Social Media Character Limits 2026: Every Platform, One Page

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Social Media Character Limits 2026 - Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube and more
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Last checked: August 2026. Platforms change these limits without much notice — if you spot one that’s out of date, let us know and we’ll fix it.

Every major platform sets its own character limits. Bios, posts, usernames, and comments each get a different number. Most platforms enforce several limits on one page at once. We kept needing this exact answer while building our own Word & Character Counter. We couldn’t find one clean page with every platform in one place. So we built it.

How We Checked These Numbers

Each limit below was checked against the platform’s own current behavior. We cross-checked every number against multiple independent sources, not just one blog post. Some limits vary by account type, region, or feature rollout. Where that’s true, we say so directly instead of picking one number and hiding the uncertainty. This page gets rechecked on a schedule, not written once and left to go stale. The date at the top tells you exactly when we last checked.

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Instagram

Instagram’s bio field is small on purpose. It’s meant to be a one-line pitch, not a paragraph. Captions are far more generous, but almost nobody sees past the first two lines. Most readers tap away before reaching “…more.” That makes the real limit that matters for engagement closer to 125 characters than the full 2,200.

FieldLimit
Bio150 characters
Caption2,200 characters (only ~125 shown before “…more”)
Username30 characters
Direct message1,000 characters
Note60 characters
Hashtags per caption30 maximum — a 31st hashtag gets the whole caption rejected
✖️

X (Twitter)

Most people already know the 280-character post limit. Two smaller details trip people up more often. Every link counts as exactly 23 characters, no matter how long the real URL is. Every emoji counts as 2 characters instead of 1, since X measures in raw code units, not visible symbols. Premium subscribers get a much larger ceiling, up to 25,000 characters for long-form posts.

FieldLimit
Post (free account)280 characters
Post (Premium)25,000 characters
Bio160 characters
Username (@handle)4–15 characters
Display name50 characters
Direct message10,000 characters
🎵

TikTok

TikTok’s bio limit is the tightest on this list. Most accounts get just 80 characters. TikTok has been quietly testing longer bios for some users, up to 120–180 characters. So don’t be surprised if yours looks different from a friend’s. Captions have grown a lot over the years, from 300 characters up to as much as 4,000. Even so, the feed only shows the first 100–150 before cutting you off.

FieldLimit
Bio80 characters (some accounts see 120–180 in a rollout)
Caption2,200–4,000 characters depending on the account (only ~100–150 shown before “more”)
Username24 characters
Display name30 characters
Comment150 characters
🎮

Discord

Discord splits identity into two fields, each with its own rules. Your permanent username stays lowercase, with no spaces allowed. Your display name is different — it allows spaces, symbols, and full Unicode styling. This is exactly why fancy Unicode text works so well for Discord display names, but not for the username field underneath it.

FieldLimit
Username2–32 characters (lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, periods only)
Display name / server nickname32 characters
About Me190 characters — the same for free and Nitro accounts
▶️

YouTube

Video titles have a hard 100-character cap. But search results and suggested-video tiles cut most titles off around 70 characters. This means the last third of a long title is usually wasted, on both desktop and mobile. Channel descriptions get a much smaller budget than video descriptions, just 1,000 characters. It’s easy to forget that when writing both on the same day.

FieldLimit
Video title100 characters (truncates around 70 in most views)
Video description5,000 characters (only ~157 shown on desktop before “Show more”)
Channel description1,000 characters
Comment / reply10,000 characters, shared between a comment and its replies
Community post5,000 characters
👍

Facebook

Facebook’s personal-profile bio is unusually short, just 101 characters. That’s noticeably tighter than a Facebook Page’s short description, which gets 255. Posts themselves allow over 63,000 characters. But the feed truncates almost everything past 480 characters behind a “See More” link. Long posts rarely get read in full anyway.

FieldLimit
Profile bio101 characters
Page short description255 characters
Post63,206 characters (feed truncates around 480)
Page name75 characters
Comment8,000 characters
💼

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s About section looks generous, at 2,600 characters. But only the first ~300 show on desktop, and closer to 200 on mobile, before readers have to click “See more.” Most never do. The headline field is prime real estate. It shows up everywhere your name appears, not just on your profile page.

