Caption and title length limits for every platform (2026)
The character limit for every major platform, and the number that matters more: how much people see before "more".
All the limits in one table
| Where | Maximum | Shown before "more" (approx.) | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube title | 100 characters | About 70 in search results | Same limit for Shorts titles. |
| YouTube description | 5,000 characters | About 150 | Add more than 60 hashtags and YouTube ignores all of them. The first 3 can show above the title. |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters | About 125 | 5 hashtags per post, rolling out since December 2025. |
| TikTok caption | 4,000 in the app, 2,200 through scheduling tools | About 100 | Hashtags and mentions count toward the limit. |
| X post | 280 characters | The whole post | For standard accounts. Premium subscribers can post longer. |
| LinkedIn post | 3,000 characters | About 210 | The cutoff varies by device. |
| Threads post | 500 characters | The whole post |
The number that matters more: the cutoff
Very few captions get close to the maximum. The limit that shapes how your post performs is the cutoff, the point where the app hides the rest behind "more". Most viewers only read what appears before it, so your first line has to do the work: say what the post is about and give people a reason to tap.
If you post the same caption to several apps, write the opening to fit the shortest cutoff, about 100 characters. One strong first line then works everywhere, and you can add longer detail below it.
How apps count characters
- Spaces and line breaks count. On Instagram, line breaks can also make the cutoff come sooner, because the preview shows only the first couple of lines.
- Emoji can count as more than one character on some platforms.
- X counts every link as 23 characters, however long or short the link is, and counts some characters, including emoji and many Asian scripts, as two.
- Hindi and other Indian scripts build many letters from several pieces, and some apps count each piece. A caption that looks short can count longer than you expect.
Our checker counts conservatively, so if it says a caption fits, it should fit. If a caption is right at the limit, treat it as over.
YouTube descriptions deserve their own plan
The first 150 or so characters of a YouTube description show up in search results and under your video. Use them to say plainly what the video covers, with the words people would search for. Put links, timestamps and credits further down.
Last checked September 2026. Platforms change their rules from time to time, so if something here doesn't match what you see in the app, trust the app and let us know.