On Twitter, what was the original character limit for a Tweet?

The original character limit for a tweet on Twitter was 140 because it was based on the maximum length of SMS messages, which was 160 characters. Twitter reserved 20 characters for usernames or handles, leaving 140 characters for the actual message. This restriction was later expanded to 280 characters in 2017 to give users more room for expressing themselves and sharing their thoughts without compromising the essence of Twitter's concise and fast-paced nature.