The best time to post on social media varies dramatically by platform. According to Sprout Social’s 2025 study analyzing 2.7 billion engagements across 463,000 profiles, TikTok sees peak engagement during evening hours (5-9pm), while LinkedIn performs best during business hours (7am-2pm). Facebook and Instagram favor midday windows, and Sunday is consistently the worst day across most platforms.

This guide provides specific posting times for every major social platform based on real engagement data, not guesswork.

YouTube Community posts can contain over 7,700 characters of text, but only the first 288 characters appear before the “Read more” link. Poll options are limited to 65 characters each, while quiz answers allow up to 80 characters. Most importantly, as of 2023, YouTube removed the subscriber requirement, making the Community tab accessible to all eligible channels regardless of subscriber count.

This guide covers everything you need to know about YouTube Community post character limits, eligibility requirements, and best practices for maximum engagement.

YouTube Shorts descriptions have a 5,000-character limit, but only the first 100-125 characters appear in the preview feed. Strategic placement of keywords and hashtags in this visible portion is crucial for discoverability. Always include #Shorts to ensure your video appears in the dedicated Shorts feed.

This guide covers character limits, title optimization, hashtag strategy, and proven templates for maximizing engagement and reach on YouTube Shorts.

YouTube Shorts Character Limits Overview

YouTube Shorts use the same backend character limits as regular YouTube videos, but the mobile-first viewing experience means much less text appears on screen. Understanding what viewers actually see before clicking is essential for optimization.

TikTok isn’t just a social platform anymore, it’s a search engine. 40% of Gen Z now use TikTok for search instead of Google, and TikTok SEO demand increased 116% in 2024. With caption limits expanded to 4,000 characters and TikTok’s algorithm prioritizing search-optimized content, understanding caption SEO is critical for visibility.

This guide covers how TikTok search ranking works, the five factors that determine search visibility, and proven optimization strategies that increase views by 300-500%.

Instagram Reels captions allow up to 2,200 characters, but only about 55 characters appear in the initial preview before users must tap “…more” to expand. This creates a critical challenge for content creators: capturing attention in the first line while providing value in the full caption. The most significant change for 2026 is Instagram’s December 2025 announcement reducing the maximum hashtag limit from 30 to just 5 per post or Reel, fundamentally shifting how creators optimize for reach and discoverability.

Bluesky’s character limit is 300 characters per post, significantly shorter than Twitter/X’s current 280-character limit for free accounts. Your display name can be up to 64 characters, your bio 256 characters, and alt text for images supports up to 2,000 characters. Understanding these limits helps you craft effective posts on this growing decentralized social network.

This guide covers everything you need to know about Bluesky’s character restrictions, including how URLs are counted, profile limits, threading capabilities, and practical tips for staying within boundaries while maximizing engagement.

Mastodon’s default character limit is 500 characters per post, matching the original Twitter limit before its expansions. However, what makes Mastodon unique in the social media landscape is that these limits are not universal across the platform. Unlike centralized networks where everyone follows the same rules, Mastodon operates as a federated network where each instance can set its own character limits, with some allowing 11,000 characters or more.

This guide covers everything you need to know about Mastodon character limits, including default restrictions, instance variations, how links are counted, and the platform’s generous accessibility features. Whether you’re new to the Fediverse or choosing an instance, understanding these limits helps you make informed decisions about where to create your account.

Twitch enforces specific character limits across different platform features to maintain readability and consistency. Your bio is limited to 300 characters, chat messages to 500 characters, and stream titles to 140 characters. Understanding these limits helps you craft effective profiles, engage with viewers efficiently, and optimize your channel for discovery. Whether you’re setting up your first stream or refining your established channel, knowing exactly how many characters you have to work with ensures your content displays correctly without getting cut off.

Telegram offers one of the most generous character limits among messaging platforms, with a standard message limit of 4,096 characters for all users. This allows for detailed conversations, long-form content sharing, and comprehensive communication without breaking messages into multiple parts. Premium subscribers receive additional benefits including expanded caption limits, longer bios with link support, and significantly increased story text capacity.

