Twitter (X) character counter
Type or paste your post and see how many of the 280 characters it uses, counted with the rules X publishes: links count as 23, emojis and CJK characters as 2. It runs in your browser.
Figures from the X developer documentation and the twitter-text configuration published by X, checked on 2 November 2026.
A post on X can contain up to 280 characters, counted by weight: most characters count 1, emojis and CJK characters count 2, and every link counts 23 characters whatever its length.
Links starting with http://, https:// or www., and common domains such as example.com, are counted as 23. X may detect other addresses too, so check its composer for the final count.
How X counts characters
These are the counting rules published in the X developer documentation and in X’s open-source twitter-text configuration.
| Limit | 280 characters per post |
|---|---|
| Latin, punctuation and common symbols | Count 1 each |
| Emojis | Count 2 each, whatever their complexity: skin tones and emojis joined with a zero-width joiner count 2 in total |
| CJK characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) | Count 2 each, so 140 fit in a post |
| Other Unicode | Count 2 by default |
| Unicode ranges counted 1 | U+0000 to U+10FF, U+2000 to U+200D, U+2010 to U+201F and U+2032 to U+2037. Everything else counts 2. |
| Links | Count 23 characters each, whatever their length, because X wraps links with its t.co shortener |
| Replies | Auto-populated @mentions at the start of a reply do not count. @mentions you add yourself count normally. |
| Media | Media attached through official clients counts 0 |
| Hashtags | Count normally: the # plus the tag text |
| Text encoding | Length is calculated on text normalized to Unicode NFC |
Good to know
- The count is a weighted length, not a number of letters: a post of 140 emojis or 140 Chinese characters already reaches 280.
- X recommends its open-source twitter-text library for exact counts in an app. This counter follows the same published weights and link length.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, read on the date shown. If a page and this one disagree, trust the platform’s page.
- X developer documentation: Counting CharactersChecked on 2 November 2026
- twitter-text, X open-source library: configuration v3.json (character weights)Checked on 2 November 2026
Character counter FAQ
What is the character limit on X (Twitter)?
280 characters per post, counted by weight: most characters count 1, while emojis and CJK characters count 2.
How does X count links?
Every link counts 23 characters, whatever its length, because X wraps links with its t.co shortener.
Do emojis count as one or two characters?
Two. Every emoji counts 2, including skin tone variants and emojis joined together, because the zero-width joiner adds nothing to the count.
Do images, hashtags and @mentions count?
Media attached through official clients counts 0 and hashtags count normally. Auto-populated @mentions at the start of a reply do not count, but @mentions you add yourself do.
Why can my count differ from X?
X detects links itself, sometimes in forms this counter does not recognise. Addresses starting with http://, https:// or www. and common domains are counted as 23 here. Check the composer of X for the final count when your post contains unusual addresses.
Does this counter send my text anywhere?
No. The text is counted in your browser and nothing is sent to Cascads or to any other server.
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