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Character Limits Cheat Sheet for Social, SEO, and Ads

· 4 min read

Current character limits for meta titles, descriptions, social posts, and ad copy, with practical trimming advice.

Search and metadata

Search results truncate by pixel width, so treat these as safe ceilings.

  • Meta title: 50–60 characters
  • Meta description: 140–160 characters
  • URL slug: under 60 characters
  • Image alt text: under 125 characters

Social and ads

Front-load the message; every platform truncates from the end.

  • X post: 280 characters
  • LinkedIn post before 'see more': ~210 characters
  • Instagram caption: 2,200 characters
  • Google search ad headline: 30 characters

Trimming method

Paste the line into the editor, watch the character count with and without spaces, then cut modifiers before you cut nouns and verbs.

Check your own draft

Open the free editor to see live word count, reading time, and keyword density.

Open the word counter