To count characters for TikTok, pick the field and paste your text. TikTok’s Help Center caps a bio at 80 characters. Its developer docs cap captions posted through its API at 4,000 for a photo post and 2,200 for a video, in UTF-16 units. TikTok’s TopView ad specifications allow 100 character spaces of ad text.
Pick the field you are writing — a caption, a bio, a profile name, a username, a comment or ad text — and read its count as you type.
What you get
A live count for seven TikTok fields, with hashtags, mentions and emoji
What comes out:
- The count against TikTok’s numbers. Bio, ad text and ad display name, each against the limit TikTok publishes for it, with what is left or how far over you are. For a caption, the numbers are TikTok’s API limits.
- A caption counted two ways. Characters as a reader sees them, with no limit, and UTF-16 units as TikTok’s API counts them, against its 4,000 for a photo post and 2,200 for a video.
- Hashtags, mentions and emoji. How many of each the text holds, so a caption heavy with tags or a bio full of emoji is easy to spot.
- A plain count where TikTok gives no number. Profile name, username and comment are counted without a limit: a number is shown only when an official TikTok page states it.
TikTok changes its limits from time to time. Each number here names the TikTok page it comes from and the date we checked it; if the app stops you sooner, the app is right.
How to use it
How to count characters for TikTok: three steps
Pick the field
Choose posts and profile, or ads, then tap the field you are writing: caption, bio, name, username, comment, ad text or ad display name.
Paste or type
The count updates as you type, emoji and line breaks included, along with the hashtags and mentions in the text.
Trim and copy
Past a limit, the count is marked and says how many characters to cut. When it fits, copy the text and paste it into TikTok.
Each field keeps its text when you switch, so you can draft the caption, the bio and a reply in one sitting.
TikTok’s limits
Which TikTok limits are published — and where
TikTok’s Help Center caps a bio at 80 characters. We haven’t found an in-app caption limit on an official TikTok page. TikTok’s developer documentation gives limits for captions posted through its API: 4,000 for a photo post and 2,200 for a video, both counted in UTF-16 units. The counter shows a caption’s plain character count and both API counts under it.
TikTok’s TopView ad specifications allow up to 100 character spaces of ad text. Its TopView and In-Feed specifications allow up to 20 for an ad display name, which is 10 in Chinese, Japanese or Korean.
For a profile name, a username and a comment we haven’t found a number on an official TikTok page, so the counter shows their length without a limit rather than a number we can’t source.
The numbers this counter uses
| Field | Limit | TikTok source |
|---|---|---|
| Caption, photo post through the API | 4,000 UTF-16 units | TikTok for Developers, photo posts |
| Caption, video through the API | 2,200 UTF-16 units | TikTok for Developers, direct post |
| Caption in the app | No number shown | None found |
| Bio | 80 characters | TikTok Help Center |
| Ad text | 100 character spaces | TikTok Ads, TopView specifications |
| Ad display name | 20 character spaces (10 in Chinese, Japanese or Korean) | TikTok Ads, TopView and In-Feed specifications |
| Profile name | No number shown | None found |
| Username | No number shown | None found |
| Comment | No number shown | None found |
For ad copy, use the ad character counter: it also counts Facebook and Instagram ads.
Emoji, hashtags and mentions
How the counter counts emoji, hashtags and mentions
In captions, bios, names, usernames and comments an emoji counts as one character, the way a reader sees it: 👍🏽 is one, though it is stored as more than one symbol. TikTok doesn’t say how the app counts emoji, so text close to a limit is worth a check in the app.
TikTok’s ad specifications count in character spaces: a Latin letter, a digit, a space or a punctuation mark takes one, and an emoji or a Chinese, Japanese or Korean character takes two. Spaces at the start and the end don’t count.
TikTok’s posting API measures a caption in UTF-16 units — its documentation calls them runes — and there many emoji take two or more. That is why both API counts under a caption full of emoji read higher than its character count.
A hashtag here is # followed by letters, digits or underscores; a mention is @ followed by a username. Both are part of the text and count toward its length. The counter shows how many there are; it doesn’t suggest how many to use.
Limits
Free version limits
The count runs in your browser; there is no limit and no account. We don’t store your text.
It checks length only. Whether a post, a comment or an ad is accepted depends on TikTok’s rules, which this counter doesn’t review.
Why creators use it
Text that fits before you post — on every account you run
Finding out in the upload screen that a caption or a bio is too long means rewriting it there, on a phone. Counting as you draft shows how much room is left while the text is still easy to change.
A bio has 80 characters to say who you are and where to go next. Every emoji and every @mention takes part of that room, and the counter shows how much.
A creator running several accounts, or an SMM specialist posting for clients, can draft captions in a batch, keep each within the API’s 2,200 for a scheduled video, and paste them into the scheduler one by one.
Running a paid post as well? In an ad the room is smaller still: 100 character spaces in a TopView ad, and an emoji takes two. What no counter can tell you is what to shoot next; in Spytrend’s Content AI you search your topic and see which videos work for creators in your niche.
Go further with Spytrend
Your caption fits — now find what to shoot in your niche
A counter tells you whether your caption fits, not what the next video should be. That answer is in what already works for creators in your niche.
Spytrend is an ad intelligence platform for Facebook and TikTok advertising: ads AI-classified into 33 business categories, with every advertiser assembled into a single card — all ads, pages, domains and countries in one place.
For creators, Spytrend also has Content AI. We search by what happens in the video and what is said in it, not only by the caption, and a video breakdown shows its hook, structure and a ready-to-shoot script.
Two jobs a counter can’t do
- Finding what to shoot. Search your topic and see which videos work for creators in your niche, so the next idea doesn’t start from a blank page.
- Seeing why a video worked. Break a video down by hook, scenario and retention, and plan your own around the structure rather than the words.
From one caption to your next video, in three steps
- Search your topic. Type what your account is about, or describe the video you want to make.
- Open what works. Pick a few videos from your niche and look at the hook and the format of each.
- Write your own. Plan the next video around your own idea, then count its caption here before you post.
How to start
Create a free account and search your niche before you write the next caption. A free account searches Instagram Reels by topic, with a daily limit, and lets you try a video breakdown; TikTok and YouTube results, full breakdowns and scripts come with a subscription.