Mastodon character counter
500 by default, but your server decides — set its limit below and count against the number that will actually reject your post.
Links cost 23 · mentions drop the domain
500 left
- Words
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Graphemes
- 0
- UTF-8 bytes
- 0
The Mastodon character limit
A Mastodon post is limited to 500 characters by default, but every server sets its own limit — some allow 5,000 or more.
- 500 is only the default. A server publishes its real limit as configuration.statuses.max_characters on its /api/v2/instance endpoint, and its about page repeats it.
- Links count as 23 characters regardless of length, the same rule X uses.
- For a remote mention only the username counts: @user@example.social costs the same as @user.
- A content warning is not free. Mastodon's status length validator counts the spoiler text and the body together against the same limit.
- The limit applies to posts you write on your own server. A post arriving from elsewhere is not re-validated, which is why a 5,000-character post can appear in a 500-character server's timeline.
Tier differences
Default configuration
500 characters
What mastodon.social and most servers run, and what a fresh Mastodon install ships with.
Source ↗Server-configured
Whatever the admin sets
Any server can raise the cap — 1,000, 5,000 and 11,000 are all common. Check your server's /api/v2/instance response, then set the limit in the counter above.
Source ↗What happens if you go over the limit on Mastodon
In the app
The counter goes negative and the Publish button is disabled. Your server, not Mastodon centrally, decides where that line sits.
Through the API
The server rejects the status with a validation error and nothing is posted. Text is never trimmed to fit.
Character limits on every platform
The same post is a different length on every network. This is the full comparison, with the document each number comes from.
| Platform | Limit | Paid tier | How it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) | 280 | 25,000Premium | Links cost 23 · emoji and CJK cost 2 | X developer docs — Counting characters ↗ |
| Bluesky | 3003,000 bytes | — | Counts graphemes — an emoji is 1 | AT Protocol lexicon — app.bsky.feed.post ↗ |
| Threads | 500 | — | 500 characters · an emoji costs its UTF-8 bytes | Meta developer docs — Threads posts ↗ |
| Mastodon — this page | 500default, per server | — | Links cost 23 · mentions drop the domain | Mastodon docs — Posting ↗ |
| 3,000 | — | Plain characters · the feed folds at ~210 | LinkedIn Help — Post and share updates ↗ | |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 | — | 2,200 characters · 30 hashtags · 20 @ tags | Meta developer docs — IG User Media (caption) ↗ |
| Facebook post | 63,206 | — | 63,206 characters · folds at ~477 | Meta developer docs — Pages API Posts (no limit published) ↗ |
| TikTok caption | 2,200 | — | 2,200 UTF-16 units — an emoji costs 2 | TikTok for Developers — Content Posting API ↗ |
Last verified: September 8, 2026 · Mastodon docs — Posting ↗
Writing this for more than one platform? MicroPoster cross-posts from X to Mastodon and handles each platform's limit automatically — anything too long is split into a native thread rather than rejected.
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Mastodon questions
What is the character limit on Mastodon?
500 characters in the default configuration, which is what mastodon.social and most servers run. Every server can raise it, though, and 1,000, 5,000 and 11,000 are all common — the limit belongs to the server, not to Mastodon.
How do I find my server's character limit?
Open https://your-server/api/v2/instance and read configuration.statuses.max_characters — that integer is the limit your posts are validated against. Most servers also state it on their about page.
How does Mastodon count links and mentions?
Every link counts as exactly 23 characters, however long it is. For a remote mention only the username counts: @user@example.social costs the same as @user, so replying across servers never eats your budget.
Does a content warning count towards the limit?
Yes. Mastodon's status length validator joins the content warning to the body before counting, so a long CW takes characters away from the post underneath it.
Counters for the platforms next to this one
Or start from the character counter hub, which counts your draft against all eight platforms at once.