Twitter's 280-Character Limit
Twitter (now X) increased its character limit from 140 to 280 characters in 2017. WordCountNow's Twitter Character Counter tracks your character count in real time, turning amber as you approach the limit and red when you've exceeded it.
Twitter Character Counting Rules
- All characters including spaces, punctuation, and emoji count toward the limit
- URLs are always shortened to 23 characters regardless of their original length
- Emoji typically count as 2 characters due to Unicode encoding
- @mentions and #hashtags count as regular characters
Tips for Punchy Tweets
- Lead with the most important point
- Use numerals ("5" not "five") to save characters
- Cut filler words — every character counts
- Leave 20–30 characters for retweet commentary from others