Every platform has a limit, and every writer has hit one at the worst possible moment — mid-thought, mid-sentence, right before the punchline. Understanding the limits across different platforms helps you write more efficiently and stop discovering them by accident. This guide covers the actual limits for every major platform, plus the considerations that matter beyond the raw numbers.
Twitter's character limit is 280 characters per tweet (doubled from 140 in 2017 for most languages; Japanese, Chinese, and Korean remain at 140 because these scripts convey more meaning per character). The limit counts individual Unicode code points, not bytes. URLs are always counted as 23 characters regardless of actual length (via Twitter's t.co shortener). Spaces and emojis count as one character each. For posts targeting Twitter, check your count with a character counter before posting — cutting a 310-character draft to 280 often improves it.
LinkedIn has different limits depending on content type:
LinkedIn posts truncate after roughly 200–210 characters in the feed, showing a "see more" link. If your hook is in the first 210 characters, more people will click through to read the rest.
Instagram captions allow up to 2,200 characters, with captions truncated after the first 125 characters in the feed. Only the first 30 hashtags are indexed. Practically, captions over 1,000 characters are rarely read in full; the key content should appear in the first 125 characters.
Facebook posts allow up to 63,206 characters — long enough for a short story. In practice, posts over a few hundred words perform poorly in the algorithm. Status updates appear truncated after 480 characters; posts with images truncate sooner. Group posts can be longer. Comments are limited to 8,000 characters.
TikTok captions allow up to 2,200 characters, matching Instagram. The caption is truncated after a few lines; most viewers never see the full text.
The Common Application personal statement is 650 words — a hard cap. Most supplemental essays range from 150 to 350 words. "Up to" limits are not targets; a tight 500-word response to a 650-word prompt is often better than a padded 650. Some universities specify character limits instead: 1,500 characters ≈ 250 words.
There is no technical limit, but SEO research generally suggests:
There is no technical limit on email subject lines, but most email clients display only the first 40–60 characters on desktop and 30–40 characters on mobile before truncating. Keep subjects under 50 characters for reliable display across clients. Pre-header text (the first ~100 characters of the email body) appears alongside the subject in many inboxes.
A single SMS message is limited to 160 characters when using standard GSM-7 encoding (Latin characters). Messages over 160 characters are split into multiple parts and reassembled on the recipient's device — but each part after the first is actually 153 characters (7 are used for reassembly headers). Emoji and non-Latin characters switch to UCS-2 encoding, which limits each part to 70 characters. For a message you want to arrive as a single SMS, keep it under 160 standard Latin characters.
Use Criply's word counter to get real-time word count, character count with spaces, and character count without spaces simultaneously — useful when you need to meet a specific type of limit. The counter updates as you type or paste, works on any text, and processes everything in your browser without uploading your content anywhere.
| Platform / Use case | Limit | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X | 280 | Characters |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 | Characters |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | Characters |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | Characters |
| Common App essay | 650 | Words |
| Blog post (SEO sweet spot) | 1,500–2,500 | Words |
| Email subject line (safe) | 50 | Characters |
| SMS (single message) | 160 | Characters (GSM-7) |
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