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Threads character counter

A Threads post allows 500 characters, and the feed shows all of them. If a scheduling tool posts it for you through Meta’s API, each emoji counts as its UTF-8 bytes, so 👍 costs 4. This counts both ways.

—/ 500 characters

Runs in your browser. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Threads’s numbers, marked by how well each is known

documented means Threads publishes the number. observed means people measured it, and it can change without notice.

WhatLimitHow known
Post500 charactersdocumented
Attached text10,000 charactersdocumented
Links per post5documented
Topic tags per post1documented
Emoji, through the APIUTF-8 bytes eachdocumented

Threads character limit

500 characters per post, documented, and there is no fold: Threads shows the whole post. Since September 2025 a post can also carry up to 10,000 characters of attached text, separate from the 500. That is where the long version goes.

Emoji cost more through the API

Meta’s API documentation: “Emojis are counted as the number of UTF-8 bytes.” Most emoji are 4 bytes, and joined ones cost far more: the four-person family emoji is 25. So a 480-character post with a handful of emoji fits in the app and can be refused when a scheduler sends it. The second line of the counter applies that rule.

Links and topic tags

At most 5 links per post through the API, and Meta’s changelog says posts with more “will fail to post”. One topic tag per post. Both documented.

Writing the same idea for Threads and everywhere else?

This page checks one platform. PostSiete takes one idea and writes a native draft for LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, each measured against its platform’s limit while it is written, and previewed as it will post.

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This counter, inside the composer

PostSiete Lens puts this count inside Threads’s own composer while you type. It does the same on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Free Chrome extension, no account, no trial. It reads — it never posts for you.

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Questions

Does Threads hide part of a post behind “more”?

Not a normal post. The 500 characters show in full; only the separate attached text, up to 10,000 characters, opens on its own.

Why would a post that fits in the app fail from a scheduler?

Because the API counts each emoji as its UTF-8 bytes rather than as one character, and allows at most 5 links. The counter above checks both.

Is anything I type sent to a server?

No. The counting runs in your browser; the page makes no network request with your text.

Sources