Bluesky Character Limit: 300, and What Links and Emoji Cost

A Bluesky post can hold 300 characters, counted as graphemes, plus a hard cap of 3,000 bytes. In the Bluesky app, an emoji counts as 1 and a link counts as a shortened version of itself, so most posts fit more than people expect.

What counts toward the 300

A grapheme is what you'd point at and call one character. It's the unit Bluesky's post schema uses, so the count follows what you see, not how the text is stored.

Mentions catch people out. Bluesky handles are domain names, so @alice.bsky.social costs 18 and a custom-domain handle can cost more. Three mentions can use a fifth of a post.

How the Bluesky app shortens links

Before the app saves your post, it rewrites every link in the text to a short form. The rule, from the app's open-source code:

1. Drop the https://.
2. Keep the domain, www. included.
3. Keep the path, query and anchor if they're 15 characters or fewer together.
4. Otherwise keep the first 13 characters of them and add "...".

The full address stays attached to the link, so it still opens the right page. The counter in the composer measures the short form too, which is why a long link barely moves it. Some real examples:

So in the app, a link never costs more than its domain plus 16. Tracking parameters are free after the first 13 characters, and a long domain costs more than a long path.

One trap: the app only shortens links that start with http:// or https://. Type example.com/blog/notes-from-our-first-month without the prefix and it still becomes a link, but it counts all 43 characters. Paste the full address and you save 16.

Links through schedulers and the API

The shortening happens in the Bluesky app, not on Bluesky's servers. Bluesky's servers check whatever text arrives against the 300-grapheme and 3,000-byte limits. So a tool that posts through the API, a scheduler included, gets the count that matches the text it sends:

• If it shortens links the way the app does, a link costs the short form.
• If it sends the full address, the full address counts, and readers see it in full.

Shaflex sends links in full, so in a Shaflex draft a link costs its full length on Bluesky. If you're tight on space, move the link into a reply under the post.

That's why answers to "does a link count on Bluesky" disagree: each one describes a different way of posting. The free Bluesky character counter shows both numbers for your draft: the app's count with short links, and the count with links in full.

The 3,000-byte cap

Bluesky's post schema also caps the text at 3,000 bytes, measured in UTF-8. Most text never gets near it:

• English text is 1 byte per character, so 300 characters is 300 bytes.
• Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters are 3 bytes each, so a full post is 900.
• A simple emoji like 🚀 is 4 bytes, and a flag like 🇺🇦 is 8.
• A four-person family emoji is 25 bytes. 120 of them reach 3,000, well before 300 graphemes.

Unless your post is mostly long emoji sequences, the 300 is the limit you'll hit first.

Bluesky's 300 vs X's 280

Bluesky allows 20 more characters than X on paper. In practice the gap depends on what you write, because X weighs some characters double:

A post in English with no links fits both at 280 or under. A post in Japanese fits 140 characters on X and 300 on Bluesky. Links can go either way: a long one costs more on Bluesky than on X, and a short one costs less. The guide to how each network counts characters covers all five networks side by side.

Link cards cost nothing

When you paste a link, the Bluesky app offers a card with the page's title, description and image. The card is stored apart from the text, so it doesn't count toward the 300.

Two details from Bluesky's post schema and app code:

• One attachment per post. A post carries images, a video, a link card or a quoted post, and a quote can be combined with media. Images and a link card can't share a post, so the card is dropped when you add a photo.
• The card stays if you delete the link text. In the app, removing the URL from your text doesn't remove the card; only its close button does. If you're out of room, delete the URL and let the card carry the link.

When 300 isn't enough

The 300 is part of the post schema that Bluesky's servers check, so no setting, app or subscription raises it. You have two options:

1. Cut. Most drafts lose 30 characters by dropping filler words, a greeting or a second example.
2. Write a thread. Each post in a Bluesky thread gets its own 300. Our guide to writing a thread that works on every network covers where to split and whether to number the parts, and the free thread maker splits long text at sentence breaks.

In Shaflex, Bluesky gets its own copy of your draft with its own limit, and Split automatically turns a long draft into a thread where sentences end. Here's how to schedule Bluesky posts step by step.

Sources

Checked on October 19, 2026.

• AT Protocol lexicon: app.bsky.feed.post (300 graphemes, 3,000 bytes, one embed per post)
• AT Protocol: Lexicon spec (string length in UTF-8 bytes and graphemes)
• AT Protocol lexicon: com.atproto.repo.createRecord (servers validate known record types)
• Bluesky app source: toShortUrl, shortenLinks and the post step that calls it
• Bluesky app source: composer state and composer (the counter measures the shortened text; only the card's remove button removes the card)
• Bluesky app source: constants (300 per post, 2,000 for alt text)
• X developer docs: Counting characters