Social Media Character Limits by Platform (2026)
Every network's hard caption limit, how each one counts characters, where readers stop, hashtag caps — and how to make one caption fit all of them.
You wrote the caption once. It fits on Facebook, gets cut off on LinkedIn, and X won't let you post it at all. Welcome to the single most common reason a cross-post fails at the last second.
The short answer: every network has a hard limit (the number it refuses to accept) and a soft limit (the number past which nobody reads). The hard ones matter when you publish; the soft ones matter when you want results. Here are both, for every platform you're likely to post to, plus what to do when one caption has to fit all of them.
The limits, in one table
| Platform | Hard limit | What it counts | Worth aiming under |
|---|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | 280 characters | Links count as 23, emoji as 2 | 280 — or split into a thread |
| 2,200 characters, 30 hashtags | Characters; hashtags capped separately | ~125 before "more" hides the rest | |
| Threads | 500 characters | Characters | 500 |
| 3,000 characters | Characters | ~1,300; first ~210 show before "see more" | |
| 63,206 characters | Characters | A few hundred | |
| TikTok | 2,200 characters | Characters, including hashtags | Short — the video is the post |
| 100 (title), 500 (description) | Characters | Keyword-rich, every character used | |
| Bluesky | 300 graphemes | Graphemes — a flag emoji is 1, not 4 | 300 |
| 300 (title), 40,000 (body) | Characters | Title does the work | |
| YouTube | 100 (title), 5,000 (description) | Characters | Title ≤ 70 so it isn't truncated |
Limits are as published in October 2026. They move — X's in particular depends on whether the account is Premium — and the platform's own rejection is always the final word.
Why the same number means different things
Three details catch people who assume "characters are characters".
X counts links as 23 characters, always. A 90-character URL costs 23; a 12-character one also costs 23. Emoji and most non-Latin scripts count double. So a caption that your editor says is 270 characters can be 290 on X.
Bluesky counts graphemes, not code units. A single flag emoji is four UTF-16 units but one grapheme. Most tools get this wrong in Bluesky's favour (they over-count), which is harmless — but a tool that under-counts will let you submit a post Bluesky refuses.
Instagram has two limits. 2,200 characters and 30 hashtags. A caption with 31 hashtags is rejected even at 400 characters. Instagram's own guidance since 2024 is three to five.
Soft limits: where readers stop
The hard limits tell you what publishes. The soft ones tell you what gets read.
- Instagram shows about 125 characters in feed before "… more". Your hook has to land inside that.
- LinkedIn shows roughly 210 characters (three lines on desktop) before "see more". The click to expand is a signal LinkedIn rewards, so a strong first line matters more than the length of the rest.
- X shows everything, which is the point of 280.
- Facebook truncates long posts in feed with "See more" after about 480 characters.
A caption that uses all 2,200 characters on Instagram isn't wrong; it's just mostly unread. A 1,300-character LinkedIn post is widely cited as the length where long-form still gets finished.
Hashtags: counts and caps
| Platform | Hard cap | Sensible range |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 3–5 | |
| TikTok | none (they count toward 2,200) | 3–5 |
| none | 3–5 | |
| X | none | 0–2 |
| none | 1–3 | |
| none; treated as keywords | A few, in the description | |
| Threads / Bluesky | tags work differently; mostly skip | 0–1 |
| none, and they look out of place | 0 |
The practical rule: hashtags are a discovery tool on Instagram and TikTok, a mild one on LinkedIn, and noise everywhere else.
One caption, every platform: how to make it fit
Writing a separate caption per network is the ideal; nobody does it for every post. A workable middle path:
- Write the long version for LinkedIn or Facebook — the full idea, under ~1,300 characters.
- Cut it to 280 for X, or let it run as a thread. A good thread is the long version split at paragraph breaks, numbered.
- Instagram and TikTok take the long version with hashtags moved to the end — and the first 125 characters rewritten as a hook, because that's all the feed shows.
- Threads and Bluesky get the X version, minus hashtags.
- Pinterest gets a title, not a caption. Your first sentence, under 100 characters, is the title.
If your tool shows a live counter per platform while you edit, this takes two minutes. If it doesn't, you'll find out at publish time — which is the failure this article opened with. Plumefy's composer gives each selected platform its own tab with that network's real limit (and the hashtag cap, where there is one), and can post an over-280 caption on X as a numbered thread with the split shown before you publish. For the ideal length on each network — as opposed to the maximum — see how long should captions be, and how to cross-post without sounding robotic for the voice side of the same problem.
Frequently asked questions
What is the character limit for an Instagram caption?
2,200 characters, with a separate cap of 30 hashtags. Only about the first 125 characters show in the feed before "more".
How many characters can an X post have?
280 for standard accounts. Links count as 23 characters regardless of length. X Premium allows much longer posts, but a tool can't tell which kind of account it's posting for, so 280 is the safe number.
What happens if my caption is over the limit?
The platform rejects the post. In a scheduler that means the post fails for that one network at publish time, usually hours after you wrote it. A per-platform counter in the editor is the only way to catch it early.
Does LinkedIn cut off long posts?
Not in terms of acceptance — 3,000 characters are allowed. But only the first ~210 show before "see more", so the opening line decides whether the rest is read.
Why does my Bluesky count differ from other tools?
Bluesky counts graphemes (what a human sees as one character), not code units. Emoji and combined characters count as one. Tools that count code units will show a higher number than Bluesky does.
Should I use the same hashtags everywhere?
No. Three to five relevant ones on Instagram and TikTok; a couple on LinkedIn; none on X, Reddit or Bluesky, where they read as spam or do nothing.
Final thoughts
Caption limits aren't trivia — they're the difference between a post that goes out everywhere and one that silently fails on the platform you cared most about. Write the long version, cut deliberately, and use an editor that counts the way each network does. Plumefy's free plan does that for every platform it connects, with no card needed.
Post everywhere, once.
Start on the free plan — no card needed, upgrade when you need scheduling.
Start free