Social media character limits and posting rules
Character limits across the 15 platforms below run from Snapchat at 250 to Facebook at 63,206, a spread of roughly 253 times. Hashtag norms, link handling and the point where each feed cuts a post off differ just as widely, and those rules decide reach more often than the writing does.
Why this table stays current
These are not transcribed from anywhere. They are the rules Sheevook enforces when it writes a post, read straight out of the engine, so the reference and the product cannot disagree: a rule that changes here changes what the software does in the same commit. Last verified . Platforms do change limits without announcing it, so confirm any single figure before you build something expensive on it.
| Platform | Hard limit | Our recommendation | Hashtags | Links | Emoji | Fold | Publishing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | 280 | 71-100 | 0 to 1, woven into the text | In the first comment, not the post | Sparing | No truncation | Publishes |
| 3,000 | 1,200-1,900 | 3 to 5, at the end | In the post body | Sparing | 140 | Publishes | |
| 2,200 | 125-150 | 3 to 5, at the end | In the profile bio only | Sparing | 125 | Publishes with creative | |
| TikTok | 2,200 | 100-150 | 3 to 5, at the end | In the profile bio only | Sparing | 100 | Publishes with creative |
| 63,206 | 40-80 | 0 to 3, at the end | In the first comment, not the post | Moderate | 125 | Publishes | |
| YouTube | 5,000 | 1,200-3,000 | 3, at the end | In the description field | None | 60 | Publishes with creative |
| 40,000 | 300-1,200 | None. Tags read as spam here | In the post body | None | 300 | Publishes | |
| Threads | 500 | 50-280 | 0 to 1, at the end | In the post body | Moderate | No truncation | Publishes |
| Bluesky | 300 | 70-200 | 0 to 2, at the end | In the post body | Moderate | No truncation | Publishes |
| Discord | 2,000 | 120-600 | None. Tags read as spam here | In the post body | Moderate | No truncation | Publishes |
| Telegram | 4,096 | 300-800 | 0 to 2, at the end, all lower case | In the post body | Sparing | 120 | Publishes |
| 500 | 180-230 | 0 to 1, at the end | In the description field | Sparing | 100 | Publishes with creative | |
| Snapchat | 250 | 20-80 | 0 to 2, not used here | In the profile bio only | Moderate | No truncation | Prepare and export |
| Tumblr | 4,096 | 300-1,500 | 5 to 20, at the end, written as spaced phrases | In the post body | Sparing | No truncation | Publishes |
| Hacker News | 20,000 | 200-1,200 | None. Tags read as spam here | In the post body | None | 80 | Publishes |
Reading the columns.Hard limit is the platform’s own ceiling. Our recommendation is editorial, not a platform rule: it is the range we target because it performs, and you can ignore it without breaking anything. Fold is where the feed truncates a post and the reader has to choose to expand, which is why the first line carries more weight than the rest. Publishing describes what Sheevook can do on that platform, not what the platform permits in general.
Questions people ask about these limits
- What is the shortest character limit across social platforms?
- Snapchat has the tightest hard limit at 250 characters, and Facebook the most room at 63,206. That is roughly 253 times the difference from one end of a posting schedule to the other, which is why a single block of text cannot be the right length everywhere.
- Which platforms should not have hashtags?
- Hashtags are not used on Reddit, Discord, Hacker News. On those surfaces a tag does not organise anything, it just marks the post as imported from somewhere else, and on the discussion sites it reads as promotional. Tag counts and placement differ everywhere else too, so the norm is per platform rather than a single house style.
- Do any platforms reject an identical repost?
- Yes. X (Twitter) rejects an exact-duplicate post outright rather than simply showing it to fewer people. That is a hard failure rather than a soft penalty, so a recurring post there needs genuinely fresh copy on each run instead of the same text resubmitted.
- How current are these numbers?
- They are read directly from the rules this product enforces when it writes a post, and were last verified on 2026-07-21. That is the reason to prefer this table over a static article: the same file drives both the reference and the tailoring engine, so a rule that changes here changes what the product does in the same commit. Platforms still change limits without notice, so treat any single figure as worth confirming before you build something expensive on it.
Go deeper on one platform
Each platform has a guide covering how reach is actually decided there, what gets a post buried, and how to connect it. The table above is the summary; the guides are the reasoning.
Stop checking the table. Let the rules apply themselves.
Sheevook enforces every rule above automatically: write the idea once, and each platform gets a version already inside its limit, with the right tags and the link in the right place.