Character Counter for Twitter

Character Counter for Twitter / X

Tweets on X (formerly Twitter) are capped at 280 characters. This counter shows your character count in real time and warns you the moment you exceed the limit, so you never see "your Tweet is too long" after you've finished typing. The remaining-character display is colour-coded — green while you have room, yellow at the last 10%, red the moment you go over.

What Counts Toward the 280-Character Limit?

• Letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation — each counts as 1 character
• Emoji — usually count as 2 characters each (most emoji are 2-byte Unicode)
• Links — Twitter wraps all URLs to a 23-character t.co short URL automatically, regardless of the original length
• @mentions and #hashtags — count as their actual length (including the @ or #)
• CJK characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) — count as 2 characters each (so you effectively get 140 CJK chars per tweet)

Twitter Threads — When to Split

If your message exceeds 280 characters, the best approach is a thread (multiple tweets in sequence). Use this character counter to break your draft into sensible chunks. Common patterns:

• Number each tweet: "1/", "2/", "3/" — costs 3-4 characters but signals a thread
• Leave room for context: each thread tweet should make some sense on its own
• End the last one with "🧵 end" or "/end" so readers know it's complete

Twitter Bio and Display Name Limits

• Display name: 50 characters
• Username (@handle): 15 characters max, letters/numbers/underscore only
• Bio: 160 characters
• Location: 30 characters
• Website URL field: 100 characters

Why Stay Just Under 280?

Engagement studies (Buffer, Sprout Social, HubSpot) consistently find tweets in the 71-100 character range get the highest engagement — they're easy to read at a glance and leave room for retweet comments. Use this counter to write tight, not just write under the limit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Twitter/X character limit?

280 characters for a standard tweet. Verified accounts (X Premium) can post tweets up to 25,000 characters since 2023, but anything beyond 280 gets a "Show more" cut in most timelines, so 280 is still the practical limit for engagement.

Do links count toward the 280 limit?

Yes, but at a fixed 23 characters regardless of the original URL length — Twitter auto-shortens via t.co. So a 100-character URL only "costs" 23.

How many characters is a tweet in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean?

CJK characters count as 2 each, so you get roughly 140 characters of CJK content per tweet. Mixed CJK + Latin text counts each script by its own rule.

Can I save my draft tweets here?

Yes and no. The counter runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded — but the text isn't saved between visits. Copy your tweet out before closing the page. For draft management, use Twitter/X's native drafts.