what is the max length of URL

General Guidelines

1. RFC Specification:

   • RFC 2616 (HTTP/1.1) does not explicitly define a maximum URL length.
   • Practically, URLs should stay well under 2,048 characters to ensure compatibility.

2. Browser Limits: Different browsers impose their own limits on URL lengths. These limits can affect the behavior of GET requests, bookmark storage, and query string parameters.

   • Google Chrome: ~2,097,203 characters (theoretically very high).
   • Mozilla Firefox: ~65,536 characters.
   • Microsoft Edge/Internet Explorer: ~2,083 characters (practical limit: ~2,048 characters).
   • Safari: No official limit, but issues may arise beyond 80,000 characters.
   • Opera: ~190,000 characters.

3. Server Limits: Web servers often impose their own restrictions to prevent resource abuse or inefficient processing.

   • Apache: Default limit is 8,192 bytes (can be increased with LimitRequestLine directive).
   • NGINX: Default limit is 4,096 bytes (configurable with large_client_header_buffers).
   • IIS: Default limit is 16,384 bytes (can be configured using maxUrl setting).