Character limits for SEO and social media (2026)

Write too much and your title gets cut off in Google, your caption hides behind “more”. Write too little and you waste the space you have. This guide collects the most common character limits, explains why tools count differently, and shows how to check the length in seconds.

Limits for Google search results

Google has no fixed character limit for titles and descriptions. Snippets are cut by display width (about 600 pixels for a desktop title), so a wide “W” takes more room than an “i”. A practical rule of thumb:

• Title: about 50–60 characters.
• Meta description: about 120–160 characters; mobile often shows less.
• Put the main keyword and the most important information first, in case the end is cut.

Google may rewrite a title or description that does not match the page. Writing an accurate summary is the best way to keep your own wording.

Limits on social networks

Figures as of October 2026. Platforms change limits without notice, so check the counter in the composer when you need to be exact.

Why do tools give different counts?

• Emoji: many systems count computer code units (UTF-16), so one emoji may count as 2 and a family emoji even more. The 94 Tools counter counts what a reader sees: one emoji is 1.
• X has its own rules: emoji and Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters count as 2; every link counts as 23.
• Accents: a letter such as “é” can be stored as several combined codes. A good counter still counts it as 1.
• Line breaks: most platforms count each line break as a character.
• Words: are split by spaces. Chinese and Japanese do not use spaces, so rely on the character count instead.

Check the length in seconds

1. Open the word & character counter.
2. Paste your title, description or caption into the text box.
3. Watch Characters and Space-separated words update as you type, and compare with the table above.
4. Trim until it fits, then copy the text back.

Counting happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded, so unpublished drafts stay private.

Tips for writing to a limit

• Lead with the main point: the first sentence is what people see before tapping “more”.
• Cut filler words such as “really”, “very” and “in order to”.
• Move hashtags to the end and keep only relevant ones.
• Write one long version for LinkedIn or Facebook, then condense it to 280 characters for X instead of starting over.