What is the Instagram caption character limit?

2,200 characters, counting spaces, emoji, hashtags and @mentions. A long caption is hidden behind a more link in the feed, so put the point of the post at the very start. Since December 2025 Instagram has also been limiting captions on posts and reels to five hashtags.

How many hashtags can you use on Instagram in 2026?

Five per post or reel. Instagram began cutting the allowance from 30 to five in December 2025, saying a few specific hashtags perform better than a long list of generic ones. Hashtags still help people find posts in search, but Adam Mosseri has said they don't increase reach.

What is the character limit on X (Twitter)?

280 characters on a free account and up to 25,000 on any paid Premium tier, Basic included. X weights some characters: each emoji and each Chinese, Japanese or Korean character counts as two, and every link counts as 23 characters regardless of how long the URL really is.

What is the LinkedIn character limit for posts and profiles?

Posts allow 3,000 characters, the profile headline 220 and the About section 2,600. Long posts are cut behind a see more link early, and LinkedIn's ad specs recommend 150 characters of introductory text to avoid truncation. For anything over 3,000 characters, LinkedIn suggests publishing an article instead.

How long can a TikTok caption be?

Up to 4,000 characters per post, according to TikTok's Creator Academy, up from the 2,200 that many older guides still quote. TikTok suggests using the extra room for storytelling and a variety of relevant keywords, which makes posts easier to find through TikTok search.

Instagram Caption Character Limit + Every Social Limit 2026

The short answer

An Instagram caption can be up to 2,200 characters, and since December 2025 it can carry no more than five hashtags. The other hard caps for 2026: X allows 280 characters, or 25,000 with Premium; Threads 500, plus a 10,000-character text attachment; LinkedIn 3,000; TikTok 4,000; and Facebook about 63,206. Hardly anyone hits those ceilings. The number that decides whether people read your post is the much earlier point where each app hides the rest behind "more" — and the only official guidance on it, buried in Meta's and LinkedIn's ad specs, puts that at 125 to 150 characters.

Every limit in one table

All figures are characters, spaces and emoji included. A dash means the platform doesn't publish a number and current sources disagree, so we left it out rather than guess.

Platform	Post / caption	Bio	Username	Hashtags	Alt text	Cut before "more"
Instagram	2,200	150	30	5 per post	1,000	~125 (Meta ad spec)
X	280; 25,000 with Premium	160	15 (name 50)	Count toward 280	1,000	Long posts collapse
Threads	500 + 10,000 attachment	—	—	1 topic tag, 50 chars	—	—
LinkedIn	3,000	Headline 220, About 2,600	URL 3–100	—	—	~150 (LinkedIn ad spec)
Facebook	63,206	101	5 minimum	—	—	~125 (Meta ad spec)
TikTok	4,000	—	2–24 (name 30)	—	—	—

Why Instagram (and everyone else) cuts your caption off

No platform publishes where organic posts get truncated, because the cut depends largely on how many lines fit on screen, not on a fixed character count. It shifts with screen width, font size, line breaks and whether the post has media. The closest thing to an official number sits in the ad specs. Meta's guidance recommends 125 characters of primary text on Facebook and Instagram to limit truncation, says ad copy should span one to three lines at most, and warns it can be cut further on some placements and devices. LinkedIn's ad specs recommend 150 characters of introductory text to avoid truncation, out of a 3,000-character maximum.

It is the same problem as a meta description getting cut off in Google: the hard limit rarely bites, the visible window does. Treat the first 125 characters as the whole post for anyone scrolling, and everything after them as a bonus for the people who tap.

Instagram: 2,200 characters, now only five hashtags

The caption cap hasn't moved, and hashtags and @mentions sit inside it. What changed is the hashtag allowance. In December 2025 Instagram announced it would gradually reduce the number of hashtags allowed in a post or reel caption to five, down from the long-standing 30, arguing that a few specific tags perform better than a long generic list. Adam Mosseri added that hashtags help people find posts through search but don't increase reach. Be careful with older documentation: Meta's own Graph API reference still lists 30 hashtags per caption, so don't read a scheduling tool's 30-tag field as current.

