I’ve found that knowing in advance exactly how many characters you can squeeze into any text field on LinkedIn saves me a lot of time and frustration.
So I’ve been putting together a list of maximum character counts and limits on my blog since 2015. This is the 5th ‘edition’ of my list and I’ve included the latest cut-offs and image sizes too. My aim is to continue to provide the most comprehensive and up to date guidance available anywhere on the internet, so if I’ve overlooked any count, or a limit/size has changed – please let me know in comments/via email. Thanks!
I’ve recently UPDATED the list! You can find my 2021 guide here: LinkedIn Character Count & Image Size Guide (2021)
Please bookmark and share, not necessarily in that order 😉
Your LinkedIn Profile:
Banner/Hero image:1584 x 396 pixels (4:1 proportion)
Profile photo: any size between 400 x 400 & 20,000 x 20,000 pixels will work
Name: first name: 20 characters, last name: 40 characters
Headline: 220 character limit (increased from 120 in April 2020)
Summary / About: 2,600 character limit (used to be 2,000)
Summary / About: cut-off desktop: 270-320 characters (before clicking ‘See more’)
Summary / About: cut-off mobile: 20-25 characters
Position title: 100 character limit
Position description: 200 character minimum (2000 max)
Rich media: 6 per experience entry, 4 visible
Recommendations: 3,000 character limit
Recommendations visible: 2 (ordered by date)
Skills: 50 max
Endorsements: 99 (count) visible, unlimited
Top skills (most visible): 3
Your Contact Info:
Website Anchor text: 30 maximum characters
Website URL: 256 maximum characters
Vanity (custom) URL: 5-30 characters (after ‘www.linkedin.com/in/’)
Phone number: 25 character limit
IM (Instant message): 25 character limit
Address: 1,000 character limit
Your LinkedIn Status Updates (Posts):
Post cut-off: 210 characters or less (before clicking ‘See more’)
Post body: 1,300 characters
LinkedIn Publisher (Articles)
Article headline: 100 characters
Photo credit: 250 characters
Article body: 40,000 characters
Publisher cover image: 698 x 400 pixels
Publisher post link: 1200 x 628 pixels
Your LinkedIn Groups:
Membership: 100 groups max
Discussion title: 200 characters
Discussion body text: 2000 characters
Comments: 1000 characters (per comment)
Pending new group invitations: 10
LinkedIn Company Page
Company name: 100 characters
Page description (About Us): 200 minimum, 1500 max
Status update (Update Tab): 700 characters (250 characters with link)
Cover image: 1536 x 768 pixels
LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn text ad headline: 25 character limit
LinkedIn text Ad message body: 75 character limit
LinkedIn direct sponsored content: 160 character limit
Misc.
Following: you can follow an unlimited number of members
InMail: 200 characters (title/subject), 1,900 (body text)
Comments (post/articles) 1,750 character max
LinkedIn ‘1st Degree’ Network: 30,000
Invitations to connect message: 300 characters
Invitations to connect: 3000 – 5,000 (approx.)
Member blocking: 1,000 blocks
A really useful tool which will count your characters for you: lettercount
Other Useful Stuff…
Struggling to write that LinkedIn summary? Are you looking for inspiration? Check out these 4 stunningly good (real life) summary examples: 4 Stunningly Good LinkedIn Summaries
Want to understand how LinkedIn decides who sees your posts? Read this: The LinkedIn Algorithm Explained In 25 Frequently Asked Questions
Hire Me: I provide LinkedIn Consulting Services
Professionals hire me because they wish they could write like me and they trust in my ability to fix their LinkedIn problems.
I’m currently accepting new clients (36 characters, 5 words).
I’ve recently tested both a Personal Page Status Update and a Company Page Status Update, and I’m seeing character limits of 1,298 for each.
Did the invitation character limit change for anyone else? Today my limit dropped from 300 to 140!
Thanks Andy! These are priceless! Sharing on Twitter and FB too!
Thanks Heidi 🙂
What a great resource! Thanks for putting it together for all of us.
Thanks Brian!
Great information Andy Thanks! I want your help to know the limit of invitations per month on Linkedin. Time ago I read It was 3000 per month. But I have not found new information about that. Do you know if that have changed, or is still 3000 invitations to connect per month the limit for Premium Professional accounts? thanks
I’ve heard that it is either 50 or 75 per day – though why you’d want to do that is beyond me. LinkedIn isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a numbers game. But do your own thang, I guess. ps LinkedIn could ban or shut you down permanently if it thinks you are using automation software.
Hi – I recently tried to update my LinkedIn Summary and I was not allowed. It said my summary went over the max character limits, but I was not over 2000 – any ideas on this?
Try doing it in a different web browser, keep deleting until you can ‘save’. Do a word count – if it is significantly less than 2,000 characters (not words!) contact LinkedIn customer service and ask them why.
Andy one must remember that empty spaces between words count as characters. Just my two cents.
I don’t think so Edward, https://www.quora.com/Does-word-count-include-the-spacing-between-words-in-a-sentence
Andy perhaps a distinction is being made. If one looks closely at the MS word count box there is a line for word count and a totally separate line for character count without spaces and one including spaces. I suspect that since LinkedIn is a MS product now they have decided to include spaces in the CHARACTER count. Make of this what you will.
The plot thickens Edward.
Ditto what Andy said. Also, I work from a Word document and use the Word Count function (with fury) to bring the character count to where it needs to be and then move the content over to LinkedIn. Saves time, effort and ‘over the character count’ frustration.
But not already being over 2000 is odd. Good luck!
Andy,
Can you please say more about how to do the following:
Headline: 120 character limit (try editing on mobile app for extra characters!)
Thanks
Maurie
I think you covered it Maurie 🙂 – currently (but LinkedIn has shut this loophole at least once, so do this while you can) it’s possible to get an extended LinkedIn headline by editing your headline while using the LinkedIn mobile app, I’ve seen headlines with over 200 characters!
Great resource, Andy – Thanks for putting this all in one place. If you come up with any thoughts on what’s behind the unexplained volatility in # profile views, I’d love to know.
Thanks Mark. I’ve got some theories, none of them proven 🙁
Thanks Andy. Appreciate your making LinkedIn Life easier!
I appreciate you Vatsala!
This will be of great help once my website is ready for public consumption AND I create intelligent and pithy written content!
Thanks as always Anastasia 🙂
While the character limits help me to
continuously improve my editing skills 😎
this guide really helps. Thanks!
Thanks Brian!
Andy: Thank you for letting the community know what the limits are for all fields. It’s annoying to have worked on a section, offline, only to have it rejected due to character limits.
You are welcome jenny, this guide was born out of frustration 🙂
Andy: Thank you for giving us real solutions to real problems. Keep them coming!
Thanks Colleen!
Yes, it can be frustrating Jenny. I work from a Word document and use the Word Count function (with fury) to bring the character count to where it needs to be and then move the content over to LinkedIn. Saves time, effort and ‘over the character count’ frustration.
Andy: as always great information.
Thanks Carla! Great technique btw.
Me too, Carla – also saves the high anxiety that can happen when you’ve typed carefully into the section, clicked on Save, and something goes ka-blooey! If the content isn’t saved in a program like Word, you’ve got to start all over again…no fun at all:) It’s a common question asked in The Help Center: “ARGHH! I was typing in my profile and suddenly it shut down. How do I recover what I already typed?” Answer: You’re sunk. Sorry, buddy.
Thanks for sharing this useful info, Andy!
Absolutely Victoria. The same with developing web content one would not just type on the live platform itself. Great to see you chime in. 🙂