Social media character limits and hashtag rules, platform by platform

The hard limit is the most a platform will accept. The number that matters more is how much shows before someone has to tap “more”, because that’s all most people read.

• Facebook: up to 63,206 characters. Posts under about 500 characters tend to do better, and only the first few lines show before “See more”. Hashtags are optional; 0–3 is plenty.
• Instagram: up to 2,200 characters per caption. Roughly the first 125 characters show before “more”, so the hook has to land there. Instagram now allows up to 5 hashtags per post; pick specific ones over generic tags.
• X: 280 characters per post for standard accounts, including hashtags and links. Premium subscribers can post longer, but most people still read the first 280. Use one hashtag at most.
• LinkedIn: up to 3,000 characters per post. Around the first two or three lines (about 200 characters) show before “see more”. Use 0–3 hashtags.
• TikTok: captions can run to thousands of characters, but the video is the content. Short captions with a few niche and local hashtags work best.
• YouTube Shorts: videos up to 3 minutes, though 15–60 seconds usually holds attention best. Titles up to 100 characters, with the keyword early; descriptions up to 5,000 characters. Three hashtags is plenty.
• Threads: up to 500 characters per post, and one topic tag.
• Google Business Profile posts: up to 1,500 characters; under 300 works best. No hashtags, and don’t put phone numbers in the text, as Google may reject the post. Use the action button (Call, Book, Learn more) instead.

Platforms change these limits from time to time. We last checked them in October 2026 and keep the Content Hub up to date, so posts it writes always fit.

On every platform, the text before the cut-off decides whether anyone reads the rest. Lead with the thing your customer cares about: the offer, the answer, the surprise. Save the background for after the fold.

A good test: cover everything but your first line. Would a stranger in Birkenhead or Chester stop scrolling for it? If not, rewrite it before you touch anything else.

Hashtags matter less than they used to. Platforms now work out what a post is about from the words, images and video themselves. A few specific tags still help, especially local ones such as #WirralFishing or #ChesterWeddings, but a wall of generic tags looks like spam and can work against you.

• Use tags a customer might actually follow or search.
• Mix one or two local tags with one or two about the topic.
• Never paste the same block of tags on every post and every platform.

Copying the same caption everywhere is the most common mistake we see. A 280-character X post, an Instagram caption with its hook in the first line, and a Google update with no hashtags are three different pieces of writing.

That’s exactly what our free Content Hub does: describe the post once, and it writes a version for each platform within its limits, with a live character count, and can post to all of them at once. It’s free to start, with no sign-up.