Cliff

What's the post character count limit for your instance on Mastodon?

Meaning, when you make a post here on Mastodon, how many characters per post can you type?

For example, currently #AllThingsTech has the default Mastodon 500 character count limit.

If your instance has more than a 1,000 character count limit, please comment and let me know.

Please BOOST for maximum exposure to the #Fediverse

#Poll #Polls #POTD #Question #Questions #QOTD #CharacterCount #Limit

500 character count limit
58.1%
501 - 1,000 character count limit
4.9%
1,001 - 1,500 character count limit
8.5%
1,501 or more character count limit
28.5%
Poll ended at .
Jan 11, 2025 at 10:49amWeb
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@andycarolan Can you tell me what the character limit per post is on social.lol please?
Show threadAndy CarolanJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade I believe it’s 500 characters. At least, that’s what Ivory reports the limit as.
Show threadJakub Klawiter Jan 12, 2025

@cliffwade
500

@andycarolan

Show thread🌈 Barbapulpe 😇 ᴹᵃˢᵗᵒᵈᵒⁿJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade
I decided our instance should allow people to express themselves beyond the small-ish original limit, as most social networks now do, so I set a 5,000 characters limit. In practice no one here seldom uses it, but we do see 1,000 to 1,500 characters occasionally. It's just nice to know you can and don't need to break up a long message into small parts, I have used that capability in an announcement I made yesterday.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@barbapulpe That is awesome and I totally agree. I hate the 500 character limit and think that default needs to be changed. 5,000 would be good, though not something I'd use. I feel I'd be good with about 1,500 or so.
Show threadparavelJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Flipboard.social has a character limit of 5000 though don't really know why one would need so many as during all my time on these short text social media platforms I've never really crossed 700 characters.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@paravel 5,000 is indeed pretty excessive like you said. I feel I'd only ever use 1,000 - 1,500 or so at the most, but having that 5,000 just in case is super nice.
Show threadTénno Seremél’Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 100500. Literally.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@tennoseremel HOLY! 100,500? Who decided on that and does anyone ever come close to using that amount?
Show threadTénno Seremél’Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade The admin, likely 🤭 Haven’t seen posts that long yet, but there *were* some quite long ones (kind of short‐ish stories).
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025

@tennoseremel That's just crazy, in a good, weird way.

Maybe I need to create an account on your instance if I ever decide not to run my own. 🤪

Show threadTénno Seremél’Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade It’s good to have plan B in any case 
Show threadMarkus Redeker 🐘Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 1729. If you know why it is this number, you belong to the intended audience. 🙂 (But even if not, you still can get an account.)
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025

@mrdk Oh, what a strange number. I had to Google it, so I'm curious, is it because of this?

1729, the Hardy-Ramanujan Number, is the smallest number which can be expressed as the sum of two different cubes in two different ways.

Show threadMarkus Redeker 🐘Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade “I'm curious, is it because of this?” — Yes, that's why. The number itself is not really important, but it is a well-known part of mathematical folklore.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@mrdk Very interesting indeed. Definitely a nice little thing to add to the instance.
Show threadOrbitalMartianJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Here on Polymaths, we have been granted 5000 characters which is plenty for our Hellthreads.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@orbitalmartian That's a large amount. I don't think I'd ever use that much as I feel 1,500 - 2,000 is about the max I'd use, but still would be nice to have.
Show threadSzymon Sokół 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 5000
Show threadAlexTECPlayzJan 11, 2025

@cliffwade techhub.social seems to have a 1024 character limit, but my own instance (social.vantainteractive.com) goes all the way up to 30000 characters.

From what I remember, Mastodon or other Fedi software may have issues with content longer than ~35(?)K characters, so I just set it to 30K. I probably won't write that much (longer content should be a note or post on my site), but you never know when you have a specific situation that requires content THAT long.

Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@alextecplayz I don't think 1,024 would be enough for me personally. I'd love to have 1,500 - 2,000, though having up to 5,000 would be super nice just in case.
Show threadHeather Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade ComicsCamp.Club has a 1500 character limit. 
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@Rheall 1,500 is a good amount. Not too much, not too little.
Show threadYohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Our instance, C.IM is max 5,000 characters.
Show threadYohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한Jan 11, 2025

@youronlyone @cliffwade While Vivaldi Social is 1337.

