Character Limits.
The limits you hit, the ones that surprise you, and the ones your CMS quietly enforces. Current as of 2026, updated when platforms change.
ReferenceSocialSEOAds
§ How to read this
Hard limits vs. soft limits.
Some limits are hard — the platform rejects your input past the ceiling. Twitter’s 280, Google Ads’ 30-char headline, SMS’ 160.
Others are soft — the field accepts more, but only part is displayed. Meta descriptions allow longer text but Google truncates around 160 on desktop and 120 on mobile. A subject line can run past 78 chars, but Gmail’s preview cuts it at ~60.
Where a limit has a nuance (emoji count as 2, concatenated SMS, mobile vs desktop), we’ve added a note.
§ Social
| Platform | Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| X / Twitter | Post (Basic) | 280 | Premium: 25,000 |
| Post | 3,000 | — | |
| Article headline | 150 | — | |
| Caption | 2,200 | — | |
| Bio | 150 | — | |
| Post | 63,206 | Practical ceiling: 477 chars visible | |
| Bluesky | Post | 300 | — |
§ Messaging
| Platform | Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMS | Single (GSM-7) | 160 | — |
| SMS | Single (UCS-2, emoji) | 70 | — |
| SMS | Concatenated (GSM-7) | 153 per segment | — |
| iOS push | Notification | 178 | — |
| Android push | Notification | 240 | — |
| Status | 700 | — |
§ SEO
| Platform | Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title tag | 60 | ~580px — varies by character width | |
| Meta description | 160 | Mobile: ~120 | |
| URL slug | 60 | Soft recommendation | |
| Open Graph | og:title | 60 | — |
| Open Graph | og:description | 200 | — |
§ Video
| Platform | Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Title | 100 | — |
| YouTube | Description | 5,000 | — |
| YouTube | Tag | 500 | — |
| TikTok | Caption | 2,200 | — |
| TikTok | Bio | 80 | — |
§ Ads & email
| Platform | Field | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Headline | 30 | — |
| Google Ads | Description | 90 | — |
| Meta Ads | Primary text | 125 | Recommended; hard limit 3000 |
| Subject line | 78 | Gmail truncates: ~60 chars | |
| Preheader | 100 | — |
Count against any limit, live
Paste your text into our Character Counter and watch each platform meter fill in real time.
Platform limits drift. Something looks wrong? Tell us and we’ll update.