What is the character limit for the first line of a LinkedIn post?
LinkedIn truncates posts at approximately 210 characters on desktop before showing "see more," though mobile often cuts off earlier, around 140 characters depending on screen size. To be safe across devices, aim to make your hook's core point within the first 140–150 characters rather than relying on the full desktop limit.
The truncation point isn't a fixed, published number — LinkedIn doesn't document an exact character count, and the cutoff varies slightly by device, font rendering, and whether the post includes line breaks, since each line break consumes vertical space that counts toward when "see more" appears. This is why the widely cited figure of roughly 210 characters should be treated as an approximation, not a precise rule to write against.
Mobile is the tighter constraint in practice, since the majority of LinkedIn traffic happens on phones and mobile screens show noticeably less text before truncating than desktop does. A hook that fits neatly within 210 characters on desktop can still get cut off mid-sentence on a phone, which is why writers who account only for the desktop number often end up with awkward truncation points in the wild.
Line breaks compound this — a post that uses a line break after the first sentence effectively "spends" more of its visible character budget on that one line, since LinkedIn counts vertical space, not just character count, when deciding where to insert "see more." A short, punchy first line followed by a line break can actually get less visible text on mobile than a longer first line with no break at all. The safest approach is writing the hook to fully land within roughly 140 characters, then treating anything beyond that as a bonus rather than something you're relying on being seen.
Key Points
- Desktop truncation happens around 210 characters, but this is an approximation, not a documented rule
- Mobile cuts off earlier than desktop, often around 140 characters, and carries most LinkedIn traffic
- Line breaks consume vertical space and can trigger truncation earlier than the raw character count suggests
- Write your hook to fully land within roughly 140 characters to be safe across devices
Example
A consultant writes a hook that reads perfectly on desktop at 200 characters, but checks it on their phone and finds it cuts off mid-sentence at "I spent three years building a process that..." — an incomplete thought that doesn't earn a click. They shorten the hook to under 140 characters so it lands as a complete statement on both devices.
Related Questions
Does LinkedIn ever change the truncation point?
The exact cutoff has shifted before as LinkedIn updates its app and web layouts, which is another reason to write hooks with margin rather than targeting the limit precisely.
Do line breaks always hurt visibility before the truncation point?
Not always — a short, high-impact first line can still be worth a line break for readability. The tradeoff is fewer characters visible before "see more," which is only a problem if the hook needed those extra characters to land.