meta
Meta Primary Text — See More Truncation
Meta truncates primary text at 125 characters with a See more link. Here is exactly what users see, and how to optimize for it.
Primary text on Meta is the long-form caption above the creative. It's where buyers feel safest writing — generous limits, room to breathe, the natural place to tell a story. It's also where the most ad spend gets wasted, because Meta clamps the visible region at 125 characters and adds a "See more" link. The text past character 125 is read by maybe 5% of viewers in DTC categories, and even less in regulated categories where users mistrust ads.
The 125-character window is enforced strictly. There is no responsive expansion, no large-screen exception, no algorithm-based clamp adjustment. Meta has run this exact cutoff since 2018 and shows no signs of changing it. Plan for it.
What works: lead with the hook in the first 60 characters. Use characters 60–110 for proof or the offer. Reserve characters 110–125 as a deliberate cliff that earns the See more tap. Anything past 125 is bonus content — useful for SEO and indexing, not for conversion.
Meta clamps your primary text at 125 characters and adds a See more link. Anything past character 125 is read by maybe 5% of … See more
Hook before character 125
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.
The See more cliff
Treat character 125 as a literal cliff. Your most important word should not sit at character 124. Your most important phrase should be complete by character 110. Use the warning band as deliberate creative tension — write the cliffhanger that makes the See more tap worth it.
FAQ
- Has the See more cutoff ever changed?
- It has been 125 characters on Feed surfaces since 2018. Other surfaces (Stories, Reels) have their own cutoffs that vary by placement.
- Does emoji count toward the 125 character cutoff?
- Yes. Each grapheme counts. A compound emoji like a family emoji can count as 1 in the visible window even though it's encoded as multiple code points internally.
- What percentage of users tap See more?
- Aggregate published numbers from agency partners suggest 3–8% across categories, with depth-content categories (education, finance) seeing higher rates than impulse categories (fashion, food).
- Should I write my hashtags inside or outside the 125-character window?
- Below it. Most agencies move hashtags below See more to preserve the visible window for human-readable copy.