2026-07-02
A guide to PostLen's character counter and post preview — how the weighted X counting works, what the preview shows, and why nothing you type leaves your browser.
PostLen counts a single draft against eight destinations at once — X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube titles, YouTube descriptions, TikTok and SEO meta descriptions — and renders a preview shaped like whichever platform you select. It is free, requires no account, and runs entirely in the browser.
The reason for counting against everything simultaneously is that the platforms disagree in ways that are invisible in a plain text editor. A draft can be comfortably within limits on five platforms and over the limit on the sixth, and the only way to notice is to measure them together.
Type or paste into the main text area and every platform card updates immediately. Each card shows the current count against that platform's maximum, with a bar that changes colour as you approach the limit.
The X card does not count characters the way the others do. X applies weighted counting, in which characters above U+10FF — chiefly Japanese, Chinese, Korean and emoji — cost two units instead of one, and every URL costs a fixed 23 units regardless of its actual length. PostLen implements those rules, so the number on the X card is the number X will use, not the raw character count.
The Instagram and Threads cards additionally track hashtags. Instagram cut its per-post cap from 30 to five in December 2025, and Threads allows a single topic tag, so on both platforms the hashtag count bites long before the caption limit does.
Selecting a platform card switches the preview to that platform's layout — profile position, username treatment, timestamp and text formatting. The purpose is not decoration: the same sentence sits differently in a Threads card than in a LinkedIn post, and seeing it in place catches awkward line breaks and orphaned words that a plain textarea hides.
| Platform | Limit | Visible before truncation |
|---|---|---|
| 2,200 | ~125 characters | |
| 3,000 | ~140 characters | |
| TikTok | 4,000 | ~70–100 characters |
| YouTube description | 5,000 | ~157 characters |
PostLen does not yet mark the cut-off point inside the preview, so treat the figures above as the targets to write to.
You can attach up to four images or one video to see how the post looks with media in place. The preview arranges attachments the way the selected platform does, which is the quickest way to check whether a four-image grid crops the way you expected.
Media never counts toward the character limit on any platform, so attachments do not change the counts. They are there to make the preview accurate.
Everything happens in your browser. Text is never transmitted to a server, uploaded images and video are handled locally through object URLs, and no draft is stored or logged anywhere. There is no account and nothing to sign in to.
This matters more than it might appear. Drafts frequently contain unannounced product details, client names or personal information, and pasting that into a hosted tool means handing it to a third party. PostLen has no server-side component that could receive it.
Yes, with no account required and no usage limits.
No. All counting and preview rendering happens in your browser, and there is no server-side component that could receive your drafts.
X uses weighted counting: CJK characters and emoji cost two units, and every URL costs a fixed 23 units. PostLen applies those rules, so its number matches what X will accept.
X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube titles, YouTube descriptions, TikTok and SEO meta descriptions — all counted simultaneously.
Yes, up to four images or one video, processed locally to render an accurate preview. Media never affects the character count.
Yes. The interface adapts to smaller screens and requires no installation.
PostLen counts your draft against every platform in this article at the same time.
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