# X Character Counter Canonical page: https://depost.ai/tools/x-character-counter X does not count characters the way your keyboard does: every link costs a flat 23 regardless of length, emoji cost 2 each, and most non-Latin text counts double. This counter applies those actual rules as you type, so the number you see here is the number the composer will hold you to. Free to use, with no account needed. ## How to count characters for an X post 1. **Paste the post in.** The count updates as you type. 2. **Read the count X will apply.** Not the one your keyboard shows: every link costs a flat 23 characters however long it is, emoji cost 2 each, and most non-Latin text counts double. 3. **Trim from the middle.** The opening and the closing line are doing the work. The sentence that explains something twice is usually in between. ## Questions people ask ### What is the character limit on X? 280 characters for standard accounts. Premium subscribers can write much longer posts, but the feed folds anything past the standard length behind "Show more", so 280 stays the practical target even when the hard limit does not apply to you. ### How does X count links? Every link costs exactly 23 characters, no matter how long or short the URL is, because X wraps all links in its t.co shortener at a fixed length. A 90-character URL costs 23. So does a 15-character one, which means shortening links by hand buys you nothing. ### Why do some characters count as two? X weights characters. Most Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek text costs 1 per character; most other writing systems, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, cost 2, which is why the practical limit in those languages is about 140. Emoji also cost 2 each, including multi-part emoji that are technically several characters joined together. ### Why do other counters give a different number? Most counters use the text length a programming language reports, which fails in both directions on X: it overcharges links, which really cost a flat 23, and undercharges emoji and CJK text, which really cost 2 per character. This counter applies X's own weighting rules, so the number here matches what the composer will say. ### Does styled Unicode text count differently? Yes. The bold and italic letters that styled-text tools produce are special Unicode characters, and they sit in the ranges X charges 2 for. A fully bolded sentence costs double. If you style text with our X fonts generator, budget for that, and check the total here before posting. ### What are the other X limits worth knowing? Bio: 160 characters. Display name: 50. Direct messages: 10,000. Image alt text: 1,000. The 23-character link rule applies inside posts; your bio link is a separate field and does not spend bio characters. ## More free tools - [Every free tool for LinkedIn and X](https://depost.ai/tools) --- Cite as Depost AI (https://depost.ai/tools/x-character-counter). Index of every page: https://depost.ai/llms.txt. Full reference: https://depost.ai/llms-full.txt.