Last updated: September 2026
Does a link count toward Bluesky's 300-character limit?
Yes. Bluesky gives links no discount: every character of the URL counts toward 300 graphemes. Through the API, and through OpenTweet, a link counts at its full length. The bsky.app composer only shortens how the link is displayed.
That difference is why a post that looks fine in the app can come back too long from a tool, and why a post that fits X can miss Bluesky.
What Bluesky's own maintainers say
In February 2025 someone asked on the atproto GitHub whether Bluesky counts links as 23 characters the way Twitter and Mastodon do. A Bluesky maintainer answered that links "are not counted in any special way", and that every character in the text itself counts the same.
The same reply explains the part that confuses people. The Bluesky app uses rich text facets to show a shortened version of a URL while keeping the full URL as the link target. That is a choice the app makes when you compose there. A post created through the API gets no such treatment unless the client building it does the same thing. Source: atproto discussion #3517 on GitHub.
Why the app and a tool disagree
Paste a long URL into bsky.app and the composer displays a shortened form, so it looks like it costs less. Send the same text through the API and every character of the URL is in the post text. OpenTweet sends it at full length and makes it clickable, so count it at full length.Do spaces count?
Yes. The limit is 300 graphemes, meaning 300 user-perceived characters, and a space is one of them. So is a line break. There is no Bluesky character limit without spaces: if you are counting words and leaving out whitespace, you are undercounting.
Under the grapheme limit sits a 3,000-byte ceiling. Plain English never reaches it before 300 graphemes. It only comes into play for text made mostly of multi-byte characters.
A quick check before sending: paste the draft into the Bluesky character counter, which counts links at full length the way the API does.
The same link on X
X counts every URL as 23 characters no matter how long it is. That single rule is where most cross-posts that fit X and miss Bluesky come from. As of September 2026:
Worked example: 180 characters of text plus a 120-character URL. On X that is 180 + 23 = 203, well under 280. On Bluesky, sent through the API, it is 180 + 120 = 300 graphemes, right at the limit. Add one more word and it no longer fits Bluesky, while X still has room to spare.
What OpenTweet does with it
OpenTweet makes links and mentions in a Bluesky post clickable. It does not shorten links, does not attach link cards and does not split long text into a thread. A cross-post over 300 graphemes is skipped on Bluesky with the reason recorded, and still publishes on X.
{
"posts": [
{
"id": "66f0a1c2e4b0a1c2e4b0a1c2",
"results": [
{ "platform": "x", "status": "published" },
{
"platform": "bluesky",
"status": "skipped",
"skip_reason": "This post is 312 characters, over the 300 Bluesky allows."
}
]
}
]
}If you cross-post often, trim URLs before they go into the draft. The guide to posting on X and Bluesky at the same time covers the other limits that differ, and cross-posting covers how one draft reaches both.
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Frequently asked questions
Does a link count toward Bluesky's 300-character limit?
Yes. Bluesky does not give links special treatment: every character of the URL counts. Through the API, and through OpenTweet, the link counts at its full length. The bsky.app composer shortens how a link is displayed, which is why a long URL can look cheaper in the app.
Do spaces count toward the Bluesky character limit?
Yes. The limit is 300 graphemes of text, and a space is a grapheme like any letter. Line breaks count too. There is also a 3,000-byte ceiling underneath, which only matters for text heavy in multi-byte characters.
How does X count the same link?
X counts every URL as 23 characters, whether it is a short domain or a 200-character tracking link. So a post with a long URL can fit X at 280 and still be over 300 on Bluesky.
Does OpenTweet shorten links or add link cards on Bluesky?
No. OpenTweet makes links and mentions clickable on Bluesky but does not shorten them and does not attach link cards. A post over 300 graphemes is skipped on Bluesky with the reason recorded and still publishes on X. Nothing is truncated or auto-split.
How do I fit a long URL into a Bluesky post?
Trim the URL before it goes in: drop tracking parameters, use the shortest canonical path, or use a link shortener you control. Then check the draft in a grapheme counter that counts the link at full length.
Keep exploring
Count the link at full length and a cross-post never surprises you.
Bluesky character counter
Counts graphemes and bytes, with links at full length the way the API sees them.
Post to X and Bluesky at once
Three routes, the limits that differ, and one curl that does both.
Bluesky image size limit
2MB per image since April 2026, up to 4 per post.
One endpoint for X and Bluesky
What the results array says when a post is skipped for length.
How to cross-post to Bluesky
Connecting your handle and sending the first post to both networks.
Bluesky scheduler
Schedule Bluesky posts and threads over atproto OAuth.
Cross-posting to X and Bluesky
One draft, a native post on each network, and a per-network result.
One draft, a result per network
X and Bluesky from one draft or one API call. From $11.99 a month.
7-day free trial. Cancel anytime.