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lancedb/docs/web/basics/limits.mdx
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Jack Ye 52684d50b9 docs: flip ownership of View/SQL-client/FTS-SQL/AuthZ/AuthN to OSS, restructure SQL Reference
OSS docs now own the full usage content for features that only run against
an Enterprise deployment, since the client interface itself lives here;
Enterprise docs keep only the parts specific to its own behavior. Sophon's
overlay for these five pages is dropped since the OSS versions are now the
complete reference.

SQL Reference is restructured to match an object-type SQL manual (DDL by
object, then DML, then DQL, then Expressions) instead of the old flat,
loosely-ordered page list, absorbing the SQL client-connection guide and
FTS-via-SQL examples into it.
2026-09-28 17:17:09 -05:00

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---
title: "Limits"
sidebarTitle: "Limits"
description: "The bounds you can actually hit, in one place."
icon: ruler
keywords: ["limits", "maximum", "quota", "constraints", "bounds"]
---
Limits worth designing around, collected so you do not have to find them by
hitting them. Each one is enforced -- where a value is refused rather than
clamped, that is stated, because the two fail very differently.
This page covers bounds that are the same for everyone. Deployment-specific
quotas -- storage, throughput, concurrency -- come from your deployment.
## Names {#names}
| Object | Maximum | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Database | 64 characters | |
| Namespace | 64 characters | |
| Table | 128 characters | |
| Branch | 64 characters | |
A name must not be empty, and must not contain `$` or `:` -- both are reserved
as path delimiters, so a name holding one could not be addressed unambiguously.
Length is counted in characters, not bytes.
## Jobs {#jobs}
| | |
| --- | --- |
| `job.events()` default | 1,000 rows |
| `job.events()` maximum | 10,000 rows |
| `SHOW ERRORS ... LIMIT` | between 1 and 100,000 |
| Failed jobs scanned by one `SHOW ERRORS` | 32 |
<Warning>
`job.events()` **truncates silently**. A job that emits an event per fragment
will lose its tail unless you pass `limit` explicitly. This is the limit on this
page most likely to mislead you, because nothing in the result says it was cut.
</Warning>
`SHOW ERRORS` without `FOR JOB` scans the most recent failed jobs and stops at
32 of them. Narrow with `FOR JOB` when you need a specific one rather than a
survey.
See [Jobs](/basics/jobs).
## Schema and types {#schema}
| | |
| --- | --- |
| `map` with `keys_sorted = true` | rejected |
| `IVF_RQ` vector dimensions | must be divisible by 8 |
| FTS `max_token_length` | 40 by default; longer tokens are dropped |
Stable row ids **cannot be enabled after a table exists**. A table created
without them cannot become a
[materialized view](/management/materialized-view) source without being
recreated -- the one schema decision here that is genuinely irreversible.
See [Data types](/sql/data-types).
## SQL {#sql}
<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge>
| | |
| --- | --- |
| `TABLESAMPLE` percentage | 0 to 100, **refused** outside -- not clamped |
| `TABLESAMPLE (n ROWS)` | whole numbers only |
| `TABLESAMPLE BUCKET` | not supported |
| `TABLESAMPLE` on a WAL-backed table | not supported |
| `CREATE INDEX` | one column, server-chosen name |
| `REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW ... CASCADE` | parsed, not yet implemented |
A sampling percentage over 100 is an error rather than a full scan, because a
query asking for 150 percent has a mistake in it and reading it as 100 would
hide the mistake. See [Sampling](/sql/dql/sampling).
## What is unavailable where {#availability}
Not quotas, but the same class of surprise -- things that exist in one place and
not another.
| | |
| --- | --- |
| SQL on a local database | unavailable; `execute_query` raises |
| SQL methods in the TypeScript SDK | none; use a Flight SQL client |
| Function methods in the TypeScript SDK | none; use Python or SQL |
| Vector search in SQL | no SQL form; use a query builder |
| Geospatial `st_*` functions | behind a build feature LanceDB does not ship |
| `tableExists` / `namespaceExists` in TypeScript | not present |
| Server-side jobs on a local database | run in-process; `events()` raises |
See [SDKs and SQL](/basics/apis) for why the first two hold.
## Nothing here is a quota {#not-quotas}
None of the above is a billing or capacity limit. Rows per table, table count,
storage, and request rate are bounded by your deployment rather than by the
format -- ask your deployment, not this page.