5,000 characters. Spaces, line breaks and emojis all count.
Free tool by Mydrop, no signup
Free YouTube description character counter
YouTube gives you 5,000 characters for a description and 100 for a title.
Hashtags 0Mentions 0Emojis 0Words 0Lines 0
YouTube counts every letter, space, emoji and line break as 1.
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Schedule it on YouTube and 9 more networks with Mydrop, the social media OS for agencies and multi-brand teams. Same counter, built into the editor.
Your text stays in your browser. Nothing is sent or saved. Photos and videos you add stay on your device too: nothing is uploaded.
How YouTube counts
5,000 for the description, 100 for the title
YouTube cuts a description off at 5,000 characters and a title at 100.
First lines before "...more"
Only the first lines show under the video. Put the summary and your most important link there.
First 3 hashtags go above the title
YouTube shows the first three hashtags from the description above the video title.
Example: “How to plan a month of social posts in one hour. Template in the description.” = 77 characters on YouTube
Limits checked on October 10, 2026, against each network's rules and the limits Mydrop's editor enforces.
Mydrop data
How long should a caption be? Past 80 characters, it barely matters.
We measured 4,848 posts on 336 accounts connected to Mydrop, over 180 days to September 2026. Each post is scored against its own account's median, so a global brand and a local shop compare fairly.
- Captions under 80 characters earned 9% less engagement than the account's typical post.
- Captions of 80 to 150 characters did best, 3% above.
- From 150 to 600+ characters, length moved engagement by 1% or less.
Reference
Every character limit in one table
The limits Mydrop checks before it publishes a post, network by network.
| Network | Character limit | Seen before "more" | Hashtags | How it counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,200 | About 125 | 5 per post | 1 per character | |
| TikTok | 2,200 via the API (4,000 typed in the app) | Varies | Inside the limit | Emoji = 2 |
| 3,000 | About 210 (140 on phones) | Inside the limit | 1 per character | |
| X | 280 (longer with Premium) | Full post shown | Inside the limit | Emoji = 2, link = 23 |
| 63,206 (Reels: 2,200) | Varies | Inside the limit | 1 per character | |
| Threads | 500 | Full post shown | 1 topic tag | 1 per character |
| Bluesky | 300 | Full post shown | Inside the limit | 1 per character |
| YouTube | 5,000 (description; title 100) | First lines | First 3 show above the title | 1 per character |
| 800 via the API (500 in Pinterest's editor) | Varies | Inside the limit | 1 per character | |
| Google Business Profile | 1,500 | Varies | Not used | 1 per character |
Where the "more" cut lands depends on the screen and the line breaks, so treat those figures as a guide. The character limits are hard limits: the network refuses anything longer.
Write it, check it, post it
This counter is built into Mydrop
In Mydrop's editor every caption is counted per network as you type. When one network owns the limit, the editor names it and gives that network its own version in one click.
Free plan, then $19 a month flat. Never per seat.
Questions
Character limits, answered
100 characters for a video title.
The first 3 hashtags in the description show above the video title.
Only the first lines of the description. Put the summary and your most important link there.
Yes. No signup, no limit, and your text never leaves your browser.
More free counters
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