What is the limit for extended tweets?

[boxnumber03]

I noticed some tweets with more than 280 characters.
What is the actual limit if there is one?
Where is this limit documented?

[andypiper]

Please provide example Tweet IDs.

[boxnumber03]

932694869184692225

I see what is happening. The 280 limit does not include user handles.

Does the 280 limit not include anything else besides user handles?
Is there a limit to the full_text field size?

[LeBraat]

Quick answer:
The 280 limit does not include user handles or attachment URLs
There is no limit to the full_text field.

Here is some language on our developer support site that addresses this post:

Tweet object changes

The following things change within Tweet payloads:

The displayed text in a Tweet does not exceed the Tweet text length limit, but - when usernames or attachment URLs are included at the appropriate points in the Tweet - the text content of the overall Tweet JSON object will be able to exceed the Tweet text length limit. Developers must avoid hard-coding length assumptions into their applications.

The text shall be logically divided into three regions:

A hidden prefix region that may contain one or more space-separated @mentions which shall not be rendered as part of the display text, but must instead be rendered as metadata.

A display text region, which matches the Tweet text length limit.

A hidden suffix region that may contain one attachment URL which shall not be rendered as part of the display text, but must instead be rendered as metadata. This region is limited to containing a single URL entity that identifies an attachment resource: currently, one to four photos, a GIF, video, poll, Quote Tweet, or DM deep link.

Here is a link to this article: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/tweet-updates

[andypiper]

Indeed this is the same update logic that applies when user handles from organic replies were moved to metadata. Use the visible text parameters to determine what should be displayed as Tweet content.

[jfriedl]

Regarding “The 280 limit does not include user handles or attachment URLs”, could I ask where this 280-character limit documented? I find plenty of documents on exactly how characters are counted toward the limit, but nothing that says what the limit is. At times the limit has been specific to the user, so I figure it must be part of the account data, but I can’t find it.

In particular, it’d be nice if the limit was referenced on https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/post-and-engage/api-reference/post-statuses-update

Thanks,
Jeffrey

[jfriedl]

Your “quick answer” didn’t actually answer either of his questions: what is the actual limit, and where is it documented? I can find NO DOCUMENTATION for any character limit in the API docs. News articles (which are not developer docs) about limits say explicitly that there are different limits for some people vs. others, so HOW CAN A DEVELOPER KNOW WHAT LIMITS TO IMPOSE ON A PER-USER BASIS if Twitter doesn’t make this information clear?

[andypiper]

You seem to be frustrated, but the current best information is at https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/tweet-updates and indeed that does not explicitly specify a 280 character limit for non CJK languages - this is potentially an evolving space. We will work to improve the API documentation over the coming months.

The twitter-text library is a good source of algorithms for counting the valid characters in a language-dependent way.