Telegram character limit
4,096 characters in a message — 1,024 once you attach a photo or video.
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Telegram limits
- Character limit
- 4,096 characters
- With a photo or video
- 1,024 characters
- Counted as
- characters, emoji included
The Telegram character limit is 4,096 characters for a message, and 1,024 for a caption on a post that carries a photo or video. Paste your text above to count it. The second number is the one that catches people out: it is a quarter of the first, and almost nothing documents it.
Both are the Bot API's own figures. A plain message goes out through sendMessage and takes 4,096. The moment there is media the text becomes a caption on sendPhoto, sendVideo or sendMediaGroup, and the cap drops to 1,024.
What makes it a trap is the failure mode. Nothing warns you — the send succeeds and the text is cut at 1,024, so the post looks finished to you and ends mid-sentence for everyone reading the channel.
If a post needs both a picture and more than 1,024 characters, send the text as its own message and the media separately, or move the detail into a linked post. Formatting is counted as the text it renders, not as the markup around it.
Questions
What is the character limit on Telegram?
4,096 characters for a message. A caption on a post that carries a photo or video takes 1,024.
Why does my Telegram caption get cut at 1,024 characters?
Because a post with media uses the caption field, which is capped at 1,024 rather than 4,096. Nothing warns you: the send succeeds and the text is truncated.
Can I post more than 4,096 characters to Telegram?
Not as one message. Split it, or publish the long version elsewhere and link to it.
Does formatting count toward the Telegram limit?
The text does, the markup does not. Bold and links are counted as the characters they render.