Threads and X are both text-first feeds, but they reward different posting. Threads is Meta’s app, with 500 million monthly users in June 2026, 500-character posts and a feed Meta ranks for you. X has 280 characters for free accounts and up to 25,000 for paid subscribers, a public ranking codebase and much longer video on paid accounts. Pick Threads for an Instagram audience, X for news and live conversation.
Key Takeaways
- Size: Meta reported 500 million monthly active users on Threads in June 2026. X’s ad tools reached 586 million users in January 2025, a measure of ad reach, not of monthly users.
- Length: a Threads post holds 500 characters, plus an optional text attachment of up to 10,000. An X post holds 280 characters, or up to 25,000 for paid subscribers.
- Video: Threads takes up to 5 minutes through its API. X takes 140 seconds on a free account and under 4 hours on a paid one, per X’s video help page.
- Editing: Threads lets anyone edit the text of a post for 15 minutes. On X, editing is a paid feature, with a one-hour window.
- Feeds: both rank a For You feed. X publishes the code behind its ranking; Threads lets people in a few English-speaking countries ask for more or less of a topic.
Threads vs X at a glance
Every row comes from Meta’s or X’s own help pages, developer documentation, announcements or code, read in October 2026. Where a figure applies only to the API or only to paid accounts, the row says so.
| Threads | X | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 500 million monthly active users (June 2026) | 586 million reachable with ads (January 2025) |
| Post length | 500 characters; text attachment up to 10,000 | 280 characters; up to 25,000 for paid subscribers |
| How text counts | Through the API, each emoji counts as its UTF-8 bytes | Every link counts 23, every emoji 2 |
| Links | Up to 5 per post through the API | Any number, each counted as 23 characters |
| Video | Up to 5 minutes, 1 GB through the API | 140 seconds, 512 MB free; under 4 hours, 16 GB paid |
| Editing | Text only, within 15 minutes, any account | Paid subscribers, within 1 hour |
| Ranking | Meta-ranked, with Dear Algo and Your Algo topic requests | For You ranked by code X publishes on GitHub |
| Open network | Optional beta sharing to the fediverse, outside the European Region | None |
The two networks are closer in format than they look. Most of the difference is in who is there, how long a post can run and what you pay for.
Which is bigger, Threads or X?
Neither is clearly bigger, because the two figures each company offers measure different things. On 16 June 2026 Meta announced that Threads “has reached 500 million monthly active users”. X has not published a monthly user count we could verify for 2026. The closest figure is DataReportal’s: X’s ad tools could reach 586 million users in January 2025.
Those measure different things. Monthly active users count people who opened the app that month; ad reach counts the people X lets advertisers target. Read the two as networks of a similar order of size; neither figure beats the other like for like.
Size matters less than fit. If your followers are on Instagram, Threads puts your posts in front of the people who already know you. If your field already argues and breaks news on X, such as tech, politics or sport, that conversation is where your posts belong. Our comparison of Bluesky and X covers the third network people compare with both.
How do posting limits compare?
A Threads post holds 500 characters and a free X post 280, so Threads gives you almost twice the room. Paid X subscribers can post up to 25,000 characters. Threads answers long writing differently: a text attachment of up to 10,000 characters that readers open under the post, which Meta began rolling out in September 2025.
The two count text differently, too. X counts every link as 23 characters, however long it is, and every emoji as 2, according to X’s developer documentation. Meta’s Threads documentation says that, for posts published through its API, each emoji counts as its number of UTF-8 bytes: a smiley takes 4. Our guide to the Threads character limit shows the counts.
Video is where X goes furthest. X’s help page says free accounts can upload videos of up to 140 seconds and 512 MB, while paid subscribers can post videos under 4 hours and up to 16 GB. Threads’ API accepts videos of up to 5 minutes and 1 GB, and carousels of 2 to 20 images and videos. For a two-minute clip, the two are equal. Our guide to how long a video can be on X adds the different caps X’s developer docs give for videos posted through its API.
How do the feeds decide what you see?
Both rank a For You feed from posts you follow and posts you do not. X publishes the code. Its open-source ranking system, on GitHub since January 2026, mixes posts from accounts you follow with posts from outside your network, ranks them with one model that predicts likes, replies, clicks, dwell time and negative actions, and drops posts older than 48 hours.
Threads keeps its ranking closed but lets you steer it. Dear Algo, launched in February 2026 in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, lets you post a public request starting “Dear Algo” to see more or less of a topic for three days. Your Algo, announced in June 2026, makes the same kind of request private, for one, three or seven days, starting in five English-speaking countries. Posters get one lever of their own: a single topic tag per post, which places it in that topic’s search results, as our guide to hashtags on Threads explains.
