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Facebook Headline Truncation Test
Live test: paste a headline and see whether Meta truncates it on Feed, Marketplace, and Carousel — all in one preview.
This page is a live test, not a spec. Paste your real ad headline into the simulator below, and watch in real time where it cuts off across Facebook Feed, Marketplace, and Carousel placements. The visible-character window changes per placement, and the cutoff is enforced visually by the platform — not just numerically — so a 39-character headline that "fits" on Feed may still clip on Marketplace.
The most common surprise is that Carousel ads use the same 40-character visible window as Feed for the headline, but the description field's window collapses from Feed's 30 down to Carousel's 20. So a card-level headline that survives gets its description neatly cropped. Marketplace introduces its own variance — same 40-character window for headline, but the surrounding price tag shrinks the perceived width.
Walk through three runs: a 30-character "safe" headline, a 41-character "right at the edge" headline, and a 65-character "definitely too long" headline. Switch placements and you'll see exactly how each clips.
Use this preview to spot the exact cut before launch.
Headlines longer than 40 characters get … See more
Verified 2026 limits
| Field | Hard max | Visible before truncate | Warn at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary text | 500 | 125 | 110 |
| Headline | 255 | 40 | 27 |
| Description | 200 | 30 | 27 |
Source: https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide · Last verified 2026-04-15.
Why this preview matters
Most ad managers preview your ad in a simulated desktop window where the headline rarely clips. That preview lies. The real-world clip happens on phones with narrower windows. The simulator above defaults to a 390 logical-pixel iPhone-class device, which is the worst case for most cohorts.
FAQ
- Why does my headline preview look fine in Ads Manager but truncate live?
- Ads Manager previews in a desktop-width context. Real impressions happen on phones, where the visible window is significantly narrower.
- How do I find the clip point precisely?
- The simulator shows the exact cut index. The truncated string ends with '… See more' on Meta surfaces. Anything past that index is hidden.
- Is the visible window really 40 characters?
- It's a soft floor. On large phones the visible window stretches to about 50. On smaller phones it can collapse to 27. Treat 40 as the safe budget.
- Does the preview account for emoji?
- Yes. The preview counts graphemes, so a single emoji is one character even when it's a compound emoji like a flag.