Instagram Character Counter
Count against Instagram’s real limits (2,200-character captions, 150-character bios) and see where the feed cuts you off at "…more".
How to use the Instagram Character Counter
Pick the field you are writing for
Caption, bio, username, name, comment, DM or Note: each has its own limit, from 2,200 characters down to 30. The counter loads the right ceiling for the field you choose.
Type or paste your text
The count updates live as you write. It counts the way Instagram counts, with spaces, hashtags and emojis all included, and emojis costing two or more characters each.
Check the "…more" cutoff
The feed collapses a caption after roughly 125 characters. Make sure your hook lands before the fold, because that is all most people ever see.
Trim, then copy
If you are over the limit, cut until the counter clears. Instagram can silently refuse to publish over-limit text. Then copy the final version straight into the app.
Instagram character limits at a glance (2026)
As of 2026 the limits are: captions 2,200 characters (feed posts and Reels alike), bios 150, usernames 30, the name field 30, comments 2,200, direct messages 1,000 per message, and Instagram Notes 60. Hashtags cap at 30 per post. Every one of those counts spaces, punctuation, hashtags and emojis; there is no separate hashtag budget.
Instagram itself publishes none of these numbers. The official content-publishing API documentation, checked in August 2026, states no caption or hashtag character limits at all. The figures above come from cross-checking every current independent source and verifying in-app. Where sources disagree, this page says so instead of guessing.
Two limits deserve honest hedging. Alt text was historically capped at 100 characters, but Instagram no longer documents a hard limit. Write alt text for screen readers, not for keyword stuffing, and length will rarely be your problem. Story text has no official character limit either; it is constrained by screen space, not a counter.
A useful conversion, since everyone quotes characters and nobody quotes words: 2,200 characters is roughly 300 to 400 words. That is a short blog post, which is why almost no caption actually hits the ceiling. The cutoff below is the limit that bites.
The caption limit is 2,200, but only about 125 characters show
In the feed, Instagram collapses a caption after roughly 125 characters and hides the rest behind "…more". That is a display behavior, not a documented rule, which is why you will see slightly different cutoffs on different screens. Around 125 is where your first sentence stops being guaranteed an audience.
On the Reels tab it is far tighter: only about 55 to 60 characters of a Reels caption are visible before the truncation, barely one line. If the point of your caption arrives in character 80, Reels viewers never meet it.
The practical rule: front-load. Put the hook, the offer or the question inside the first 125 characters and treat everything after the fold as bonus material for the people who tap. This counter shows you exactly where that fold lands in your draft, which a number alone cannot do.
How Instagram actually counts emojis and special characters
Emojis do not count as one character. Instagram counts Unicode code units, so a simple emoji costs 2 characters, and skin-tone or multi-part emoji (families, flags, anything built from joined glyphs) can cost anywhere from 4 to 11. The common claim that "emojis count as 2" is only true for the simplest ones.
This is why a 150-character bio fills up so fast. Four family emojis can quietly spend 30 or 40 characters of your 150 before you have written a word. The same applies to fancy Unicode fonts: each styled letter is a multi-unit character, so a decorated bio holds visibly fewer letters than a plain one.
This counter counts code units the same way Instagram does, so the number you see here is the number Instagram will hold you to, not an optimistic per-glyph count that falls apart the moment you paste an emoji.
Hashtags, line breaks, and why posts silently fail
Hashtags count toward the 2,200-character caption limit: the # symbol, the tag text and the spaces between them all draw from the same pool. The hard cap is 30 hashtags per post, and a 31st hashtag can cause the post or comment to fail to publish with no error message. If a post refuses to go up and you cannot see why, count the hashtags first.
Spacing problems are usually not a character problem. Instagram strips trailing whitespace and can collapse blank lines, so the neatly spaced paragraphs you wrote in the composer arrive as one dense block. Line breaks survive best when each line ends directly on a character, with no trailing spaces, and when you avoid stacking multiple empty lines.
Counting is step one. If you schedule posts through JuzPost, these limits are checked automatically before anything publishes, so an over-limit caption or a 31st hashtag gets caught at scheduling time instead of failing silently at post time.
Frequently asked questions
How many characters can an Instagram caption have?
An Instagram caption can be up to 2,200 characters, and the same limit applies to feed posts and Reels. Hashtags, spaces and emojis all count toward it. In practice 2,200 characters is roughly 300 to 400 words, but the feed only shows about 125 of them before hiding the rest behind "…more".
Why does Instagram cut my caption off with "…more"?
Because the feed collapses captions after roughly 125 characters and hides the rest behind a "…more" tap. It is a display behavior, not part of the 2,200-character limit, and on the Reels tab the cutoff is even tighter at about 55 to 60 characters. Put your hook in the first 125 characters so it survives the fold.
Do emojis count as more than one character on Instagram?
Yes. Instagram counts Unicode code units, so a simple emoji costs 2 characters, and multi-part emoji like families, flags or skin-tone variants can cost 4 to 11 each. That is why emoji-heavy bios hit the 150-character limit so quickly. This counter counts the same way Instagram does, so the total here matches what the app enforces.
Do hashtags count toward the 2,200-character caption limit?
Yes. The # symbol, the hashtag text and the spaces around them all count against the same 2,200 characters as the rest of your caption. There is no separate allowance. Separately, Instagram caps you at 30 hashtags per post, whether they sit in the caption or in a comment.
What is the Instagram bio character limit?
The Instagram bio limit is 150 characters, including spaces, line breaks and emojis. The username is capped at 30 characters (letters, numbers, periods and underscores only) and the name field at another 30. Emojis cost 2 or more characters each, which is usually why a bio that looks short refuses to save.
What happens if my caption or hashtags go over the limit?
The post can fail to publish, often with no error message. An over-2,200-character caption or a 31st hashtag are the two most common silent blockers, so if a post will not go up, check those first. Counting before you post is the only reliable way to avoid it, because Instagram does not always tell you what went wrong.
How long can an Instagram comment or DM be?
Comments can be up to 2,200 characters, the same as captions, and direct messages are limited to 1,000 characters per message. A longer DM has to be split across multiple messages. Instagram Notes are far shorter at 60 characters.
More free tools
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Type once, search 34 Unicode styles, preview the pick on a profile mockup and copy it for your 150-character bio, captions and comments. No signup, nothing leaves your browser.
Line breaks and caption spaces Instagram keeps. Paste, preview the 125-character “…more” cutoff, copy. No periods, no dashes.