Social media character limits for every network (2026)
Every network cuts a caption off at a different point — 300 characters on Bluesky, 500 on Threads and Mastodon, 2,200 on Instagram and TikTok, 3,000 on LinkedIn, 63,000 on Facebook. Here's the complete 2026 table, plus the image and video limits that go with it.
These numbers aren't scraped from year-old blog posts: they're the exact values iHatePosting's composer validates against before every publish — the same table the product runs on. When a platform changes a limit, this page changes with it.
Character and image limits by network
| Network | Character limit | Max images | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,200 | 10 | Caption cap; up to 30 hashtags. Every post needs an image or video. | |
| 63,000 | 10 | Effectively no limit for social copy. | |
| 3,000 | 9 | Member posts. | |
| TikTok | 2,200 | 35 | Caption for videos and photo posts. |
| YouTube | 5,000 | — | Description cap — the title caps separately at 100 characters. |
| X | 280 | 4 | Links always count as 23 characters; links in X posts are on the Pro plan. |
| Threads | 500 | 10 | |
| Bluesky | 300 | 4 | |
| Mastodon | 500 | 4 | The fediverse default; your instance may allow more. |
| Telegram | 4,096 | 10 | Text posts. A caption on a photo, album, or video caps at 1,024. |
| Discord | 2,000 | 10 | Per message, via webhook. |
| Tumblr | 4,096 | 10 | One text block via Tumblr's modern (NPF) API. |
| Pinterest (coming soon) | 500 | 1 | Description cap; every Pin needs media. Coming soon on iHatePosting. |
| Google Business (coming soon) | 1,500 | 1 | Post summary. Coming soon on iHatePosting. |
The limits that actually bite
- Telegram's 4,096 characters only applies to text-only posts — attach a photo, album, or video and the caption caps at 1,024.
- YouTube's 5,000 characters is the description; the title is capped separately at 100 characters.
- On X, every link counts as a flat 23 characters, no matter how long the URL really is.
- Mastodon's 500 is the fediverse default — some instances allow more, but a cross-poster has to respect the floor or posts bounce on default servers.
- Instagram captions allow up to 30 hashtags — the 31st gets the whole post rejected.
Video limits by network
| Network | Max length | Max file size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 minutes | 1 GB | Published as a Reel. Carousel clips cap at 60 seconds / 100 MB; Stories at 60 seconds. | |
| 4 hours | 10 GB | Feed video. Reels cap at 90 seconds / 4 GB, 9:16 vertical. | |
| YouTube | 12 hours | 128 GB | Also takes WebM and AVI. Longer uploads need a verified channel. |
| TikTok | 10 minutes | 4 GB | |
| 30 minutes | 5 GB | ||
| Threads | 5 minutes | 1 GB | |
| Bluesky | 3 minutes | 100 MB | MP4 only. |
| Mastodon | — | 99 MB | mastodon.social's default cap; your instance may allow more. |
| Telegram | — | 50 MB | MP4 only. Videos inside albums cap at 20 MB. |
| Discord | — | 10 MB | Standard (unboosted) server cap. |
| Tumblr | — | — | Video posting is coming later; images publish today. |
Frequently asked questions
What happens if my caption is longer than a platform's limit?
Posting by hand, the platform rejects it. In a scheduler like iHatePosting, the composer counts against the tightest selected network as you type and flags exactly which network is over — so you tailor that one version instead of trimming the post everywhere.
Which network has the shortest character limit?
X, at 280 characters, then Bluesky at 300. At the long end, LinkedIn allows 3,000 and Facebook's 63,000 is effectively unlimited for social copy.
Do links count toward the character limit?
On X, every link counts as a flat 23 characters regardless of its real length. On the other networks a link's actual characters count toward the cap.
Are these limits the same for every account?
Mostly. Mastodon instances can raise the 500-character default, Discord's 10 MB file cap rises on boosted servers, and Telegram bot uploads cap at 50 MB — the table shows the safe floors a cross-poster has to assume.
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