Free Tool
Social Media Caption Counter
A caption that is too long gets cut off mid-sentence — on some platforms, without warning. Paste your caption and this counter gives you the character count, the word count and the hashtag count, with each platform's published limit alongside for reference.
Estimates and scenarios for planning purposes only — not financial advice. The results on this page are built from the numbers you enter. They are planning aids, not predictions, and not financial, tax or legal advice. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
What this tool does
The counts are exact: characters include spaces and punctuation, words are split on whitespace, and hashtags are counted as words starting with #. The platform limits are shown as reference text, dated 14 November 2026: Instagram captions allow 2,200 characters, X posts 280 characters, Facebook posts 63,206 characters, LinkedIn posts 3,000 characters, TikTok video captions 2,200 characters (photo descriptions allow 4,000), and YouTube descriptions 5,000 characters. They are published reference figures, not live data from the platforms — limits change, and this tool does not check them against any API. Always check the platform's current help page before you rely on a limit.
Empty input is not an error: an empty caption has zero characters, zero words and zero hashtags, and the counter says so. That matters, because the counter's job is to count, not to scold.
Try it
Waiting. Paste a caption and press Count caption.
Platform limits shown for reference (as published on 14 November 2026 — platforms change them; check the platform's current help page):
- Instagram caption: 2,200 characters
- X post: 280 characters
- Facebook post: 63,206 characters
- LinkedIn post: 3,000 characters
- TikTok video caption: 2,200 characters (photo description: 4,000)
- YouTube description: 5,000 characters
How it works
Characters are counted exactly as typed, including spaces and punctuation. Words are counted by splitting on whitespace. Hashtags are counted as words starting with #, followed by at least one character that is not a space or another #. 'Remaining' for each platform is that platform's reference limit minus your character count — a negative number means you are over the limit.
The limits are reference text dated 14 November 2026. They are not fetched from the platforms, and they are not checked live — platforms change their limits without notice, and a figure that was right last month can be wrong today.
Assumptions and limitations
- The counter measures length, not quality. A caption under the limit can still be cut off in a feed preview, because feeds show only the first lines before a 'more' link — length and visibility are different things.
- Some platforms count characters differently — links, emoji and mentions can count as more than one character, or be shortened before counting. The count here is of the text you pasted, exactly as typed.
- An empty caption returns zeros, not an error. The tool counts; it does not judge whether an empty caption is a good idea.
Worked example
Example: the caption 'Hello world #test' has 17 characters, 3 words and 1 hashtag. Against the reference limits dated 14 November 2026, that leaves 2,183 characters on Instagram and 263 on X.
Frequently asked questions
Which limit matters for my post?
The limit of the platform you are posting to. Instagram allows 2,200 characters for a caption; X allows 280 for a post. The counter shows the remaining characters for each, so you can check the one that matters.
Are these limits current?
They are the limits as published on 14 November 2026. Platforms change them, and this tool does not check them live — confirm the current limit in the platform's own help pages before you rely on it.
Why does my caption get cut off even when it is under the limit?
Because feeds show a preview — usually the first two or three lines — before a 'more' link. The full caption is there, but the reader has to tap to see it. Put the important part first.
Do hashtags count towards the character limit?
Yes, on the platforms listed here: a hashtag is part of the caption text. The counter counts them both as characters and separately as hashtags, so you can see both numbers.
What does an empty result mean?
An empty caption has zero characters, zero words and zero hashtags. That is a valid result, not an error — the counter counts what is there.