Social Media Character Limits Compared 2026: All Platforms in One Table

Post limits across every platform

The second column is the one most people plan around, and the third is the one that determines results. On TikTok the gap is a factor of roughly fifty; on Facebook it is more than two hundred. Only X and Threads show the entire post by default.

The two rules that break cross-posting

Character limits differ in obvious ways. Counting rules differ in ways that are easy to miss, and those are what cause a draft that fit on one platform to be rejected on another.

X is the exception on both counts, and it is the platform people most often use as their baseline. A Japanese draft that measures 200 characters in a text editor costs 400 units on X — well over the 280 limit — while fitting comfortably everywhere else. Conversely, a long tracking URL that costs 23 units on X will consume its full length on every other platform.

The important detail about X's weighting is that it does not apply to all non-English text. Characters up to U+10FF count as one, which includes Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai and Devanagari. Only CJK scripts and emoji cost two.

Profile and bio limits

TikTok's 80-character bio is the tightest constraint on any major platform, and YouTube's 1,000-character channel description the most generous. LinkedIn's headline is not strictly a bio but performs the same function, appearing beside your name across the entire platform.

Media allowances

Attached media never counts against the character limit on any of these platforms, which makes images a reliable way to carry information that will not fit in the text.

A workable cross-posting strategy

Copying identical text to every platform produces a message that is too long for X, too short for LinkedIn, and formatted for neither. A more effective approach is to write the constrained version first and expand it, rather than writing long and cutting down.

• •Draft to X's limit first — 280 units, or about 140 characters in Japanese. Anything that survives this constraint will fit anywhere.
• •Expand for Threads to 500 characters, adding the supporting detail X could not hold.
• •For LinkedIn and Instagram, rewrite the opening so the first 125–140 characters stand alone, then continue.
• •Adjust URLs by destination: paste them raw on X where they cost a flat 23, and shorten them everywhere else.
• •Check the whole set at once rather than platform by platform, so the differences are visible while you are still writing.

PostLen exists for that last step. A single draft is measured against every platform simultaneously, with the weighted rules applied where they apply, and rendered as a preview shaped like each destination. Everything runs in the browser and no text is transmitted.

Frequently asked questions