LinkedIn Ads Character Limits (2026 Reference)

LinkedIn enforces the strictest headline cap of any B2B-relevant network: 70 characters hard, with no expansion link to rescue overflow. Type character 71 and the field rejects it at submit. Below: every limit, what happens when you exceed it, and how to fit copy cleanly.

Sponsored Content (single image, video, document, event)

• Introductory text: 600 characters max, but truncates to ~150 characters on desktop and ~100 characters on mobile before the *…see more* link appears
• Headline: 70 characters hard cap, no truncation rescue — what you write is what shows
• Description: 100 characters, only displayed in some placements (LinkedIn Audience Network, desktop right rail)
• Destination URL: 2,000 characters

Text Ads (desktop right rail only)

• Headline: 25 characters
• Description: 75 characters
• Image: 100x100px

Carousel Ads

• Intro text: 255 characters before truncation
• Headline per card: 45 characters if no destination URL on the card, 30 characters if the card has its own URL (the CTA arrow eats space)
• Up to 10 cards per carousel

Message Ads & Conversation Ads

• Subject line: 60 characters
• Message body: 1,500 characters for Message Ads; 500 characters per node in Conversation Ads
• Custom CTA button: 20 characters
• Sender name: must be a real person on your Page

Document Ads

Use Sponsored Content limits for the surrounding copy. Document itself: 300 pages or 100MB max, PDF/DOC/DOCX/PPT/PPTX.

Why the 70-char headline cap exists

LinkedIn's feed renders the headline in a fixed-height card to keep the feed scannable in a professional context. Other platforms (Meta, X) hide overflow behind *See more*; LinkedIn made a product call not to. Headlines that wrap to a third line break the card grid, so they hard-stopped it at the field level.

Byte vs. character gotchas

LinkedIn counts visible characters, not bytes — but emoji are inconsistent. A standard emoji (😀) counts as 1 in the editor but renders 2-wide visually, eating layout space. Combined emoji using zero-width joiners (👨‍💻, 👩🏽‍🚀) sometimes count as 2-3 characters. Smart quotes, em dashes, and accented characters count as 1. Right-to-left scripts (Arabic, Hebrew) count cleanly but reduce effective scan-width by ~10% due to font metrics.

What happens when you exceed

• Headline, description, subject, CTA: editor blocks input past the cap. No silent truncation.
• Intro text past ~150 chars: not rejected, just hidden behind *…see more*. Free to expand (no CPC charge), but most viewers won't.
• URLs: rejected at submit if over 2,000 chars — strip UTM bloat or use a redirect.

Rules for fitting copy

• Front-load the proper noun or number: *"Salesforce admins save 6 hrs/week with…"* beats *"Save time with our new tool for…"*
• Cut articles (a, the, our) before cutting verbs
• Avoid ALL CAPS — LinkedIn's quality filter throttles delivery on shouty creative, and caps double the visual width
• Question headlines underperform statements in B2B by ~15-20% on CTR in our experience; save them for retargeting
• Test 2-3 headline variants per ad set; LinkedIn's CTR variance between headlines is wider than between creatives

Example

Original draft headline: *"Discover how our AI-powered platform helps mid-market CFOs close their books faster"* (87 chars — over by 17).

Trimmed to fit 70: *"How mid-market CFOs close the books 4 days faster with AI"* (58 chars). Front-loaded the audience, dropped the brand mention (it's already on the ad as the page name), added the specific number.

Questions