How long should a LinkedIn post be?
LinkedIn allows 3,000 characters per post, and almost nobody should use them all. The length that works is the length one idea needs, laid out so a reader on a phone can follow it — and the only line that has to be short is the first one, because the feed folds the rest behind “see more” after roughly three lines. This guide gives you the two limits that matter, a way to pick the length for the post in front of you, and the formatting that keeps a long post readable.
Know the two limits, and which one matters
The hard limit is 3,000 characters; past it, LinkedIn will not let you post. The limit that decides whether anyone reads you comes much earlier: in the feed, a post is cut after about three lines — roughly 210 characters on a desktop screen, less on a phone — and everything after that sits behind a “…more” link. Nobody hits the first limit by accident. Almost everyone wastes the second one by opening with a sentence that says nothing yet.
Spend the first line on the reader, not on a warm-up
Whatever the post's length, the part before the fold has one job: give the reader a reason to tap “more”. That rules out “I'm excited to share”, a date, or a greeting. Put the claim, the number or the question in line one and break the line right after it. A first line that runs past about 80 characters wraps and gets cut mid-thought on a phone, so keep it shorter than that.
Let one idea set the length
A post is as long as one idea needs, plus one example. If that takes 400 characters, stop at 400; if it needs 1,500, take them. A rule of thumb that holds up: a single observation with a line of context fits in a few hundred characters, a lesson with a short story behind it needs closer to a thousand, and anything you cannot make in 1,500 is probably two posts. Length by itself earns nothing — a long post that holds attention beats a short one that does not, and the reverse is just as true.
Cut before you format
Read the draft once for sentences that repeat the previous one in different words, for the paragraph of background the reader does not need in order to get the point, and for the closing summary that restates the opening. Most drafts lose a third of their length here without losing anything the reader wanted. Cut those first; only then decide how to lay out what is left.
Lay it out for a phone
Much of LinkedIn is read on a phone, where a five-line paragraph becomes a wall. One thought per line, a blank line between thoughts, and lists as separate lines rather than commas. White space is not padding; it is what lets someone skim to the part they came for. A 1,200-character post with room to breathe reads faster than a 600-character block.
Finish with one thing, not three
Hashtags, a link, a question and a call to action are four endings; use one, at most two. If you want a comment, ask one specific question. Keep hashtags to a handful at the very end — they are for discovery, not decoration — and if you add a link, make sure the post still makes its point for the people who never click it.
Check it where it will be read
Before you post, look at the draft the way the feed will show it: where the fold falls, what the first line says on its own, how long it really is. MediaPilot's free post preview at media-pilot.io/tools/linkedin-post-preview does exactly that in the browser, with the character count against 3,000 and a warning when the first line is too long to survive the cut.