Aim for a meta description of about 150–160 characters. Google truncates around 155–160 on desktop and roughly 120 on mobile, so put the most important words first. There's no hard character limit — Google actually measures pixel width — but 150–160 is the practical target that stays safe everywhere, and the first ~120 characters are the ones that always survive.
The short answer, with the nuance that matters
The 150–160 character guideline is right, but the real rule is subtler: Google truncates by pixel width, not character count. A description full of wide characters (capitals, "m"s, "w"s) truncates sooner than one of narrow characters. That's why the "limit" seems to wobble between sources and devices.
Two practical consequences:
- Front-load. Whatever survives truncation on mobile is roughly your first 120 characters — so put the hook and the key phrase there, not at the end.
- Don't pad to hit 160. A tight 130-character description that reads well beats a 160-character one stuffed to fill space. Length is a ceiling, not a target.
Why Google rewrites your description anyway
Here's the part that reframes the whole question: Google ignores your meta description most of the time. Studies consistently show it rewrites the displayed snippet for roughly 60–70% of results, pulling a more relevant passage from the page body when that better matches the searcher's query.
This isn't a reason to skip meta descriptions — a well-written one is used often, especially for your brand and primary queries, and it's your best shot at controlling the pitch. But it changes the strategy:
- Write the meta description for your primary query and the human deciding whether to click.
- Make sure the page body also answers the query cleanly in an extractable sentence, because that's what Google grabs when it rewrites — and it's the same sentence AI systems lift when they cite you.
What a good meta description does
Since it's a click pitch, not a ranking lever, judge it on persuasion:
- Includes the primary keyword (Google bolds matching terms, which draws the eye).
- States the specific value — what the reader gets, concretely. "The recommended size is 1200×630" beats "Learn about image sizes."
- Front-loads the important half.
- Matches the page. A description that oversells gets a click and an instant bounce, which helps no one.
- Reads as a complete thought even if truncated.
The AI-search angle
As search shifts toward AI Overviews and assistant answers, the meta description's role narrows but the underlying skill — writing a crisp, accurate one-line summary of a page — becomes more valuable, not less. AI systems favor pages whose core claim is stated plainly and early. The discipline of writing a great 155-character description is the same discipline that makes a page citable: say the most important thing, specifically, up front. Our guide on appearing in AI Overviews covers how that page-body clarity translates into citations.
Preview before you publish
The only way to know how your title and description render — and where they truncate on desktop vs mobile — is to see them in a real SERP mock-up. Our free Meta Title & Description Previewer shows exactly that, flags when your title or description is too long, and lets you tune the wording until the important part survives on both devices. Paste your text, watch the truncation line, and adjust.
Quick reference
- Meta description: ~150–160 characters; first ~120 always visible. Front-load.
- Title tag (while you're at it): ~50–60 characters / ~600px before truncation.
- No hard limit — it's pixel-based, so preview it rather than counting characters.
- Write for the click, ensure the page answers the query for when Google rewrites the snippet.