X / Twitter, copy and paste
Strikethrough text for Twitter (now X)
There’s no strikethrough on X, so paste it in as Unicode. The counter shows how much of your 280 characters it uses.
Struck through, this is 14 characters: fits X post (280) · fits X bio (160) · fits X display name (50)
- strikethrough
- short strike
- wavy strike
- slash
- long slash
- double slash
- strike + underline
- strike + overline
- underline
- double underline
- overline
- dotted
- wave
- x below
- redacted
Updated · strikethroughtext.online
How strikethrough works on X
X doesn’t offer text formatting in standard posts. What looks like strikethrough in someone’s post is Unicode: each letter is followed by U+0336, a combining long stroke, and the strokes join up into a line. Because it’s characters, not formatting, X stores and displays it like any other text.
That’s also why it survives everywhere on X: posts, replies, quote posts, DMs, your bio, your display name and list names.
The 280-character problem
X counts characters by a weighted scheme. Ordinary Latin letters and punctuation count as one, and so do combining marks. So every struck-through letter costs two characters.
| Text | Characters |
|---|---|
hello |
5 |
h̶e̶l̶l̶o̶ |
10 |
hello world struck, with spaces |
22 |
| same, spaces left plain | 21 |
Turn off line through the spaces too to save a character per space. The line breaks between words, which many people prefer anyway.
Good uses
The correction joke. “Starting my diet today Monday” is the oldest format on the site, and it still works because the struck word is the punchline.
Bio updates. A former job title struck through with the new one next to it.
Display name events. A struck word in your name during a promotion, a rebrand or a protest. It takes 2 characters per letter of your 50.
Bluesky
Bluesky has no text formatting, so paste strikethrough the same way. It counts its 300-character limit differently from X: a letter and the mark attached to it count as one character, so struck-through text doesn’t eat into the limit the way it does on X. There is also a hidden byte limit, so very long struck posts can still be refused.
What to avoid
Don’t strike hashtags, cashtags or @mentions. X won’t link them, so they stop working. Don’t strike keywords you want to be found by, because X search won’t match them. And keep the important part of the post plain, for screen reader users and for anyone whose font draws combining marks badly.
On the X app
On iPhone or Android, copy from this page, switch to the X app, and long-press the compose box to paste. If you’re writing a long post, write it plain first, then replace just the words you want struck.
Questions people ask
How do you strikethrough on Twitter / X?
X has no formatting option for standard posts. Type your text above, copy the strikethrough result and paste it into your post, reply, bio or display name. The line is made of Unicode characters, so it stays when you post.
Does strikethrough count against the 280-character limit?
Yes. Every struck letter is a letter plus one combining mark, and X counts both. "hello" struck through costs 10 characters. Pick X under "Posting to" and the tool shows the running total.
Can I put strikethrough in my X display name?
Yes. Display names accept Unicode, up to 50 characters, so you have room for about 25 struck letters. Your @handle only accepts letters, numbers and underscores, so it cannot be styled.
Is strikethrough text bad for accessibility on X?
It can be. Some screen readers announce each combining mark, which turns a short phrase into a long string of noise. Use it for a word or two of emphasis, and keep the meaning of the post in plain text.