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EasyPDF/pdf-upload-caps-2026

PDF upload caps on public portals (2026) How large can a PDF be before a government, university or job portal rejects it? This dataset records the published file size limit of 162 portals in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and India, each with the exact wording of the limit and a link to the official page where it was found. It was collected in September 2026 for the EasyPDF study The 1 MB Problem: PDF File Size Statistics for 2026 (French version:… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/EasyPDF/pdf-upload-caps-2026.

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PDF upload caps on public portals (2026)

How large can a PDF be before a government, university or job portal rejects it? This dataset records the published file size limit of 162 portals in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and India, each with the exact wording of the limit and a link to the official page where it was found.

It was collected in September 2026 for the EasyPDF study The 1 MB Problem: PDF File Size Statistics for 2026 (French version: Le problème du 1 Mo).

Key figures

Country	Entries	Published caps	Not documented	Lowest cap	Median cap	Highest cap
France	29	22	7	500 KB	5 MB	200 MB
United States	18	10	7	2,000 KB	20 MB	100 MB
United Kingdom	12	8	4	1 MB	5.5 MB	100 MB
Germany	30	17	12	3 MB	10 MB	200 MB
Spain	30	22	7	2 MB	10 MB	100 MB
India	44	18	25	150 KB	500 KB	25 MB

—The United States and the United Kingdom taken together (18 published caps) have a median of 10 MB, the figure used in the study.
—62 of the 163 entries publish no limit at all: the user finds out when the upload fails.
—Indian exam and recruitment forms are the strictest group: most PDF caps sit between 150 and 500 KB, and several also set a minimum size.
—LinkedIn publishes a recommended size (2 MB), not a limit. Its four entries are kept in the data with cap_type = recommendation and are left out of the medians.

The dataset has 163 entries for 162 portals because the French ANTS agency publishes two different caps for two services.

Files

File	Content
`all-portals.csv`	All 163 entries, one row per portal and usage
`all-portals.json`	Same content as JSON
`summary-by-country.csv`	Counts, lowest, median and highest cap per country

All files are UTF-8, comma separated, every field quoted.

Columns

Column	Description
`portal`	Name of the portal or service
`country`	`FR`, `US`, `UK`, `DE`, `ES` or `IN`
`usage`	What the upload is for (resume, supporting document, exam certificate...)
`published_cap`	The limit as worded on the source page, in the original language, or `not documented`
`cap_kb`	The same limit in kilobytes (1 MB = 1,024 KB), empty when not documented
`cap_type`	`published_cap`, `recommendation` or `not_documented` (combined files only)
`total_or_max_files`	Any limit on the total size of a submission or on the number of files
`formats`	Accepted file formats
`source_url`	Page where the figure was read
`date_checked`	Date the page was checked (ISO 8601)
`confidence`	`official` (the portal's own help or documentation), `institutional` (another public body or the software vendor) or `not documented`, followed by caveats in brackets when the figure needs context

Method and limits

—Each portal's own help pages, FAQs, user guides and technical documentation were searched for a published limit on uploaded PDF files. Figures quoted only by third-party sites were not used.
—When a portal publishes several limits, the one applying to the most common PDF upload by an individual was kept, and the others are described in total_or_max_files or confidence.
—not documented means no figure was found in public documentation on the date checked. The portal may still enforce a limit inside the logged-in area.
—Some caps are totals per submission rather than per file (CAF in France, several Spanish e-registries, the German JOBBÖRSE). This is stated in total_or_max_files.
—Portals change their limits without notice. Check source_url before relying on a figure, and see below to report a change.
—The selection of portals is not a random sample. It covers the services individuals use most for job applications, higher education, benefits, tax, immigration, justice and exams in each country.

Corrections and additions

Found a limit that changed, or a portal that is missing? Open an issue or a pull request on the GitHub repository, editing the relevant data/<country>.csv file, with the official source URL and the date you checked it.

License and citation

The data is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

You can reuse, republish and adapt the data, including commercially, as long as you credit the source with a link:

Source: EasyPDF, PDF upload caps on public portals (2026)

Source files per country and the build script are on GitHub.

En français

Ce jeu de données recense le plafond de taille publié pour l'envoi d'un PDF sur 162 portails publics et privés (emploi, études, aides, impôts, justice, concours) dans six pays, avec la formulation exacte du plafond et le lien vers la page officielle. En France, les 22 plafonds publiés vont de 500 Ko (HelloWork) à 200 Mo (Démarches simplifiées), avec une médiane de 5 Mo, et 7 portails ne publient aucun chiffre (impots.gouv.fr, Ameli, Parcoursup, messervices.etudiant.gouv.fr, Mon Compte Formation, Action Logement, Indeed).

Analyse complète : Le problème du 1 Mo : statistiques taille PDF 2026. Réutilisation libre sous licence CC BY 4.0, en citant la source avec un lien.

About

Collected and maintained by EasyPDF, an online PDF editor and compressor. Contact: hello@easypdf.fr