Google Ads character limits are one of the few things in paid media with exact, checkable answers — they're platform specifications, not opinions. Here are the limits that matter, and more usefully, how to write well inside them, because the limit is never the real problem: saying something worth clicking in 30 characters is.
The limits for responsive search ads
Headlines: up to 15 of them, each a maximum of 30 characters. Descriptions: up to 4, each a maximum of 90 characters. Google assembles combinations from what you provide, typically showing up to three headlines and two descriptions at once — so any headline must make sense next to any other. The display path (the friendly URL text after your domain) gives you two fields of 15 characters each. These are hard limits: the interface will not let you exceed them, so nothing "gets cut off" — the real risk is writing to fill the space rather than to earn the click.
Assets (formerly extensions) have limits too
Sitelinks: 25 characters for the link text, with two optional description lines of 35 characters each. Callouts: 25 characters apiece — perfect for short proof points like "Published pricing" or "No lock-in contracts". Structured snippets share the 25-character shape under preset headers like Services or Brands. Use all of them; assets cost nothing extra and expand the space your ad occupies on the page.
Writing well inside 30 characters
Thirty characters is roughly four or five words, so every word must carry weight. The pattern that survives the constraint: put the keyword in one headline (people click ads that mirror their search), a differentiator in another (price, speed, guarantee, location), and a call to action in a third. Numbers earn their characters — a real price, a timeframe, a count — because they're specific where competitors are vague. What dies in 30 characters is throat-clearing: "Welcome to", "We are proud to offer", "Your trusted partner for". Cut the wind-up and start with the pitch. If you want a fast starting point, our free ad copy generator drafts headline and description sets you can edit down.
The 90-character description discipline
Descriptions are where advertisers ramble. Ninety characters is one strong sentence or two short ones — enough for a claim and its proof: what you do, for whom, and one reason to believe you. Write descriptions that can each stand alone, because Google chooses which ones show; a description that only makes sense after another one is a combination risk. And end at least one with a direct instruction, because "Get a written quote today" measurably outperforms trailing off.
Pinning: the control that costs you
You can pin a headline to always appear in position one — useful when legal or brand rules demand it — but every pin removes combinations Google can test, and less testing generally means worse performance over time. Pin only what you must, and let the system experiment with the rest. If your account is full of pins because "we like it that way", you've bought predictability with performance.
Performance Max and other formats
Performance Max campaigns use the same 30-character headlines and 90-character descriptions, plus two fields of their own: long headlines at 90 characters (used in larger placements where more text fits) and a business name capped at 25 characters. Call ads follow the search shape with your phone number in place of a landing click. The practical rule across every format: write the 30-character versions first. If your pitch works in 30, expanding it to 90 is easy; the reverse — compressing a 90-character thought into 30 — is where ads turn into fragments.
A practical writing workflow
Write in a spreadsheet, not in the Google Ads interface. Column for headlines with a character-count formula beside it, column for descriptions the same — you'll see instantly what fits and you'll build a reusable library instead of typing into a form you can't easily review. Draft at least ten headlines even though you may use fewer: the first five are always the obvious ones every competitor also wrote; the usable ones come after. Then read the surviving set aloud in random pairs, because Google will show them in combinations you didn't plan — any pair that sounds absurd together means one of them goes. This half-hour of discipline is most of the difference between accounts whose ads look assembled and accounts whose ads look written.
Two counting details that catch people: limits count every character including spaces, and they're enforced per language — but don't reach for tricks to stretch them. Excessive capitalisation, repeated punctuation, emoji stuffing and gimmick symbols are disapproval territory under Google's editorial rules, and even when they slip through, they signal "cheap ad" to exactly the customers you want. The professional move inside a tight limit is specificity, not decoration: a real number, a real place, a real deadline. Decoration is what advertisers use when they've run out of things to say.
What the limits are really for
The constraint is a filter: it forces you to know your one sentence. A business that can't say why it's worth choosing in 30 characters usually doesn't have a copywriting problem — it has a positioning problem, and no character count fixes that. When we build campaigns as part of paid ads management, the ad copy comes last: keyword intent first, landing page match second, then words that fit the space. Get those in the right order and the limits stop feeling tight.