Character Counter
Count characters and see how your text fits X, Instagram, YouTube, Google Ads, and more.
100% in your browser — nothing uploadedCount characters and check limits for social media and ads
Platform limits
Why character limits matter and where each platform draws the line
Every platform has a character limit, and getting it wrong means your post gets clipped, your ad gets rejected, or your meta description gets truncated in search results. This tool counts characters in real time and shows a visual progress bar for each platform — X/Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Ads, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and SMS — so you can write to the limit without guessing.
The limits come from each platform's official documentation and are current as of 2026. X/Twitter allows 280 characters per tweet. Instagram captions go up to 2,200, but only the first 125 show above the fold. Google Ads headlines are capped at 30 characters and descriptions at 90. Meta titles should stay under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results, and meta descriptions under 160. YouTube titles allow 100 characters. LinkedIn posts go up to 3,000.
Character counting itself has a subtlety: some emoji and special characters take more than one JavaScript character (they are encoded as surrogate pairs in UTF-16), so a single emoji may count as 2. For most social media platforms this does not matter — they count Unicode characters, not bytes. For SMS, it matters a great deal: a standard GSM message allows 160 characters in the GSM-7 alphabet, but a single emoji forces the entire message into UCS-2 encoding, which drops the limit to 70 characters per segment.
Everything runs locally in your browser. The text you type or paste is never sent anywhere — there is no server, no tracking, no account. That makes it safe for unreleased copy, drafts of sponsored posts, and anything you would rather not paste into a random website. The tool works offline after the page loads: disconnect from the internet and the counters keep updating.
Character limits by platform — the complete reference
| Platform | Field | Limit | What happens when you exceed it |
|---|---|---|---|
| X / Twitter | Tweet | 280 | Cannot post — the compose button stays grayed out. |
| Caption | 2,200 | Truncated; only the first ~125 characters show above "more." | |
| Post | 3,000 | Cannot post — the character counter turns red. | |
| YouTube | Title | 100 | Truncated in search results and recommendations. |
| YouTube | Description | 5,000 | Truncated; most viewers see only the first 2–3 lines. |
| TikTok | Caption | 2,200 | Cannot post past the limit. |
| Description | 500 | Truncated in the feed. | |
| Post | 63,206 | Truncated; only the first ~477 characters show above "See more." | |
| Google Ads | Headline | 30 | Ad rejected during review. |
| Google Ads | Description | 90 | Ad rejected during review. |
| SEO | Meta title | ~60 | Truncated with "…" in Google search results. |
| SEO | Meta description | ~160 | Truncated or replaced by Google with a snippet from the page. |
| SMS | Message (GSM-7) | 160 | Split into multiple segments; each segment is billed separately. |
The SEO limits are approximate because Google measures in pixels, not characters. Narrow letters (i, l, t) let you fit more; wide ones (W, M) fewer. A safe rule: stay under 55 characters for titles and 150 for descriptions to avoid truncation on most screens.
Reference tables
FAQ
Do emoji count as one character?
It depends on the platform. Most social media platforms count emoji as a single character for their limit, but JavaScript's .length property counts them as 2 (because of UTF-16 surrogate pairs). For SMS, a single emoji forces UCS-2 encoding, which drops the per-segment limit from 160 to 70 characters. This tool uses JavaScript's .length, which is the count most web platforms enforce.
Are the platform limits up to date?
Yes, verified against each platform's official documentation as of 2026. If a platform changes its limits, we update the page. The core limits — X at 280, Instagram at 2,200, Google Ads headlines at 30 — have been stable for years.
Is my text sent to a server?
No. Everything runs in your browser with JavaScript. Your text — drafts, ad copy, unreleased captions — never leaves your device.