---
title: "Character limits for form input fields"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/faq/what-character-limits-apply-to-the-form-input-fields/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/faq/what-character-limits-apply-to-the-form-input-fields.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-23T00:08:18.207Z"
description: "Learn about storage limits for ShortText, LongText and more in form input fields. Explore instance_data and rich text format implications."
---

# Understanding character limits for form inputs

ShortText, LongText, and other "plain text" type Answers are stored as simple text. The initial 2000 characters are stored in instance_data but if the value goes over that, it's stored in instance_data_ext as ntext (Variable-length non-Unicode data in the code page of the server and with a maximum string length of 2^31-1 (2,147,483,647). Other Question types can have html, json objects, etc. stored for the Answer, so if you see 10 characters in a RichText field it actually takes up many more characters in the database.

---

> Part of [Frequently asked questions](/guides/workflow-automation/faq.md)

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