What are the character limits for Facebook ads?

Meta recommends 50–150 characters of primary text and a 27-character headline for Facebook Feed, and 125 characters with a 40-character headline for Instagram Feed and Facebook Stories.

Checked against Meta's Ads Guide on 3 November 2026.

The specs

Facebook ad character limits: Meta's published specs by placement
PlacementText
Facebook Feed
Primary text: 50–150 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 27 charactersrecommended
Instagram Feed
Primary text: 125 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 40 charactersrecommendedHashtags: 30maximum
Facebook Stories
Primary text: 125 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 40 charactersrecommended
Instagram Stories
Primary text: 125 charactersrecommended
Facebook Reels
Primary text: 40 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 55 charactersrecommended
Instagram Reels
Primary text: 44 charactersrecommended
Facebook Marketplace
Image: primary text 125, headline 40, description 30 charactersrecommendedVideo: headline 25 charactersrecommended
Facebook Right ColumnDesktop only
Headline: 40 charactersrecommended
Messenger StoriesMeta's current placement list names Messenger Stories, not the inbox
Primary text: 125 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 40 charactersrecommended
Audience NetworkNative, banner, interstitial and rewarded video in other apps
Primary text 125, headline 40, description 30 charactersrecommended
CollectionA cover image or video, then 3 product images; opens an Instant Experience
Primary text: 125 charactersrecommendedHeadline: 40 charactersrecommended

Meta's Ads Guide lists primary text, headline and description counts under text recommendations for each placement. They are the lengths Meta suggests for that placement, not the most a field accepts.

Where the counts differ

Facebook Feed is the outlier: 50 to 150 characters of primary text and a 27-character headline. Instagram Feed and Facebook Stories recommend 125 and 40. Reels runs shorter, with 40 characters of primary text on Facebook and 44 on Instagram. A Facebook Feed carousel recommends 80 characters of primary text, a 20-character headline and an 18-character description.

Testing two lengths of copy shows what a placement needs; the CTR calculator and the CPC calculator compare the results. For the picture that goes with the words, see Facebook ad size and Instagram story size.

Questions

Meta recommends 50 to 150 characters of primary text for Facebook Feed, and 125 characters for Instagram Feed, Facebook and Instagram Stories, Marketplace image ads and Audience Network.

Meta recommends 27 characters for Facebook Feed and 40 characters for Facebook Stories, Instagram Feed, Marketplace image ads and the right column.

Meta recommends 30 characters for descriptions in Marketplace image ads and Audience Network, and 18 characters on a Facebook Feed carousel.

Up to 30, according to Meta's Ads Guide for Instagram Feed.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from Meta's own pages, read on 3 November 2026. Meta changes these specs from time to time, so check the source before a large production run.

More ad specs and calculators

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