Counting
How X counts characters: links, emoji and the 280 limit
How X's character counter works: weighted characters, 23 for every link, 2 for most emoji and CJK text, what Premium changes, and why your count can look off.
Short answer
X counts weighted characters against a 280 limit: most Latin letters, digits and punctuation count as 1, emoji and characters from scripts such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean count as 2, and every link counts as 23 regardless of its real length.
Key takeaways
- Standard posts allow 280 weighted characters; Premium subscribers can post up to 25,000.
- Every link costs 23 characters, because X wraps links with its t.co shortener.
- Most emoji, including ones with skin tones or joined sequences, count as 2.
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters count as 2 each, so those posts fit about 140 characters.
The character counter in X's composer is not a simple count. It uses weights, and links are replaced by a fixed length. Once you know the rules, the odd numbers in the counter make sense and you can plan posts that fit the first time.
What is the X character limit?
Standard posts have a limit of 280 weighted characters; X Premium subscribers can post up to 25,000 characters.
The 280 limit has applied since 2017, when X (then Twitter) doubled the old 140. Premium long posts show the first part on the timeline with a link to expand. Even with Premium, the first 280 characters do most of the work, because that is what people see while scrolling.
How does weighting work?
Each character has a weight of 1 or 2, and the total weight must be 280 or less.
The rules come from X's open-source twitter-text library, configuration version 3. Characters in these Unicode ranges weigh 1:
| Range | Covers |
|---|---|
| U+0000 to U+10FF | Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Indic scripts and more |
| U+2000 to U+200D | Spaces of different widths |
| U+2010 to U+201F | Hyphens, dashes and curly quotes |
| U+2032 to U+2037 | Prime marks |
Everything else weighs 2. In practice that means Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters cost 2 each, so a post in Japanese fits about 140 characters.
How are links counted?
Every link counts as 23 characters, whether the real URL is short or very long.
X wraps links with its t.co shortener, so it reserves a fixed 23 characters for each one. example.org costs 23. A 180-character tracking link also costs 23. Two links cost 46 before you have written a word. The counter recognizes links that start with http:// or https:// and also bare domains such as example.org/page.
This changes how you write. Shortening a URL yourself saves nothing on X. Removing a second link saves 23 characters, enough for a whole sentence.
How are emoji counted?
Most emoji count as 2, including emoji with skin tones, joined family sequences and flags.
The library treats a full emoji sequence as one unit. A thumbs-up with a skin tone modifier is two code points but counts as 2. A family emoji joined from several people with zero-width joiners also counts as 2. Flags made from two regional indicator letters count as 2. Some symbols that can appear as text, such as the copyright sign, count as 1 when used as plain text.
Why does my count look different from other tools?
Most tools count raw characters or bytes, while X counts weighted characters with fixed-length links.
A word processor might show 260 characters for a post that X counts as 241, because the long link in it costs only 23 on X. Or it might show 150 characters for a Japanese post that X counts as 300. Use a counter that follows X's rules, like the Post Batch Counter, which applies the same weights to a whole batch of posts at once. The counter on the home page and in the Draft Vault uses the same logic.
What usually pushes a post over 280?
Extra links, numbering in threads, emoji clusters and hashtags added at the end.
| Habit | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Second link | 23 |
| Thread numbering " 4/9" | 4 |
| Three emoji at the end | 6 |
| Three hashtags | 30 or more |
Trim hashtags first; one relevant hashtag usually does as much as three. Then cut the second link. For threads, plan numbering into the length from the start, as covered in how to plan an X thread.
Questions people ask
Does an @mention count toward the limit?
In a normal post, yes: an @username counts like any other text. When you reply, the @usernames X adds automatically at the start of the reply do not count toward the 280.
Do image and video attachments use characters?
No. Attached media does not reduce the character count. A link to an image hosted elsewhere is a link, so it counts as 23.
Why does a family or flag emoji count as only 2?
X counts a whole emoji sequence as one emoji with a weight of 2, even if it is built from several code points joined together, such as a family emoji or a flag made of two regional indicators.
Do Premium long posts change how characters are counted?
The weights are the same; only the limit changes. Premium accounts can post up to 25,000 characters, but the timeline shows the start of a long post with a Show more link.