Character Limits Cheat Sheet for Social Media & SEO
Drafting copy that gets abruptly truncated by a platform's UI ruins engagement. A Word & Character Counter is an essential part of any publisher's workflow. Here is the current cheat sheet for major platforms.
SEO Metadata Limits
Google does not technically measure by character count, but rather by pixel width (roughly 600px for desktop titles). However, character counts remain the safest rule of thumb.
- Title Tag: 55 - 60 characters. Exceeding this will result in Google appending an ellipsis (...).
- Meta Description: 155 - 160 characters. Mobile descriptions are often truncated even earlier, around 120 characters. Ensure your primary call-to-action is front-loaded.
Social Media Platforms
- X (Twitter): 280 characters.
- LinkedIn Post: 3,000 characters. However, LinkedIn truncates posts with a "See more" button after approximately 140 characters.
- Instagram Caption: 2,200 characters. Truncated at 125 characters in the feed.
- YouTube Title: 100 characters. Truncated around 70 characters on most devices.
- YouTube Description: 5,000 characters.
SMS & Email
- SMS Text Message: 160 characters. Exceeding this splits the message into multiple texts, which may cost more and arrive out of order depending on the carrier.
- Email Subject Line: Varies by client, but targeting 40-50 characters ensures visibility on mobile devices.