Facebook Ads Character Counter
Paste your primary text, headline and link description and see exactly where each one gets truncated - Feed, Stories, Reels and carousel - with a live “See more” preview. Free, no signup, nothing stored.
The body copy above the creative. Feed shows about 125 characters, then "… See more". Technical max ~3,000 characters.
The bold line under the creative. Mobile Feed can clip it around 27. Technical max ~255 characters.
Link description shows on Feed link ads; recommended ~30 characters. Technical max ~30 characters.
Paste your ad copy above to see where each field gets clipped, per placement.
This text repeats across every ad in a bulk launch
When you launch a creative test, the same primary text, headline and description are applied to every ad and every ad set in the launch. One line that overflows here overflows in all of them - and you cannot eyeball 50 ads in Ads Manager. uplads renders the Feed “See more” clamp in its launch preview so you can spot it, but it does not count characters or rewrite copy for you. That check is this page, before the launch. uplads also accepts up to 5 primary-text and 5 headline variants per launch, so trim each variant here first.
How to use this Facebook ads character counter
Paste each part of your ad copy into its own box: the primary text (the body above the creative), the headline (the bold line beneath it) and the link description. The counter reads the length as you type, draws a bar that turns amber then red as you approach and pass the recommended limit, and renders a live Facebook Feed preview so you can see precisely which words fall behind the “See more” fold. The per-placement table then gives a separate verdict for each field in Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, and Stories & Reels, because the same sentence behaves differently in each one. Switch the ad format between single, carousel and collection to load the right link description limit. Nothing is uploaded - the count happens in your browser.
Facebook ad character limits in 2026
A Facebook ad has three text fields and each has its own limit. The recommended primary text length is around 125 characters; the recommended headline length is around 40 characters; the recommended link description is around 30 characters (about 20 on carousel and in-stream). Those recommended numbers are the ones that matter day to day, because they are the points where Meta starts truncating your copy in the feed. The technical maximum is far larger - roughly 3,000 characters for primary text and 255 for the headline - but the technical maximum is a trap: everything past the recommended length is hidden unless someone taps to expand it, and almost nobody does.
Recommended length vs the technical maximum
The single most common Facebook ad copy mistake is writing to the technical maximum instead of the recommended length. A 600-character primary text is perfectly valid - Meta accepts it - but on a phone the reader sees about 125 characters and a “… See more” link. If your value proposition is in sentence three, it is invisible. Treat the recommended limit as the real budget and the technical maximum as the ceiling you should never need. Front-load: the hook, the offer and the reason to act all belong in the first 125 characters of the primary text and the first 27 of the headline, because that is what survives on mobile devices where most impressions happen.
Why limits change by placement
A Facebook ad is not rendered once. The same primary text, headline and description are poured into Feed, Stories, Reels, in-stream and carousel, and each placement has a different shape. Feed is the most forgiving and is the only placement that reliably shows the link description. Instagram Feed hides the link description entirely. Stories and Reels overlay the primary text directly on the creative, where it sits behind the profile row and call-to-action and only the first line reliably reads - long copy there is not truncated so much as buried. Carousel and in-stream squeeze the link description to roughly 20 characters. A generic character counter that reports one number cannot tell you any of this; a per-placement counter can, which is why the table above breaks the verdict out field by field and placement by placement.
What truncation actually costs you
Truncation does not get your ad rejected - it gets it weakened, which is worse because nothing tells you. The ad still spends; it just spends on a version where the headline reads “Get 30% off your first order of premium-” and stops. Meta's own best practices push short copy for a reason: a complete, scannable message in the visible region earns the early engagement signals that lower cost, while a truncated one quietly underperforms and looks identical in the ads table. Checking the character count before launch is the cheapest copy fix there is - it costs ten seconds, not a new creative. Pair it with the aspect ratio checker so the words and the visual are both placement-correct before anything goes near a launch.
Why character counts are really a bulk-launch problem
Counting one ad is trivial. The cost shows up at volume. A weekly creative test is rarely one ad - it is five concepts with three copy variants each, fanned across several ad sets. In a bulk launch the same primary text, headline and description are applied verbatim to every ad in the batch, so one overlong headline is not one truncated ad, it is forty. uplads was built inside an Austrian performance marketing agency where launching dozens of variants per client every week was the Monday-morning grind, and a copy length mistake found in reporting three days later was a recurring tax. uplads renders the Feed “See more” clamp in its launch preview so the clip is at least visible, but it deliberately does not count characters or rewrite copy - that decision belongs to you, here, before the launch. It does accept up to five primary-text and five headline variants per launch that Meta then optimizes, so trim every variant against the limits first, name them with the naming convention generator , and read the creative testing guide for the workflow around it. Clean copy in, clean launch out.
Frequently asked questions
What is the character limit for a Facebook ad?
There are three separate fields, each with its own limit. Meta recommends about 125 characters for the primary text (the body copy above the creative), about 40 characters for the headline, and about 30 characters for the link description (20 on carousel and in-stream). Those are the recommended lengths - the points where the text starts getting clipped in feed. The technical maximums are much higher (roughly 3,000 characters for primary text and 255 for the headline), but writing to the technical maximum means most of the ad copy is hidden behind a 'See more' tap.
Does the Facebook ad character count include spaces?
Yes. Every character counts toward the limit - letters, numbers, spaces, line breaks, punctuation and emoji. An emoji often counts as two characters because of how it is encoded. This counter counts exactly what Meta counts, so the number you see is the number that decides whether your copy gets truncated.
What is the recommended primary text length for Facebook ads?
About 125 characters. Facebook and Instagram Feed show roughly the first 125 characters of the primary text and then collapse the rest behind a '… See more' link that most people never tap. You can write more - the field accepts thousands of characters - but the hook, the offer and the reason to click should all live inside the first 125 so they survive the fold on mobile devices.
What is the Facebook ad headline character limit?
The headline recommended length is about 40 characters, and the technical maximum is 255. On mobile Feed the visible headline is often closer to 27 characters before it truncates, so a 40-character headline can still get clipped on a phone. Carousel cards and in-stream placements give the headline even less room. Keep the headline to a single, scannable benefit.
Do Facebook ad character limits change by placement?
Yes, and that is the main reason a single global counter is not enough. Feed gives you the most text room and shows the link description. Instagram Feed hides the link description entirely. Stories and Reels overlay the primary text on the creative where it competes with the interface, so only the first line reliably reads, and there is no link description at all. Carousel and in-stream cut the link description to about 20 characters. The checker above shows a verdict for each field in each placement so you are not guessing.
Is there a free Facebook ads character counter?
Yes. This one is free, needs no signup or email, and runs entirely in your browser - nothing you type is sent or stored. Unlike a generic social-post counter, it counts the three Facebook ad fields separately, applies the per-placement limits for Feed, Stories, Reels and carousel, and shows a live 'See more' preview so you can see exactly what gets cut before you build the ad.
Trimmed copy in, clean bulk launch out
Once every variant clears its limits, applying that copy across a 50-ad creative test by hand is the slow part. uplads applies your primary text, headline and description to every ad and ad set in one bulk launch, with up to five variants Meta optimizes - so the hours a week that manual launching eats go back to the work that moves CPA.