Text Truncator

Free Text Truncator — Cut Text to Any Length with Precise Character or Word Limits

Every platform that displays text has limits — meta descriptions cut off at around 160 characters, tweet previews truncate article titles, database fields have fixed VARCHAR lengths, and push notification copy must fit in 50 characters or less to display fully on a phone lock screen. When your text is too long for its container, it gets cut off by the platform — often at an awkward position that leaves an incomplete sentence or cut word. Our free text truncator lets you control exactly where that cut happens, so the truncated version of your text communicates as much as possible within the available space.

SEO Meta Description Truncation

Google displays approximately 155-160 characters of a page's meta description in search results before truncating with an ellipsis. If the meta description is not explicitly set, Google generates its own snippet from the page content — which is often not ideal. When you write a meta description, keeping it under 160 characters ensures your carefully crafted message appears in full. When you have a longer description that needs to be shortened, our truncator cuts it at the right character count, and the ellipsis option signals to anyone reviewing the output that the full version was longer.

Truncating at a word boundary rather than a character boundary is important for meta descriptions — a cut that ends mid-word looks broken and unprofessional in search results. Word-boundary truncation keeps the last complete word and then appends the ellipsis, so the displayed text always ends at a natural point even if the character count is slightly below the maximum. Our truncator supports this word-boundary mode specifically for content where natural-language truncation matters.

Social Media Preview Text

When links are shared on social media platforms, the platform fetches the page's Open Graph or Twitter Card metadata and displays a preview that includes the title and description. Twitter truncates titles and descriptions at specific character limits depending on the card type. LinkedIn truncates descriptions for link previews. Discord shows link previews with character-limited snippets.

Previewing what your content looks like when truncated to each platform's limit before publishing helps you optimize the copy. If the most important part of your message falls after the truncation point, you can rewrite the opening of the description to front-load the key information within the displayed portion. Our truncator gives you the truncated text at any specified character count so you can evaluate whether the cut version still makes sense and compels a click.

Database Field Lengths and Form Validation

Relational database fields have fixed maximum lengths: a VARCHAR(255) column stores at most 255 characters, a VARCHAR(50) stores 50. When preparing data for import into a database, content that exceeds field length constraints will either be rejected by the database or silently truncated (potentially corrupting the data). Truncating content to the field's maximum length before import ensures data integrity and prevents import errors.

Web forms with character-limited fields (like Twitter's compose box or a CMS's title field) need to show users when they are approaching or exceeding the limit. When designing and testing these forms, our truncator helps you preview how content will appear when it hits the limit, informing decisions about where to set the threshold and how to communicate the constraint clearly to users.

Content Excerpts and Preview Text

Blog post excerpt generators, content management systems, and email newsletter tools often need to create abbreviated previews of longer content. A 150-word excerpt from a 2,000-word article needs to end at a natural point that makes the excerpt feel complete rather than abruptly cut off. Word-boundary truncation combined with a final ellipsis produces the cleanest excerpt format for these use cases.

RSS feeds, API responses, and content aggregation tools frequently need shorter versions of article descriptions or social post content. Providing a standardized short version at a known character limit helps these tools display content consistently across different entry lengths. Our truncator produces these standardized short versions quickly for any batch of content.

Push Notifications and Mobile Alerts

Push notification character limits vary by platform and operating system version, but the practical display limit is typically 40-65 characters on a lock screen, expanding to somewhat more in the notification center. A notification that reads well in 50 characters delivers the complete message on the lock screen; a notification that is 120 characters long requires the user to expand it and may have its most important content hidden by the truncation. Optimizing notification copy for the lock screen display limit requires knowing exactly how your message looks when truncated.