Platform limits at a glance
Every platform has different constraints. Some are hard limits enforced by the UI — your post is cut off or blocked entirely. Others are soft recommendations based on what performs best in algorithm ranking and user engagement. The table below covers both.
| Platform | Content type | Recommended | Hard limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twitter / X | Post | 71–100 chars | 280 chars |
| Post | 150–300 words | 3,000 chars (~500 words) | |
| Article | 1,500–2,000 words | 110,000 chars | |
| Caption | 138–150 chars | 2,200 chars | |
| Post | 40–80 words | 63,206 chars | |
| Subject line | 40–60 chars | No limit (truncated ~60 chars) | |
| Body | 200–300 words | No limit | |
| Blog post | Standard | 1,500–2,000 words | No limit |
| Blog post | Pillar / SEO | 2,500–4,000 words | No limit |
| YouTube | Video title | 60–70 chars | 100 chars |
| YouTube | Description | 150–300 words | 5,000 chars |
| TikTok | Caption | 100–150 chars | 2,200 chars |
| Meta Ads | Headline | 27 chars | 27 chars (truncated) |
| Meta Ads | Primary text | 125 chars | 125 chars (truncated) |
| SMS | Message | 160 chars | 160 chars (splits after) |
| Google Ads | Headline | 30 chars | 30 chars |
| Google Ads | Description | 90 chars | 90 chars |
Why platform limits affect performance
Hard limits are obvious — go over and the platform truncates your text or blocks the post. But soft limits are where most content underperforms.
LinkedIn posts over 3,000 characters get cut off with a “see more” break after roughly 210 characters on mobile. Most readers never tap it. The practical writing target for a LinkedIn post is 150–300 words — enough to make a point, short enough to read in full.
Twitter/X posts between 71 and 100 characters get 17% higher engagement on average than longer posts, according to platform data. The algorithm does not reward padding — it rewards clarity.
Email subject lines truncate at around 60 characters in most clients (Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook). On mobile, the cutoff is closer to 40 characters. If your subject line runs over, the most important words should come first.
Blog posts for SEO perform differently. Google tends to rank longer, more comprehensive content for competitive queries. A 1,500-word post covers a topic adequately. A 2,500–4,000-word pillar post — with clear structure, subheadings, and original analysis — tends to outrank shorter content for high-volume keywords.
Writing to the limit vs writing to the point
Hitting a platform's recommended word count should be a result of having enough to say — not a target you pad toward. The most common mistake is hitting the limit by adding sentences that don't add information.
A useful rule: write the content first, check the count second. If you're significantly under the recommendation, the content probably needs more substance. If you're over, cut the weakest sentences — usually the ones that restate something you just said.
For platforms with hard character limits (Twitter/X, Google Ads, SMS), write the message at full length first, then edit down. Compression almost always improves the copy.