.
How long can a TikTok caption be?
2,200 characters, counted in UTF-16 code units, per TikTok’s Content Posting API.
How long can a YouTube description be?
Up to 5,000 bytes. Plain English letters are one byte each; accented letters and emoji take two to four.
Where do the LinkedIn and Facebook numbers come from?
They are widely reported limits that the platforms’ current developer docs do not state as a number, so treat them as guides.
Sources
- Instagram Platform: IG User Media (content publishing) reference (Meta for Developers), last checked 2026-10-27. Caption max 2,200 characters, 30 hashtags, 20 @ tags. Reels: MOV/MP4, H.264 or HEVC, 23–60 fps, max 1920 px wide, aspect 0.01:1–10:1 (9:16 recommended), 3 s–15 min, max 300 MB.
- Content Posting API: Direct Post reference (TikTok for Developers), last checked 2026-10-27. Video title (caption) max 2,200 UTF-16 runes.
- Counting characters (X Developer Platform), last checked 2026-10-27. Posts up to 280 characters; URLs count as 23; emoji count as 2; CJK characters count as 2.
- YouTube Data API: Videos resource (Google for Developers), last checked 2026-10-27. snippet.title max 100 characters; snippet.description max 5,000 bytes; < and > not allowed.
- Posts API (Microsoft Learn (LinkedIn)), last checked 2026-10-27. Returns FIELD_LENGTH_TOO_LONG for overlong commentary but does not publish a number.