Writing to Fit a Box
Every platform has a box. Some boxes are generous; others are brutally tight. Writing without knowing the limits means constantly editing after the fact — sometimes discovering that what took you 20 minutes to write simply will not fit.
This is a reference for the character and word limits that matter most in 2026. Bookmark it and check it before you write rather than after.
Social Media Platforms
X (formerly Twitter)
- Post: 280 characters (standard accounts), 25,000 characters (X Premium / Blue)
- Alt text for images: 1,000 characters
- Bio: 160 characters
- Display name: 50 characters
- Post: 3,000 characters
- Article body: 125,000 characters
- Headline: 220 characters
- About section: 2,600 characters
- Comment: 1,250 characters
- Connection request note: 300 characters
- Caption: 2,200 characters (but only the first 125 show before "more")
- Bio: 150 characters
- Comments: 2,200 characters
- Username: 30 characters
- Post: 63,206 characters (effectively no practical limit)
- Bio: 101 characters
- Page description: 255 characters
- Comment: 8,000 characters
TikTok
- Caption: 2,200 characters
- Bio: 80 characters
- Comment: 150 characters
YouTube
- Video title: 100 characters (first 70 show in search)
- Video description: 5,000 characters (first 157 show before "Show more")
- Comment: 10,000 characters
- Channel description: 1,000 characters
Writing and Publishing
Email subject lines:
- Gmail clips at approximately 70 characters on desktop
- Mobile clips at approximately 40 characters
- The recommendation: keep subject lines under 50 characters to be safe
SMS / Text messages:
- Standard SMS: 160 characters (Latin characters) or 70 characters (unicode / emoji)
- Longer messages are split into multiple SMS segments, each billed separately
- MMS allows longer text (and images)
Meta descriptions (SEO):
- Google displays approximately 155–160 characters
- Title tags: 50–60 characters
Google Ads:
- Responsive search ad headline: 30 characters
- Responsive search ad description: 90 characters
- You can create up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; Google tests combinations
Documents and Academic Writing
Word counts rather than character limits apply here:
- Twitter bio (for comparison): ~30 words
- Common blog post: 800–2,000 words
- Long-form SEO article: 2,000–4,000 words
- Short story: 1,000–7,500 words
- Novelette: 7,500–17,500 words
- Novella: 17,500–40,000 words
- Novel: 40,000–100,000+ words
- University essay (typical): 1,500–5,000 words
- Academic journal article: 4,000–8,000 words
App Store Listings
Apple App Store:
- App name: 30 characters
- Subtitle: 30 characters
- Description: 4,000 characters
- Keywords field: 100 characters
Google Play Store:
- App name: 50 characters
- Short description: 80 characters
- Full description: 4,000 characters
How to Use the Toobits Word Counter
Paste or type your text and see word count, character count (with and without spaces), sentence count, and paragraph count update in real time. Use it to hit a word count target for an essay, stay within a character limit for a social post, or check the density of a document before submitting. Your text never leaves your browser — nothing is stored or logged.