Social Media Character Counter
Count a post against every platform limit, with URLs and emoji counted the way each platform counts them.
About this tool
Counts a post against every major platform's limit at once, and shows where each one truncates it.
**Two things a plain character counter gets wrong.** X charges 23 characters for any URL however long it is, because every link is shortened — so a counter reporting the raw length says a post is over the limit when it fits with room to spare. And an emoji is one character to a reader and two to the UTF-16 counting these platforms use, so a post full of them costs twice what a naive count suggests.
**The truncation point matters more than the limit.** LinkedIn cuts a post at about 210 characters and adds "see more"; Instagram at 125. Almost nobody expands it. A post can be well inside the limit and still have its point hidden behind a link that most readers never press.
Common questions
Why does X count my URL as 23 characters?
Because every link posted there is rewritten to a fixed-length shortened URL, and the count is of that. A 200-character URL and a 20-character one cost exactly the same.
Why do emoji count as two?
Most of these platforms count UTF-16 code units, and an emoji outside the basic range takes two of them. A combined emoji — a flag, a family — can take several more. Bluesky counts graphemes instead, which is why its number differs.
Should I write to the truncation point or the limit?
Put everything that has to be read before the truncation point, then continue. A post cut at 210 characters is not a post limited to 210 — it is a post where the first 210 decide whether anyone reads the rest.
Do hashtags count towards the limit?
Everywhere, yes. On Instagram a block of thirty hashtags takes a meaningful share of the caption, which is one reason to put them in the first comment instead.