languagetool-org/languagetool · error · TextTooLongException

Your text's length exceeds this server's hard limit of char

Error message

Your text's length exceeds this server's hard limit of  characters.

What it means

Thrown when the raw request body (all posted parameters combined) exceeds the server's hard maximum length. This is a protective limit to prevent out-of-memory conditions from oversized uploads; it is independent of the configurable maxTextLength for the text itself.

Source

Thrown at languagetool-server/src/main/java/org/languagetool/server/LanguageToolHttpHandler.java:468

    }
  }

  private String readerToString(Reader reader, int maxTextLength) throws IOException {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    char[] chars = new char[4000];
    while (true) {
      int readBytes = reader.read(chars, 0, 4000);
      if (readBytes <= 0) {
        break;
      }
      int generousMaxLength = maxTextLength * 10;  // one character can be encoded as e.g. "%D8", plus estimated space for sending data (JSON)
      if (generousMaxLength < 0) {  // might happen as it can overflow
        generousMaxLength = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
      }
      if (sb.length() > 0 && sb.length() > generousMaxLength) {
        // don't stop at maxTextLength as that's the text length, but here also other parameters
        // are included (still we need this check here so we don't OOM if someone posts a few hundred MB)...
        throw new TextTooLongException("Your text's length exceeds this server's hard limit of " + generousMaxLength + " characters.");
      }
      sb.append(new String(chars, 0, readBytes));
    }
    return sb.toString();
  }


  private Map<String, String> parseQuery(String query, HttpExchange httpExchange) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
    Map<String, String> parameters = new HashMap<>();
    if (query != null) {
      parameters.putAll(getParameterMap(query, httpExchange));
    }
    return parameters;
  }

  private Map<String, String> getParameterMap(String query, HttpExchange httpExchange) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
    String[] pairs = StringUtils.split(query, '&');
    Map<String, String> parameters = new HashMap<>();

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Reduce the submitted text size or split it into chunks below the server's limit
2. Increase the server's --requestLimit (request size) setting if larger payloads are legitimate
3. Check the client for accidental duplicate/concatenated payloads on retries

Example fix

// before
POST /v2/check with text=<10GB document>
// after
POST /v2/check with text=<first 50KB chunk>, repeat per chunk

const MAX = 100 * 1024 * 1024; // match server requestSizeLimit
const body = new URLSearchParams({ text, language });
if (body.toString().length > MAX) throw new Error('Payload exceeds server hard limit; chunk the text');

try {
  return await check(text);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes('hard limit')) {
    return Promise.all(chunkText(text).map(check)); // split and retry
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST body larger than generousMaxLength (requestSizeLimit), e.g. a text parameter with hundreds of MB, or many/large parameters combined.

Common situations: Submitting very large documents in a single request, batch jobs sending unbounded text, clients retrying and concatenating payloads, or misconfigured requestSizeLimit that overflows to a low value.

Understand the failure class

Background: payload too large / request exceeds maximum size: why libraries cap bytes and how to fix oversize payloads — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• Missing 'text' or 'data' parameter
• Use parameter 'dicts', not 'dict' in GET /words API method.
• 'lang' parameter missing
• 'ruleId' parameter missing
• Rule '<ruleId>' not found for language <lang> (LanguageTool

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82e8c692e5ddff3c. Report an issue: GitHub.