Character Counter for Bios and Posts
Type or paste your bio, caption or post and see how much room is left on eight different fields at once. Most counters treat every emoji as one character. Apps do not: a family emoji is five code points, a flag is two, and X weighs every emoji as two characters. This counter shows each of those numbers, so a bio that fits here fits in the app.
- Characters you see
- 70
- Code points
- 75
- UTF-16 units
- 82
- X weighted length
- 75
- Emoji
- 5
- Words
- 16
- Lines
- 3
Room left on each platform
| Field | Limit | Used | Left | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X postX weighted | 280 | 75 | 205 | Fits |
| X biocode points | 160 | 75 | 85 | Fits |
| Instagram biocode points | 150 | 75 | 75 | Fits |
| Instagram captioncode points | 2,200 | 75 | 2,125 | Fits |
| TikTok biocode points | 80 | 75 | 5 | Check in the app |
| WhatsApp Aboutcode points | 139 | 75 | 64 | Fits |
| Discord About Mecode points | 190 | 75 | 115 | Fits |
| YouTube channel descriptioncode points | 1,000 | 75 | 925 | Fits |
โCheck in the appโ means the text fits by code points but contains joined emoji (skin tones, families, flags). An app that counts UTF-16 units, as an HTML maxlength does, would see 82 characters.
Same text, four different lengths
Each row was counted by the tool above when this page was built. The gap between the first column and the rest is why a bio can look short and still be cut off.
| Text | Seen | Code points | UTF-16 | X weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good morningPlain words | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| ๐One simple emoji | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| ๐๐ฝEmoji with a skin tone | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐งFamily, joined with zero width joiners | 1 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| ๐ฎ๐ณCountry flag | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐Bold letters from a font generator | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| เคจเคฎเคธเฅเคคเฅHindi text | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| ใใใซใกใฏJapanese text | 5 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| https://www.bestemojis.com/A link | 27 | 27 | 27 | 23 |
The limits we use and where they come from
Only X publishes how it counts. The other platforms state a limit but not whether an emoji is one character or several, so for those the counter uses code points and flags anything uncertain.
| Field | Limit | How we count it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| X post | 280 | X weighted | X developer docs: emoji and CJK weigh 2, links weigh 23 |
| X bio | 160 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
| Instagram bio | 150 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
| TikTok bio | 80 | code points | Most guides say 80; a few report 160 since 2026, so we use the safer 80 |
| WhatsApp About | 139 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
| Discord About Me | 190 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
| YouTube channel description | 1,000 | code points | Platform limit as reported by several guides, October 2026 |
Why one emoji can use up seven characters
An emoji on your screen is often several characters underneath. ๐๐ฝ is the thumbs up glyph followed by a separate skin tone modifier, so two code points. ๐ฎ๐ณ is two regional indicator letters, I and N. ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ง is a man, a woman and a girl stitched together by two invisible zero width joiners, five code points in all, and eight units in the UTF-16 encoding that JavaScript and Java use. Plain ๐ is a single code point but still two UTF-16 units. A bio of twenty short words and five joined emoji can be thirty characters longer than it looks.
X counts differently from everyone else
X is the one platform that documents its rule, and the rule is unusual. Characters up to U+10FF weigh one: that covers Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and Thai. Every emoji weighs two, however many code points it is built from, so ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ง costs the same as ๐. Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters weigh two each, and so do the bold and cursive letters from font generators. Any link costs 23, whatever its real length, because X rewrites it through its t.co shortener. A post in Japanese therefore hits the 280 limit at 140 characters while the same length in Hindi does not, which is why the counter shows X separately.
What we could not confirm, and how the counter handles it
Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Discord and YouTube publish limits but not counting rules, and we would rather say so than guess. For those fields the counter uses code points, the same unit as the bio builders on this site, where ๐๐ฝ is two and ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ง is five. When your text fits by that count but would not if the app counted UTF-16 units (the unit an HTML maxlength attribute uses), the row says โCheck in the appโ instead of a green tick. That only happens when you are close to the limit and using joined emoji, which is exactly when it matters.
Trimming a bio that is a few characters over
Swap joined emoji for single ones first: ๐ instead of ๐๐ฝ saves one, a single ๐ช instead of ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ง saves four. Bold or cursive letters from a font generator look like ordinary letters but each one is a mathematical symbol outside the basic range, so on X every one of them weighs two; keep them to your name. Long divider lines made of symbols are the next biggest cost. Spaces and line breaks count everywhere, so two spaces after a full stop are worth removing too.
Bio ideas and symbols for each platformFancy text generatorSee the code points behind any emoji
Character counting questions
Does an emoji count as one character on Instagram?
Instagram does not publish its counting rule. A simple emoji like ๐ is one code point, which is how this counter and our Instagram bio builder count it. Toned and joined emoji are more: ๐๐ฝ is two and ๐จโ๐ฉโ๐ง is five. If you are within a few characters of 150, paste the bio into the app before relying on any counter.
Why does X say my post is longer than it looks?
X weighs every emoji, every Chinese, Japanese or Korean character and every bold or cursive font letter as two, and every link as 23. Latin, Hindi, Arabic and most other alphabets weigh one. A 200 character post with ten emoji and a link can already be past 280 on X. The X row in the table uses X's published weights.
Do spaces and line breaks count?
Yes, on every platform listed. A line break is one character, so a bio split over five lines spends four characters on the breaks alone. Trailing spaces you cannot see count as well.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The counting happens in your browser as you type, and nothing you paste leaves the page. Refreshing the page clears it.
Why does my TikTok bio allow a different number of characters?
TikTok has not published a single figure. Most guides give 80 characters, and some report that accounts gained 160 during 2026. We use 80 because a bio that fits 80 fits both. If your app accepts more, it is safe to use it.