(I wonder how many will get the pop culture reference of Vivaldi's character limit. 🤔)

Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025

@youronlyone Haha, love that they chose 1,337 for their character limit.

@youronlyone

Show threadYohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한Jan 11, 2025

@cliffwade Yep! I think they quietly adjusted it last year. Made me smile when I noticed, it was brilliant.

@youronlyone

Show threadKierunkowy74Jan 11, 2025

@cliffwade
A round number of 2048

(All three largest Polish instances: 101010.pl, pol.social and Mastodon.com.pl share that character limit)

Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@74 Very nice! That's a good amount to have to be honest.
Show threadAlexia ΘΔJan 11, 2025

@cliffwade

infinite
no, really, infinite

Show threadGabbo the wafrn dev guyJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade @alexia actualy 100k I think
Show thread🖤 vea 💖Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 2,500!
Show threadlookitmychickenJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade blorbo.social has a 3,000-character limit
Show threadshellsharksJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Mines at 15000 😅
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@shellsharks Very nice!
Show threadDaveJan 11, 2025

@cliffwade It's 1700 here on mathstodon.xyz, which I think is pretty generous.

What should it be? I don't know, but I think 640K characters should be enough for anyone. 😜

Show threadKen BruckerJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade My limit looks to have recently changed from 500ish to 2263(?) What a curious number.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@sigsegv That's certainly an odd number. I'd be curious to know why it was chosen.
Show threadLeon CowleJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade @sigsegv a geeky reason: the year in which The Fifth Element takes place. 😂
Show threadMarielle QuintonJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade It's 2222 here, which is a great number.
Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@mariellequinton Interesting. Why 2222 of all numbers I wonder?
Show threadMarielle QuintonJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Not sure, but my instance is running the hometown fork and it presumably comes from that.
Show threadBarbara MonacoJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade I would like more characters. However, I really like my instance, and I am sure there is a good reason for the limit of 500.
It has improved my writing, making it more focused and precise.
Show threadRitalin InviteesJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade
Beige has 11001, I believe. Which is fine, as far as it goes, but I know at least one instance which has 64k, I think, and that's where the money is.
Show threadDrunk On TeaJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade mine is 2000
Show threadpixelgeekJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 4004. Is that a bad thing?
Show threadJenkinsJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade I just recently stood up this single-user instance running on GoToSocial and the default character limit per post is 5000. I like it.
Show threadyelling jackalJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 5000! It's nice.
Show threadMike Macgirvin 🖥️Jan 11, 2025
Hubzilla, streams, and forte have no defined character limit, but may limit the size of incoming federated posts/comments. The default import limit is 200k - and posts/comments up to 24M can be stored in the database.
Show thread-dsr- (not a dog)Jan 11, 2025

@cliffwade

@nyrath

Five thousand characters here at tilde.zone. Usual mix of fedi weirdos and reasonable rules.

Show threadBadass Britt Jan 11, 2025

@cliffwade When we change hosting providers, one of the first things I did was increase the character count. We’re now at 1024 (cheeky) characters.

I find that people are using it and enjoying having more space to share their thoughts.

Show threadCliffJan 11, 2025
@britt Very nice! I feel as much as I like to ramble and as long winded as I am, I might need more than 1024. LOL
Show threadBadass Britt Jan 12, 2025

@cliffwade Hey! I totally didn’t read the room when I replied here … I didn’t know at the time that your instance was shutting down. I’m very sorry to hear this, you’re absolutely one of the good ones.

Is there any way I can be of help?

Show threadCliffJan 12, 2025

@britt Haha, no worries at all. The decision hadn't been made at the time to be honest. Though it's something Kyle and I have been discussing for a bit.

I appreciate the kind words, truly I do.

Nothing that I can think of at the moment but I appreciate the offer and will let you know if that changes.

I'll obviously still be here, just in a slightly different location. 🤪

Show threadMaltheaJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade 2000 on mastodon.au
Show threadAurora 🏳️‍🌈 :Dahlia-Unicode-Pink:Jan 11, 2025
@cliffwade My instance has no character limit anywhere. So refreshing.
Show threadSteve LeachJan 11, 2025
@cliffwade Ooops.. bad click.... not seeing a way to clear and re-vote correctly. Dern. Survey currently lists one to many 1.5K+ instance votes... grr.. arg..