The bio is 150 characters (per Instagram's help centre) and the username 30. Alt text for image posts can run to 1,000 characters through Meta's publishing API; the same rules as writing alt text for a website apply. There is no setting that raises the 2,200 cap, so if your copy won't fit, move the detail into carousel slides or a page you link from your bio.

X: 280 free, 25,000 with Premium

Free accounts get 280 characters per post. Every paid Premium tier, Basic included, unlocks longer posts of up to 25,000 characters, which everyone can read but only subscribers can write; in timelines they collapse behind "Show more". Two details catch people out. X counts weighted characters: its developer documentation says every emoji and every Chinese, Japanese or Korean character counts as two, and every link counts as 23 however long the URL. And X's help centre notes that accounts you mention after the first 280 characters of a long post aren't notified. Profile fields are tight: 15 characters for the @username, 50 for the display name and 160 for the bio.

Threads: 500 characters, one tag, and text attachments

A Threads post holds 500 characters. Since September 2025 Meta has let you attach up to 10,000 characters of text to a post, readable inside Threads, while the post itself can still carry a link — a better option than screenshotting a long note to get past the limit. Tags work differently too. Threads allows one topic tag per post, up to 50 characters; it can contain spaces and doesn't need a # symbol. When cross-posting an Instagram caption, pick the single tag that fits best.

Paste a draft into CheckSEO's Social Post Character Counter and see its live count against X, Threads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok limits at once, with each one flagged as you approach the cap and when you go over. It runs in your browser, so nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Count your caption for every platform

LinkedIn: 3,000 for posts, 220 for your headline

LinkedIn's help centre sets the post limit at 3,000 characters and suggests writing an article if you need more. On profiles, LinkedIn's Talent Blog gives the headline 220 characters and the About section 2,600, and its help centre allows a custom profile URL of 3 to 100 characters. The limit that shapes reach is the fold: beyond the 150-character ad recommendation, Hootsuite's 2026 post-length guide puts the cut behind "see more" at around 140 characters. The hook belongs in the first sentence.

Facebook: a huge cap you'll never reach

Meta doesn't publish a post limit in its help centre, but the figure third-party guides consistently report, including Hootsuite's 2026 guide, is 63,206 characters — room for a long essay. In practice a Facebook post is judged on its opening lines, and Meta's 125-character ad recommendation is the best available target. The profile intro under your name is capped at 101 characters, and Facebook's username rules require at least five characters, using only letters, numbers and periods.

TikTok: the caption limit is 4,000, not 2,200

TikTok raised captions from 2,200 to 4,000 characters, and its Creator Academy (updated July 2026) tells creators they can write up to 4,000 characters for each post, suggesting the room be used for storytelling and searchable keywords. Plenty of guides still quote 2,200. Usernames must be 2 to 24 characters and the display name can be up to 30, according to TikTok Support. The bio is the murky one: TikTok's help centre doesn't state a limit and creators report both 80 and 160, so check the field in your own app before planning a bio around either number.

One caption, six platforms: a quick checklist

Write the hook in the first 125 characters

That fits Meta's recommended primary-text length and LinkedIn's 150-character fold, so it has the best chance of showing before "more" on every platform.

Cut hashtags to the strictest platform

Five on Instagram, one topic tag on Threads. Put them at the end so they don't eat the visible opening.

Recount for X

Emoji count double and every link counts as 23, so a caption that fits 280 on a plain counter can still be over. On a long post, keep @mentions inside the first 280 characters.

Trim for Threads, not just X

At 500 characters Threads is the second-tightest post limit here. Move anything longer into a text attachment rather than a screenshot.

Check a caption against every limit

CheckSEO's Social Post Character Counter takes one draft and shows its live character count against X, Threads, LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok post limits plus Instagram's caption and bio caps, flagging each as you near or pass it. It counts plain characters in your browser, so leave a little headroom on X for links and emoji.

Social Media Character Limits 2026: Instagram, X, Threads, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok