What is the character limit on Threads?

Short answer

500 characters per post. Threads’ developer documentation adds a detail most guides miss: an emoji counts as the number of bytes it takes in UTF-8, so a single emoji can use 4 of the 500, and a joined one far more. A post can carry up to 5 links. For longer writing, Threads now has text attachments of up to 10,000 characters and a link.

Written by the Mellow team · Updated October 1, 2026, sources read October 1, 2026

Threads’ limits, from its own documentation

Threads’ help pages give no numbers; its API documentation does. From Meta for Developers and its page on text attachments, read on 1 October 2026:

Post text: 500 characters. Emoji are counted as the number of UTF-8 bytes they take: a pointing hand is 4, a family emoji 18 or more.
Links: a post with more than 5 unique links fails, since 22 December 2025.
Text attachment: up to 10,000 characters and a link, on text-only posts; it can’t be combined with a poll or a link attachment.
Media: up to 20 photos and videos in a carousel.

Counting a Threads post

An ordinary counter shows a pointing hand as 2 and a family emoji as 8 or 11, while Threads counts 4 and 18 or more. A post with a row of emoji can therefore fit in one counter and be refused by Threads. The free character counter counts Threads the way its documentation describes, next to X, Bluesky and the rest.

Posting to Threads with Mellow Hub

Hub publishes to Threads on its own or with Instagram and seven other networks in one post, with Threads’ own caption when the others are longer. Hub checks 500 characters counting each emoji as two, which is looser than Threads for emoji-heavy posts, so keep a margin there.

Hub is paid: plans start at $19 a month (Solo), after a 7-day trial with a card on file that costs nothing if you cancel before it ends, and a monthly plan's first month is 20% off. Publishing is unlimited on every plan, under a fair-use ceiling that stops automated floods (900 publications a month on Solo). One publication is one post on one account, so a post sent to five networks counts as five. There are no automatic overage charges.

Questions people also ask

How many characters can a Threads post have?

500, according to Threads’ developer documentation, which counts each emoji as the number of UTF-8 bytes it takes.

Why does Threads say my post is too long when it is under 500?

Most likely because of emoji. Threads counts an emoji as its UTF-8 bytes, usually 4 and more for joined ones, while ordinary counters count 2. A post with many emoji is longer to Threads than it looks.

How many links can a Threads post have?

Up to 5 unique links. Since 22 December 2025, a post with more fails when it is created.

Can Threads posts be longer than 500 characters?

Yes, with a text attachment: up to 10,000 characters and a link, attached to a text-only post. The post itself keeps its own limit.

Sources

Other companies’ features change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.