For a brand, the practical difference is the 48-hour window on X. A post that is not picked up within two days drops out of For You, so timing and replies early on matter more there. How often to post on X is covered in our guide to X posting frequency.
Can you edit and schedule posts on Threads and X?
Editing is free on Threads and paid on X. Threads Help says you can edit the text of a post “within 15 minutes of posting”; attachments cannot be added or removed, and a post that someone interacted with during the edit shows an Edited label. X’s Premium page, archived in October 2026, lists editing for an hour among the features of every paid tier.
Scheduling exists on both, with limits. Threads reportedly added scheduling to its own composer in January 2025 (we found no Meta page on it), and the main site’s guide to scheduling posts on Threads covers how far ahead it goes. X’s help pages describe scheduling in X Pro, which X listed with its top paid tier in October 2026. Our guide to scheduling tweets on X covers what is known about the X composer.
Which should you post on?
Post on Threads if your audience follows you on Instagram, if you post photo and video carousels, or if you want to edit without paying. Post on X if your field lives there, if you cover news or live events, or if you post long videos on a paid account.
Many accounts post on both, since a 280-character post fits Threads unchanged unless it is heavy on emoji. Write to 280 if you share one idea across the two, and keep the longer version for Threads or for an X subscription. Our comparison of Threads and Bluesky covers the other pairing.
How does PostNext handle posting to both?
PostNext schedules Threads and X from one calendar, with a separate post for each account.
On X, the PostNext X scheduler publishes single posts and whole threads with media on each post, each one a reply to the one before, and allows 25,000 characters on accounts with an X subscription and 280 on the rest. On paid plans it suggests the three strongest posting times from your own X posts over the last 90 days.
On Threads, the PostNext Threads scheduler publishes text, images, videos and carousels, and can publish a multi-post thread together at the scheduled time. It checks the 500-character limit before a post is scheduled. Threads post metrics and best-time suggestions are not available in PostNext yet, so read those in the Threads app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Threads bigger than X?
Not on figures that compare like for like. Meta announced 500 million monthly active users on Threads in June 2026. X has published no monthly user count we could verify for 2026; its ad tools could reach 586 million users in January 2025, which counts the people advertisers can target.
What is the character limit on Threads vs X?
A Threads post holds 500 characters, and text attachments can add up to 10,000. A free X post holds 280 characters, and paid subscribers can post up to 25,000. X counts every link as 23 characters and every emoji as 2.
Can you edit posts on Threads and X?
On Threads, any account can edit the text of a post within 15 minutes of posting, but not add or remove attachments. On X, editing is part of the paid subscription and works for one hour after posting.
Is Threads or X better for brands?
Threads suits brands with an Instagram audience, carousels and a broad consumer reach. X suits brands in news, tech, sport or live events, and those that post long videos on a paid account. Many accounts post the same 280-character idea to both.
Can you schedule posts on Threads and X?
Yes. Threads reportedly added scheduling to its own composer in January 2025, and X offers scheduling in X Pro, which comes with its top paid tier. Schedulers such as PostNext publish to both through their official APIs, including whole threads.
Related reading
- Bluesky vs X: Which Should You Post On in 2026?
- Threads vs Bluesky: Which One Should You Post On?
- Threads Character Limit: Posts, Attachments, Tags
- Do Hashtags Work on Threads? How Topic Tags Work
- How to Schedule Tweets on X
Sources
- Meta, New Features to Celebrate 500 Million Monthly Users on Threads, 16 June 2026, and Control Your Threads Feed With New Dear Algo Feature, 11 February 2026 (read October 2026)
- Meta, Attach Text to Your Threads Posts and Share Longer Perspectives, 4 September 2025
- Meta for Developers, Threads API overview and posts (October 2026)
- Threads Help Center, Edit your post on Threads and Turn on sharing to the fediverse on Threads (October 2026)
- X Developer Platform, Counting characters (October 2026)
- X Help Center, How to share and watch videos on X (archived 21 October 2026), About X Premium (archived 10 October 2026) and About advanced PostDeck features (archived 8 February 2026)
- xAI, x-algorithm on GitHub (October 2026)
- DataReportal, X Users, Stats, Data, Trends, and More (October 2026)
- PostNext, postnext.io/x-scheduler and postnext.io/threads-scheduler (October 2026)