FieldLimit
Headline220 characters
About section2,600 characters (~300 shown before “See more”)
Post3,000 characters (~200 shown before the fold)
Comment1,250 characters
Connection request note300 characters
📌

Pinterest

Pin descriptions allow up to 500 characters. But the feed only shows the first 50–60 before it’s cut off. That means your first sentence is doing almost all the work. Board names are capped tightly at 50 characters, with only 30–35 visible in most layouts.

FieldLimit
Bio160 characters
Pin title100 characters
Pin description500 characters (first 50–60 shown in feed)
Board name50 characters
Board description500 characters
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Threads

Threads shares its bio directly with Instagram. Editing one edits the other. Unlike X, Threads does not shorten links. Paste a long URL into a post and it eats into your 500-character limit at its full, real length. That catches a lot of people off guard the first time.

FieldLimit
Post, reply, or quote500 characters
Text attachment10,000 characters
Bio150 characters (shared from your Instagram profile)
👻

Snapchat

Snapchat keeps identity simple. There’s a short, permanent-feeling username, and a display name your friends actually see. The catch: usernames can only be changed once every 12 months. It’s worth testing a name in a preview tool before you commit to it for a year.

FieldLimit
Username3–15 characters
Display name30 characters
👽

Reddit

Reddit’s profile bio is quietly one of the more generous limits on this page, at 200 characters. Most people never notice it, since Reddit culture builds a presence through posts and comments, not profile pages. Text posts can run extremely long here, up to 40,000 characters, which is unusual among the platforms on this page.

FieldLimit
Username20 characters
Display name30 characters
Profile bio200 characters
Post title300 characters
Text post40,000 characters
Comment10,000 characters

Quick Comparison: Bio and Username Limits

If you only need one number per platform, this is the table to bookmark. Bio limits range nearly 30-fold across platforms, from TikTok’s tight 80 characters to LinkedIn’s generous 2,600.

PlatformBio LimitUsername Limit
Instagram15030
X (Twitter)1604–15
TikTok8024
Discord190 (About Me)32
Facebook101
LinkedIn2,600 (About)
Pinterest160
Threads150
Snapchat3–15
Reddit20020

Why Character Counts Don’t Always Match What You’d Expect

A “character” is not always one keystroke, and this trips up more people than any single platform limit does. Emoji often count as 2 characters instead of 1, since most platforms measure length in UTF-16 code units, not visible symbols on screen. A single flag emoji or a skin-tone-modified emoji can silently cost you 4 characters instead of 1.

Styled Unicode text — the kind our own tools generate — counts the same way plain text does, one character per letter. Switching a word to bold, cursive, or gothic style never costs you extra room, since each styled letter is still just one Unicode character underneath.

Links behave differently across platforms too. X shortens every link to exactly 23 characters through its own service, no matter the real length. Threads does the opposite and counts a link at its full, real length. Knowing which rule applies before you paste a long URL into a tight bio saves a frustrating rewrite.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do emoji really count as more than one character?

Yes, on most platforms. A typical emoji counts as 2 characters because of how Unicode encodes it internally, even though it looks like one symbol on screen. More complex emoji, like a family emoji built from several people joined together, can count as far more than 2.

Does fancy or styled text use up more of my character limit?

No. A styled Unicode letter, like the ones our tools generate, still counts as exactly one character, the same as a plain letter. You lose no extra room by styling your text.

Why does my bio look shorter on mobile than desktop?

Some platforms show fewer characters before truncating on a smaller screen, even though the underlying limit is the same. LinkedIn’s About section is a clear example — around 300 characters show on desktop, but only about 200 on mobile before “See more” appears.

How often do these limits actually change?

Rarely, but not never. Bio and caption limits have quietly expanded on several platforms over the past few years, usually rolled out to a portion of accounts before going fully public. That is why we date this page and recheck it, rather than treat it as fixed forever.

Check Your Own Text Against These Limits

Reading a table is one thing — knowing whether your actual bio fits is another. Our Word & Character Counter checks your text live against the Instagram Bio, X/Twitter Post, TikTok Bio, Discord Username, Discord About Me, and YouTube Description limits above as you type, so you know before you post instead of after it gets cut off.

Open the Word & Character Counter →

About the Founder
Iqbal Hossen Juel

Iqbal Hossen Juel

Creator & Developer

Iqbal Hossen Juel is the creator and developer of TheTextGenerators.com, a free suite of 65+ Unicode text-styling tools used for social media bios, usernames, and creative typography.

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