LinkedIn Character Limit 2026: 3,000 per Post, 140 Seen

Short answer: a LinkedIn post can be up to 3,000 characters, from a personal profile or a company Page. That is the only LinkedIn text limit written into LinkedIn's documentation. The number that shapes how a post performs is much smaller: the mobile app shows roughly the first 140 characters before "…see more" (about 210 on desktop). Write the post to fit 3,000, and the first line to fit 140. Paste a draft into the free social media post checker to see both at once.

Every LinkedIn character limit#

LinkedIn's help pages do not list its text limits in one place. The post limit is written down in LinkedIn's API documentation and the headline limit on LinkedIn's Talent Blog; the rest come from the input boxes, as tested and reported by others. The table says which is which.

If a guide quotes a much lower post limit, it is out of date: LinkedIn's API documentation has stated 3,000 since at least 2023. If a box you are typing in shows its own counter, trust the counter over any table, including this one.

The limit that matters more: the see-more fold#

A 3,000-character post is fine. A post whose first 140 characters say nothing is not, because most readers decide from the preview whether to tap "…see more".

Compare two openings for the same hiring post. This one is 182 characters, and the app cuts it in the middle of a sentence before it says anything:

I have been thinking a lot lately about hiring, and after many conversations with founders and designers over the past few months, I wanted…

This one is 132 characters and fits above the fold with the whole offer in it:

We are hiring a product designer in Lisbon. Salary is in the post, the week is four days, and you can work remotely two days a week.

Three habits keep the important part above the fold:

• Lead with the point. The first sentence is the news, the offer or the result. Background goes after the fold.
• Put a line break after the opening. On desktop the fold also falls after roughly the third line, so a short first line followed by a blank line shows cleanly.
• Keep links, hashtags and mentions out of the first line. They take characters from the preview and do not tell the reader why to keep going.

To see the fold before you post, paste the draft into the LinkedIn post formatter, which previews roughly where the feed cuts it and lets you add bold or italic text and clean lists.

How LinkedIn counts characters#

• Everything counts: letters, spaces, line breaks, punctuation, emoji, hashtags and mentions.
• Links count at full length. X counts every link as 23 characters; LinkedIn has no such rule, so count the link as you typed it. https://example.com/jobs/product-designer?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hiring-2026-q4&utm_content=first-comment is 133 characters. Keep UTM values short, or put the link in the first comment (below).
• Bold and italic letters count as two each. LinkedIn has no formatting buttons, so "bold" text is made of special Unicode letters, and each one takes two UTF-16 units: PostBoost counts "𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬" as 15, not 8. Use them for a few words, not whole sentences: screen readers can read them badly.
• Emoji are the grey area. Counters disagree on whether an emoji costs 1 or 2 characters. If a post is within a few characters of 3,000, trim a sentence rather than trust the last digit.

The free social media character counter shows the LinkedIn count next to X, Threads, Bluesky, Instagram and the other networks, so one draft can be cut down for each.

Links: in the post or in the first comment?#

Many LinkedIn marketers put the link in the first comment instead of the post, on the view that posts with outbound links reach fewer people. LinkedIn does not publish how links affect reach, so treat it as a habit worth testing on your own account, not a rule.

If you try it, the first comment also keeps the post under 3,000 characters and the first line free for the hook. Write the comment so it stands on its own, for example "The full job description and salary range: [link]", because people see it out of context in notifications.

How PostBoost handles LinkedIn limits#

PostBoost checks LinkedIn's rules in the composer, before the post is scheduled, for both LinkedIn profiles and LinkedIn Pages.

• Hard limit. A LinkedIn post over 3,000 characters shows "Maximum of 3000 characters allowed." for that account, and the post cannot be scheduled until it is shorter. The same check also caps media at 9 photos, or 1 video, or 1 GIF.
• Fold preview. The LinkedIn preview cuts the text at about 140 characters with a "…see more" toggle, because the app cuts a post well before the desktop feed does and most people read LinkedIn in the app. Click the toggle to read the rest.
• Suggestions, not blocks. When a LinkedIn post contains a link, the composer says "Posts with a link can reach fewer people on LinkedIn. Put the link in the first comment instead." with a Move the link to the first comment button. It also suggests no more than 3 hashtags on LinkedIn and flags images without alt text. You can ignore any suggestion and still schedule.
• First comment. In the composer, click Add first comment and write the comment. PostBoost publishes it right after the post goes live.

Check a long post with the API before you schedule it#

The REST API runs the same rules. POST /posts/validate is a dry run: it checks length, media and the other network rules for each account and creates nothing. A second content item is the first comment on LinkedIn:

curl -X POST "https://postboost.co/app/api/$WORKSPACE_UUID/posts/validate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTBOOST_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "accounts": [12],
    "schedule": true,
    "date": "2026-10-20",
    "time": "09:00",
    "timezone": "Europe/Lisbon",
    "versions": [{
      "account_id": 0,
      "is_original": true,
      "content": [
        { "body": "We are hiring a product designer in Lisbon. Salary is in the post, the week is four days, and you can work remotely two days a week.\n\nWhat the role looks like: ..." },
        { "body": "Full job description and salary range: https://example.com/jobs/product-designer" }
      ]
    }]
  }'

The endpoint answers 200 either way; read valid. If the post text is over 3,000 characters for the LinkedIn account, valid is false and errors holds the length error for that account, the same rule the composer shows. Send the same body to POST /posts to schedule it for real (createPost, validatePost). PostBoost also escapes the characters LinkedIn's API reserves in plain text, such as brackets and asterisks (little text format), so a line like "* Salary (gross)" arrives as you wrote it.

When you are ready to plan LinkedIn posts with the limits checked for you, start free and connect your LinkedIn profile or Page.