X Character Limit (2026): 280 Characters
A single X post holds 280 characters. Anything longer needs a thread, and X has real ones.
Every figure on this page is read at build time from the same file the splitter and the rules engine read, so it cannot drift from what the product actually enforces. Limits last verified 27 August 2026.
- Characters per post
- 280
- Long posts
- native thread
- Video cap
- no published cap
- Images per post
- not verified
Over the limit
What happens when you exceed it
X rejects the post. Not truncates it — rejects it. Any tool that appears to publish your longer post there has either cut it or split it, and the difference matters, because a truncated post is published under your name with the ending missing.
Echowide splits it before it is sent. The splitter breaks at a paragraph, then a line, then a sentence, then a word — never inside a word, and never inside a URL — and publishes the parts as a native X thread with each part replying to the last. Emoji and flags count as one character each, the way a reader counts them, which is more conservative than counting bytes.
X may still count a few things differently from the way a reader does — some platforms weight certain character ranges, and several bill every URL at a fixed width regardless of length. We count conservatively, so we occasionally split one part earlier than strictly necessary. That is the harmless direction to be wrong in.
The rest of the specification
The other X limits worth knowing
- Threading
- X supports a real reply chain, so a long post becomes one thread rather than several unconnected posts. Threading is on by default and you can turn it off per flow.
- Video
- X publishes no duration cap we can enforce, so nothing is stopped here for length. An oversized upload comes back with the platform's own refusal, which the ledger prints.
- Images and alt text
- We have not verified an image count for X, so we enforce none — a guessed limit silently drops pictures. Alt text travels with every image that goes.
- How Echowide sees new posts
- X posts are polled on an adaptive interval, because no push exists on this platform for anyone. We tighten the interval after a burst of activity and back off while the account is quiet.
In context
X against the other 12 platforms
0 of the other 12 platforms are tighter than X. When you cross-post to several at once, the tightest destination is the one that decides whether a post gets split at all.
| Platform | Characters | Long posts | Video cap | Images |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | 280 | native thread | no published cap | — |
| Bluesky | 300 | native thread | 3 minutes | 4 |
| Threads | 500 | native thread | 5 minutes | 20 |
| Mastodon | 500 | native thread | no published cap | — |
| 3,000 | single post, no native thread | no published cap | — | |
| 63,206 | single post, no native thread | no published cap | — | |
| 2,200 | single post, no native thread | 15 minutes | 10 | |
| YouTube Shorts | no text limit | single post, no native thread | 3 minutes | — |
| TikTok | 2,200 | single post, no native thread | 10 minutes | — |
| Twitch | no text limit | single post, no native thread | 1 minute | — |
| Discord | 2,000 | single post, no native thread | no published cap | 10 |
| Telegram | 4,096 | single post, no native thread | no published cap | 10 |
| Nostr | no text limit | native thread | no published cap | — |
A dash means we have not verified a figure for that platform, so no adapter enforces one and the platform’s own refusal is what the ledger prints. Verified 27 August 2026.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- What is the X character limit?
- 280 characters in a single post, verified 27 August 2026 against X's own documentation and stored in the same file our splitter reads.
- What happens if a X post goes over the limit?
- X rejects it. Echowide splits it first: at a paragraph, then a line, then a sentence, never mid-word and never mid-URL, and publishes the parts as a native X thread.
- Does X support threads?
- Yes. X has real reply chains, so a long post becomes one thread with each part replying to the last, rather than a run of disconnected posts.
- How many images can one X post carry?
- We have not verified a count for X, so we enforce none. A guessed limit silently drops pictures, which is worse than letting the platform answer with its own refusal — which the ledger then prints.
- How long can a X video be?
- X publishes no duration cap we can enforce, so we do not invent one. An oversized upload comes back with the platform's own reason.
- How does the X limit compare with other platforms?
- The table on this page compares all 13 platforms we support. The tightest of the others is Bluesky at 300 characters, which is usually the one that decides whether a post needs splitting at all.
Every platform’s character limitAll cross-posting guidesThe full platform table
The splitter already knows this number.
Write once, at whatever length suits what you are saying. Echowide fits it to each destination separately, threads it where the platform has real threads, and tells you plainly when something did not fit.