---
title: "How each social network counts characters"
url: "https://get1post.com/data/text-counting-rules.md"
canonical_url: "https://get1post.com/data/text-counting-rules"
last_updated: "2026-10-23"
type: "reference"
summary: "The counting rule behind each network's text limit: X weights links and emoji, Bluesky counts what a reader sees, Threads counts emoji bytes."
related: ["https://get1post.com/tools/character-counter.md", "https://get1post.com/data/posting-limits.md"]
---

# How each social network counts characters

The counting rule behind each network's text limit: X weights links and emoji, Bluesky counts what a reader sees, Threads counts emoji bytes.

Networks do not count characters alike. X weights links at 23 and emoji at 2, Bluesky counts the characters a reader sees, Telegram counts UTF-16 units, Threads counts emoji by their UTF-8 bytes and Mastodon counts every link as 23. This page lists each rule, its limit and where the network states it.

**Counting rules and limits**

| Network | Limit | 1Post counts | The network says |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [X](https://get1post.com/platforms/x.md) | 280 | Weighted (links 23, emoji 2) | Most characters 1, emoji 2, CJK 2, every URL 23 ([source](https://docs.x.com/fundamentals/counting-characters), read 2026-10-22) |
| [Threads](https://get1post.com/platforms/threads.md) | 500 | Code points | Emoji are counted by their UTF-8 bytes ([source](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/threads/posts), read 2026-10-22) |
| [Telegram](https://get1post.com/platforms/telegram.md) | 4,096; captions 1,024 | UTF-16 units | 1 to 4096 characters after entity parsing ([source](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api), read 2026-10-22) |
| [Mastodon](https://get1post.com/platforms/mastodon.md) | 500 on the instance read | Code points | Each URL counts 23 characters; every instance sets its limit ([source](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/entities/Instance/), read 2026-10-22) |
| [Bluesky](https://get1post.com/platforms/bluesky.md) | 300 | Characters a reader sees | 1Post counts what a reader sees as one character |
| [LinkedIn](https://get1post.com/platforms/linkedin.md) | 3,000 | Code points | 1Post's check |
| [Instagram](https://get1post.com/platforms/instagram.md) | 2,200 | Code points | 1Post's check |

Try your own text with the [character counter](https://get1post.com/tools/character-counter.md).

## Questions

**Why does an emoji count differently across networks?**

X counts every emoji as 2, Threads counts the bytes of its encoding, and most others count it as one code point. The counter shows each result.

**What is a grapheme?**

The unit a reader sees as one character, such as a letter with an accent or a flag. Bluesky counts these. See the [glossary entry](https://get1post.com/glossary/grapheme.md).

## Sources

- [X developer docs: counting characters](https://docs.x.com/fundamentals/counting-characters), read 2026-10-22
- [Threads API: posts](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/threads/posts), read 2026-10-22
- [Telegram Bot API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api), read 2026-10-22
- [Mastodon documentation: Instance entity](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/entities/Instance/), read 2026-10-22

## Related

- [Free character counter for every social network](https://get1post.com/tools/character-counter.md)
- [Social media posting limits by network, dated](https://get1post.com/data/posting-limits.md)