{
  "name": "Platform character limits, with units and sources",
  "description": "Every published character limit WordBench tracks, with the unit each platform actually counts in (characters, graphemes, weighted units or UTF-8 bytes), a link to the platform's own documentation, and the date the figure was last checked.",
  "url": "https://wordbench.app/limits",
  "publisher": "WordBench",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "WordBench, https://wordbench.app/limits",
  "verified": "2026-07-23",
  "columns": [
    "id",
    "platform",
    "field",
    "limit",
    "unit",
    "note",
    "source_label",
    "source_url",
    "verified"
  ],
  "limits": [
    {
      "id": "x-post",
      "platform": "X (Twitter)",
      "field": "Post, free account",
      "limit": 280,
      "unit": "weighted units",
      "note": "X weights the count: Latin letters, digits and common punctuation cost 1, while every emoji and every CJK character costs 2. A link always costs 23 no matter how long it is.",
      "source_label": "Counting characters, X developer platform",
      "source_url": "https://docs.x.com/fundamentals/counting-characters",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "x-long",
      "platform": "X (Twitter)",
      "field": "Longer post, Premium",
      "limit": 25000,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Anyone can read a longer post but only a Premium subscriber can write one.",
      "source_label": "About different types of Posts, X Help Center",
      "source_url": "https://help.x.com/en/using-x/types-of-posts",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "instagram-bio",
      "platform": "Instagram",
      "field": "Profile bio",
      "limit": 150,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "The tightest field most people write in regularly, and the one where line breaks quietly eat your budget.",
      "source_label": "Add a bio to your Instagram profile, Instagram Help Center",
      "source_url": "https://help.instagram.com/728994388226960/",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "instagram-caption",
      "platform": "Instagram",
      "field": "Caption",
      "limit": 2200,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Meta documents 2,200 for Instagram ad captions, together with a maximum of 30 hashtags per caption. Only the first two lines or so are shown before the More link.",
      "source_label": "Ad Creative and Posts, Meta Marketing API",
      "source_url": "https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/guides/instagramads/ad_creative/v2.5",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "threads-post",
      "platform": "Threads",
      "field": "Post",
      "limit": 500,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Since September 2025 you can also attach up to 10,000 further characters of text to a post, which is read inside Threads rather than as a screenshot.",
      "source_label": "Introducing Threads, Meta newsroom",
      "source_url": "https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "bluesky-post",
      "platform": "Bluesky",
      "field": "Post",
      "limit": 300,
      "unit": "graphemes",
      "note": "The AT Protocol schema sets two ceilings on the same field: 300 graphemes and 3,000 UTF-8 bytes. A family emoji is one grapheme but 25 bytes, so heavy emoji use can hit the byte ceiling first.",
      "source_label": "app.bsky.feed.post lexicon, bluesky-social/atproto",
      "source_url": "https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/blob/main/lexicons/app/bsky/feed/post.json",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "linkedin-post",
      "platform": "LinkedIn",
      "field": "Post",
      "limit": 3000,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "The feed collapses a post after roughly the first three lines, so the opening matters far more than the ceiling.",
      "source_label": "Post and share updates, LinkedIn Help",
      "source_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a528176",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "youtube-title",
      "platform": "YouTube",
      "field": "Video title",
      "limit": 100,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "100 is the hard field limit. Search and suggested-video thumbnails clip the visible title well before that.",
      "source_label": "Edit video settings, YouTube Help",
      "source_url": "https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57404",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "youtube-description",
      "platform": "YouTube",
      "field": "Video description",
      "limit": 5000,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Only the first few lines appear above the Show more fold, so links and context belong at the top.",
      "source_label": "Edit video settings, YouTube Help",
      "source_url": "https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57404",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "sms-gsm7",
      "platform": "SMS",
      "field": "Single message, GSM-7",
      "limit": 160,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "GSM-7 packs each character into 7 bits, and an SMS payload is 1,120 bits, which is where 160 comes from.",
      "source_label": "How long can a message be, Twilio docs",
      "source_url": "https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-sms-character-limit",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "sms-ucs2",
      "platform": "SMS",
      "field": "Single message, UCS-2",
      "limit": 70,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "One emoji, curly quote or accented letter outside GSM-7 switches the whole message to 16-bit UCS-2 and drops the limit from 160 to 70.",
      "source_label": "How long can a message be, Twilio docs",
      "source_url": "https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-sms-character-limit",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "sms-gsm7-segment",
      "platform": "SMS",
      "field": "Per segment, GSM-7",
      "limit": 153,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Past 160 characters the message is split and each part gives up 7 characters to a User Data Header that tells the handset how to reassemble it.",
      "source_label": "How long can a message be, Twilio docs",
      "source_url": "https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-sms-character-limit",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "sms-ucs2-segment",
      "platform": "SMS",
      "field": "Per segment, UCS-2",
      "limit": 67,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Same header overhead, in 16-bit encoding: 70 drops to 67 per part. Each part is billed separately.",
      "source_label": "How long can a message be, Twilio docs",
      "source_url": "https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/what-sms-character-limit",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "google-ads-headline",
      "platform": "Google Ads",
      "field": "Responsive search ad headline",
      "limit": 30,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Every character in a double-width language such as Japanese, Korean or Chinese counts as two.",
      "source_label": "About responsive search ads, Google Ads Help",
      "source_url": "https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    },
    {
      "id": "google-ads-description",
      "platform": "Google Ads",
      "field": "Responsive search ad description",
      "limit": 90,
      "unit": "characters",
      "note": "Display paths alongside it are capped at 15 characters each.",
      "source_label": "About responsive search ads, Google Ads Help",
      "source_url": "https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791",
      "verified": "2026-07-23"
    }
  ]
}