This guide covers all Telegram character limits across messages, captions, profiles, groups, channels, polls, and stories, with a detailed comparison of free versus Premium user benefits.

Reddit enforces different character limits across its platform: post titles are capped at 300 characters, text post bodies allow up to 40,000 characters, and comments max out at 10,000 characters. Understanding these limits helps you craft engaging content that reaches your audience without running into posting errors. Whether you’re sharing a quick observation or writing a detailed guide, knowing Reddit’s boundaries ensures your contributions get published successfully.

This guide covers all Reddit character limits including posts, comments, usernames, bios, and subreddit configurations, plus formatting tips to maximize your content within these constraints.

Snapchat enforces specific character limits across usernames, display names, captions, and ads to keep content concise and visually engaging. Usernames are restricted to 3-15 characters and can only be changed once per year, while display names allow up to 30 characters with unlimited changes. Snap captions typically support around 80 characters, though Snapchat doesn’t publish official documentation for all limits. Understanding these constraints helps you craft effective messages, choose memorable usernames, and create ads that comply with platform specifications.

Discord’s standard message character limit is 2,000 characters, which doubles to 4,000 characters for Nitro subscribers. With over 200 million monthly active users, Discord has become the primary communication platform for gaming communities, professional teams, and hobby groups. Understanding these limits is essential for community managers, bot developers, and anyone who frequently communicates on the platform.

This guide covers message limits for free and premium accounts, profile and username restrictions, server configuration boundaries, embed limits for bot developers, and practical strategies for working within Discord’s character constraints.

The optimal email subject line length is 36-50 characters for the best open rates. Research shows personalized subject lines achieve 30.5% higher open rates (Backlinko), and 47% of recipients open emails based on subject line alone. Different email clients display varying amounts—iPhone Mail shows ~40 characters, Gmail app shows ~37, Android shows 33-43, and Desktop Gmail shows ~70. Writing subject lines that work across all devices means front-loading your message in the first 37 characters.

WhatsApp personal messages support up to 65,536 characters, giving you essentially unlimited text space for conversations. However, WhatsApp Business API messages are more restricted, with template messages capped at 1,024 characters for the body and marketing messages now truncated to just 5 lines with a “Read more” prompt. Understanding these different limits is crucial for both personal and business communication.

This guide covers all WhatsApp text limits for personal accounts, business accounts, and API messaging.

A single SMS message supports 160 characters using standard GSM-7 encoding, but this drops to just 70 characters when you include emojis, special characters, or non-English text that requires Unicode. CRITICAL: One emoji forces the entire message into Unicode, reducing the limit from 160 to 70 characters. Extended characters like ^ { } [ ] ~ \ and the euro sign count as 2 characters each. iMessage has no limit (internet-based) but falls back to SMS for non-Apple devices.

Threads posts have a 500 character limit for the main text, with replies also capped at 500 characters. However, the platform introduced text attachments in September 2025 that allow up to 10,000 characters—displayed as a separate expandable section that doesn’t count toward your main 500. The key advantage: Threads’ 10,000-character text attachments are FREE, unlike X Premium’s 25,000-character posts which require a paid subscription. This positions Threads as a compelling alternative for long-form content.

Pinterest pin descriptions allow up to 500 characters, but only the first 50-60 characters are visible in the feed. Pin titles support 100 characters, and board titles are limited to 50 characters (with 30-35 visible). Unlike other social platforms, Pinterest functions primarily as a visual search engine, making keyword optimization more important than hashtags.

This guide covers all Pinterest text limits with strategies for search-optimized pins.

Pinterest Character Limits Overview

Research: Viral pins average 220-232 characters in descriptions (Tailwind study of 1M+ pins).

Hashtag limits and optimal usage vary significantly by platform—Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags but Instagram officially recommends 3-5 (though data shows 20-30 can work), while Twitter engagement peaks with just 1-2 hashtags (21% more engagement than 3+). Posts with hashtags on Instagram see 29% more engagement. Every hashtag counts toward your character limit (including the # symbol), so strategic selection matters for both reach and available caption space.

