X (Twitter) post limits: post length, image size and video length
X (formerly Twitter) is the tightest on text — 280 characters — and the most relaxed about images: anything between 1:3 and 3:1 is accepted and cropped in the timeline rather than refused.
X (Twitter) limits at a glance
- Post limit
- 280 characters
- Visible before “more”
- The whole post
- Each link counts as
- 23 characters
- Image aspect ratio
- 1:3 to 3:1Cropped outside this range
- At 1080 px wide
- 1080 × 3240 to 1080 × 360 px
- Minimum image width
- 240 px
- Video length
- 0.5 seconds to 2 min 20 s
- Most media per post
- 4Extras are dropped, not refused
- Text-only posts
- Yes
- Links clickable in text
- Yes
These are the limits for publishing through a scheduling tool — X’s publishing API — and they are the same rules our editor checks as you write. Posting by hand in the X app can allow a little more on some limits.
Planning an X post
- Every link counts as 23 characters however long it really is, because X wraps it in a short link. Budget for that before trimming words.
- Up to 4 images can go in one post. Check the crop: X shows a centred slice of tall images until someone opens them.
- Text-only posts are normal on X, so media is optional.
How X counts characters
280 characters sounds simple, but X doesn’t count every character the same way. Three things eat the budget faster than you would expect:
- Links: every URL counts as 23 characters, whether it is a 12-character domain or a 200-character tracking link
- Emoji: most count as two characters, not one
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters also count as two each
Paid X subscribers can write much longer posts in the X app, but that is a subscription feature on their own account, not something to plan a client’s posts around. Plan for the standard limit and the post works for everyone who sees it.
Images: accepted, then cropped
X accepts images anywhere from 1:3 to 3:1 — much wider than Instagram — and at least 240 px wide. It doesn’t refuse unusual shapes; it crops them in the timeline, and shows the whole image only when someone taps it.
That makes the crop the thing to check. A tall 4:5 image made for Instagram shows as a centred slice on X, so a headline at the top or a logo at the bottom can be cut off in the timeline. With several images — up to 4 — X arranges them in a grid and crops each one further.
- 16:9 (1200 × 675 px) shows uncropped as a single image
- Keep the subject and any text in the centre of the frame
- Two to 4 images each get a smaller tile — design for the tile, not the full image
Video
X takes video from 0.5 seconds up to 2 min 20 s when published through a scheduling tool. Longer uploads are a feature of paid X accounts in the X app, so cut a version for the standard limit.
Video autoplays silently in the timeline. Captions on screen, and a first frame that makes sense without sound, do more than anything in the post text.
Threads and link posts
A thread is a chain of separate posts, each with its own 280-character limit. Plan each one to stand on its own — people often see a single post from the middle of a thread, not the first.
A post with a link and no image shows a link card from the linked page. Adding an image replaces the card with the image, and the link stays in the text.