Why Bluesky needs its own counter
Bluesky counts graphemes, not bytes or code units. That is kinder to emoji than X or Threads: a skin-tone or family emoji counts as 1. A counter that counts code units would tell you a post is too long when Bluesky would accept it, and this page counts the way Bluesky does.
Links on Bluesky
Bluesky apps show a link shortened to its domain and the first part of its path. The counter counts that shortened form, so pasting a long URL costs only a few characters more than the domain. Other counters charge the full URL, or 23 characters as on X, and can tell you to cut words you could have kept.
Facts
- A Bluesky post's text is at most 300 graphemes (the app.bsky.feed.post lexicon,
maxGraphemes: 300, checked 2026-10-21). - The counter shortens links as Bluesky shows them: the domain plus the first 13 characters of the rest and "...", when the rest is longer than 15 characters.