This guide covers hashtag limits, optimal numbers, and character considerations for every major platform.

Optimal post length and maximum character limits are often very different. Research shows Twitter posts of 71-100 characters get the highest engagement despite the 280-character limit, while Facebook posts under 80 characters see 66% higher engagement than longer posts. LinkedIn breaks the pattern—posts of 1,800-2,100 characters outperform shorter content. This guide presents the data behind optimal lengths for each major platform.

The Key Distinction: Limit vs. Optimal

What Platforms Allow vs. What Works

Key insight: Except for LinkedIn, shorter posts consistently outperform longer ones despite generous character limits.

Social media character limits vary dramatically by platform—from Twitter/X’s 280 characters (or 25,000 for Premium) to Facebook’s massive 63,206 character posts. This comprehensive comparison chart covers every major platform’s limits for 2026, including posts, bios, comments, and optimal lengths for engagement. Bookmark this page as your go-to reference for social media text limits.

Master Comparison Chart: All Platforms

Posts/Main Content

Bios/Profile Summaries

Comments

Direct Messages

Platform-by-Platform Quick Reference

Twitter/X

Key detail: Links always count as 23 characters regardless of length

YouTube video titles allow 100 characters but truncate around 70 in search results, descriptions accept up to 5,000 characters with the first 125-157 visible in snippets, and tags have a total limit of 500 characters. Understanding where truncation happens—and what viewers actually see—is essential for optimizing your content for both clicks and search discovery.

This comprehensive guide covers all YouTube text limits with SEO-focused optimization strategies.

YouTube Character Limits Overview

Title Optimization (100 Characters)

Title Character Limits

Maximum: 100 characters Search display: ~70 characters before truncation Mobile display: May be even shorter

TikTok captions now support up to 4,000 characters (expanded from the original 300 to 2,200, then to 4,000 for SEO optimization), your bio is limited to 80-160 characters, and comments max out at 150 characters. With TikTok increasingly functioning as a search engine—40% of young users prefer it over Google for local searches—understanding these limits helps you optimize for both engagement and discoverability.

This comprehensive guide covers all TikTok text limits and strategies for the platform’s evolving landscape.

Facebook posts have a massive 63,206 character limit, but optimal engagement happens with much shorter posts of 40-80 characters. Your personal bio is limited to 101 characters, and Page descriptions get 155 characters. Facebook ad copy has separate limits: headlines should be 25-40 characters and primary text should be under 125 characters visible. Understanding these limits—and the engagement sweet spots—helps you create content that actually gets seen.

This comprehensive guide covers all Facebook text limits for personal profiles, business pages, and advertising.

LinkedIn posts have a 3,000 character limit (expanded from 1,300), headlines allow 220 characters, and the About section accepts up to 2,600 characters. Unlike most platforms where shorter performs better, LinkedIn rewards longer-form content—posts of 1,800-2,100 characters see the highest engagement. Understanding these limits and optimal lengths helps you maximize professional visibility on the platform.

This comprehensive guide covers all LinkedIn text limits with strategies for professional engagement.

LinkedIn Character Limits Overview

Note: LinkedIn post limit increased from 1,300 to 3,000 characters. First 200-210 characters are visible before “see more” truncation.

Twitter/X has a 280 character limit for standard users and a 25,000 character limit for Premium subscribers. Your bio is limited to 160 characters, display name to 50 characters, and username to 15 characters. Links always count as exactly 23 characters regardless of actual length. For optimal engagement, research shows tweets of 71-100 characters perform best, though longer tweets (240-259 characters) also see higher engagement.

This comprehensive guide covers all X character limits and strategies for maximizing engagement.

Instagram captions have a 2,200 character limit, but only the first 125 characters appear before the “…more” cutoff on feed posts. Your Instagram bio is limited to 150 characters, and you can use up to 30 hashtags per post (though Instagram recommends 3-5). Understanding these limits—and the optimal lengths for engagement—helps you maximize every character on the platform.

This comprehensive guide covers all Instagram text limits with strategies for optimal engagement.