280 characters — where the limit comes from
Twitter launched with a 140-character ceiling inherited from SMS, then doubled it to 280 characters in November 2017, where it has stayed for standard accounts through the rebrand to X. Paying X Premium subscribers can post far longer text — documented at up to 25,000 characters as of writing — but long posts are collapsed in the feed, so even Premium writers usually treat the first 280 characters as the part that must earn the click.
X counts characters by weight, not one-by-one
The composer's counter is not a plain tally. Under X's documented weighted rules:
- Links cost a flat 23 characters. Every URL is wrapped in the t.co shortener, so a 200-character link and a 15-character link both deduct 23. Pre-shortening your URL saves nothing.
- Most emoji count as 2, even ones that look like a single symbol.
- Many non-Latin characters count as 2 — Chinese, Japanese and Korean among them — which is why a "140-character" Japanese post fills the whole limit.
- Ordinary Latin letters, digits, punctuation and spaces count as 1, matching a plain counter exactly.
This page shows plain Unicode character counts. For English text without links or emoji, the 280 bar tracks X's own counter almost exactly; for posts with links or emoji, budget the difference (one link = 23, each emoji ≈ 2) or keep a small safety margin.
Editing a post down to 280
The fastest cuts, in order: delete throat-clearing openers ("I just wanted to say"), swap phrases for words ("in order to" → "to"), drop adverbs, and move detail into a reply rather than cramming it in. The stats above help — if the keyword panel shows the same word three times in one post, one of them is usually free to cut. Threads are the honest alternative to squeezing: a clean 240-character opener plus a reply reads better than a 280-character brick with no room to breathe.
Related tools
Writing for more than one platform? The Instagram caption counter pins the 2,200 limit, the character counter covers SMS and meta descriptions, and the full word counter adds sentences, reading time and keyword frequency. The sentence counter helps when a thread grows into a mini-essay.
Frequently asked questions
How many characters can an X (Twitter) post have?
The standard limit is 280 characters, in place since November 2017 when it doubled from the original 140. X Premium subscribers can publish much longer posts (documented at up to 25,000 characters at the time of writing), but for everyone else — and for how posts render in feeds — 280 remains the number that matters.
Why does X count my post differently than a plain character counter?
X uses weighted counting. Every link is counted as 23 characters regardless of its real length, most emoji count as 2, and many non-Latin characters (including Chinese, Japanese and Korean) also count as 2. Plain English text with no links or emoji matches a normal character count almost exactly; link- or emoji-heavy posts will hit X's limit sooner than this bar suggests.
Do links really always cost 23 characters?
Yes — X wraps every URL in its t.co shortener, and the documented cost is a flat 23 characters whether the original link was 15 characters or 200. Practical upshot: one link leaves you 257 characters for everything else, and shortening a URL yourself buys you nothing.
Is my draft post stored or sent anywhere by this tool?
No. This counter runs entirely in your browser with no network calls, so unpublished posts stay private. Refresh or close the tab and the text is gone.