Social media caption character limits in 2026: every platform, with sources

Caption limits look like trivia until a post fails at 3 a.m. because a caption was 40 characters too long for one network. If you post the same video in several places, the limit that matters is the smallest one among the networks you use, and those limits differ by more than a factor of ten.

This page lists each platform's limits as its own documentation states them, checked on 6 November 2026. Where an official page gives a different number from what most blogs repeat, we say so. Where we couldn't confirm a figure from the platform itself, we label it.

The quick reference

The detail behind each row is below, along with the question that causes most cut-off captions: why a tool that posts for you can't always use the same length as the app.

Instagram caption limit

Meta's media reference for publishing gives the caption limit as 2,200 characters, 30 hashtags and 20 @mentions. The same limits apply to Reels, feed posts and carousels (carousel child items have no caption of their own).

The hashtag change

In December 2025 Instagram's @creators account announced, and Adam Mosseri, Instagram's head, echoed, that Instagram would gradually limit posts and Reels to five hashtags (reported by Social Media Today). When we checked, the developer reference still documented 30, and we couldn't find an Instagram Help Center page stating the new cap. In practice:

• Write for five. Choose the five hashtags that describe the post best and leave the rest out.
• Don't rely on 30 in a tool or template, even though the API documentation still lists it.

How much of the caption shows

Instagram truncates long captions behind a "more" link. The cut-off point depends on the screen and the post type, and Instagram doesn't publish a number, so put the important line first rather than counting characters.

TikTok caption limit

TikTok's Direct Post API accepts a caption (the title field) of up to 2,200 UTF-16 runes. In plain English text that's about 2,200 characters. Some emoji and characters outside the basic range take two units each, so a caption full of emoji fits fewer visible characters.

The TikTok app has allowed longer captions than the API for some time. Blogs quote 4,000 characters, dated variously to 2022, 2023 or 2024, but we couldn't confirm the current in-app figure from an official TikTok page. What this means for you:

• If you post in the app, you may be able to write longer captions than 2,200 characters.
• If you post through any tool, the API limit applies. A 3,000-character caption that works in the app will be rejected or cut when a scheduler posts it.

YouTube and YouTube Shorts title and description limits

Shorts use the same fields as every YouTube video. According to the Videos resource and YouTube Help:

• Title: up to 100 characters, and it can't contain < or >.
• Description: up to 5,000 bytes in the API reference (YouTube Help describes it as 5,000 characters). For tools, plan on bytes: plain English is one byte per character, but emoji and many non-Latin scripts take two to four bytes each, or more.
• Tags: up to 500 characters in total, commas included.

A title is required. Every other platform here can post a video with no text at all, but YouTube can't, so a cross-posting workflow needs a real title for YouTube, not the first 100 characters of an Instagram caption.

LinkedIn post character limit

LinkedIn's help page gives a post limit of 3,000 characters. If you post through LinkedIn's API, there's one more rule: the post text uses LinkedIn's little text format, in which reserved characters such as ( ) [ ] { } @ # and a few others must be escaped. Otherwise they aren't treated as plain text. If a LinkedIn post from a tool loses brackets or mentions, unescaped characters are the first thing to check.

X (Twitter) character limit

Accounts without a subscription can post 280 characters. X's Premium help page says subscribers can post up to 25,000 characters, and notes that X's own scheduler can't schedule those longer posts yet. For cross-posting, assume 280 unless you know the account has Premium, and turn long text into a thread.

Threads character limit

The Threads API overview limits a post's text to 500 characters. Text-only posts can also carry a text attachment of up to 10,000 characters, shown below the post; it can't be combined with a poll. For cross-posting, the 500-character post text is the limit to plan around.

Pinterest title and description limits

Pinterest's pin specs give:

• Title: up to 100 characters.
• Description: up to 800 characters.

Many guides still say 500 for the description; Pinterest's own page says 800.

Facebook and Bluesky

• Facebook: you'll often see 63,206 characters quoted. We couldn't find that or any other figure on an official Meta page, so we're not repeating it. In practice Facebook post text is long enough that the other platforms' limits are what constrain a cross-posted caption.
• Bluesky: the post lexicon, Bluesky's official schema, limits text to 300 graphemes and 3,000 bytes. Graphemes are what you see as single characters, so most emoji count as one.

Do hashtags, mentions and emojis count?

Yes. A hashtag or @mention is part of the caption text, so it counts toward the limit like any other text. Emojis count too, and how much depends on how the platform measures:

If a caption is close to a limit, test it with the emoji in place rather than counting by eye.

Why a scheduler cuts off captions the app accepts

Every tool that posts for you, Reelspan included, goes through the platform's official API. API limits aren't always the same as the app's:

• TikTok: the API limit is 2,200 UTF-16 units, below the in-app maximum.
• YouTube: the description limit is in bytes, so non-English captions hit it sooner than you'd expect.
• LinkedIn: unescaped special characters can break the text.
• X: anything over 280 characters needs Premium on the posting account, and X's own scheduler can't schedule those longer posts.

Know which limits your tool enforces, and how. In Reelspan you can set a separate caption per platform (for example a full caption for Instagram and a short one for X), and the AI caption writer works within each network's limit. A caption that is still too long for Instagram or TikTok is shortened to that network's limit rather than failing the post, so check the end of long captions.

Caption structures that fit every limit

The safest caption for cross-posting is one that degrades well: the first line works alone, and each extra line adds something without being essential. Three structures that do this:

Hook, point, ask. One line that makes someone stop, one line on what the video shows, and one question or instruction. It usually fits in 280 characters, so it works on X and Bluesky unchanged, and longer platforms get the same three lines.

Hook, then a short list. For tutorials and tips: the hook line, then three to five short points, one per line. Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok show line breaks, so the list stays readable. On X, keep only the hook and the link.

Title first, details after. For YouTube and Pinterest, where the title is a separate field: a plain, searchable title under 100 characters, and the caption from one of the structures above as the description.

Mistakes that cost characters

• Hashtag blocks. Thirty hashtags can take 400 characters or more. With Instagram's announced five-hashtag cap, most of them are wasted anyway.
• Repeated links. Most platforms don't make links in captions clickable (Instagram and TikTok don't), so a URL there is mostly dead weight. Put it where it works, such as your profile or the YouTube description.
• Emoji for decoration. Each one can cost two to four units on TikTok and YouTube. Use them where they replace words, not as bullets.
• Signatures and boilerplate. "Follow for more" lines add up across a long caption and rarely earn their space.

Checklist before you post

• Does the first line work on its own, under 280 characters?
• Is the full caption under 2,200 characters, counted with the emoji in it?
• At most five hashtags for Instagram?
• A separate YouTube title under 100 characters, with no < or >?
• Brackets and @ or # escaped if the text goes to LinkedIn through an API?
• Nothing important after the "more" cut-off?

A simple way to write one caption for every platform

1. Write the core in 280 characters or fewer. That fits everywhere, including X and Bluesky (300).
2. Add a line of context for LinkedIn and Instagram, staying under 2,200 so it also fits TikTok's API.
3. Pick five hashtags, not thirty.
4. Write a separate YouTube title, under 100 characters, that would make sense in search.
5. Check the emoji-heavy version against TikTok and YouTube, which measure in units and bytes.

If you also need the video itself to fit, our guides to video length limits and aspect ratios cover the other half of the spec. Our guide to posting one video to every platform covers the rest of the workflow.