Service limits¶

SharePoint enforces the limits below. The library declares them in office365.sharepoint.thresholds.Limits and binds the ones a call can be measured against to the model with the @limit decorator — warnings by default, never a silent truncation. The list view threshold is the one most callers meet; see Large lists and folders for the paging and indexing recipes.

The other kind of row in the same vocabulary is a throttling quota — a rate Graph allows per app, tenant, mailbox or resource. Those are reference only: the library reacts to the server signals (Retry-After, x-ms-throttle-*, RateLimit-*, X-SharePointHealthScore) rather than simulating the token bucket. They are tabulated with the signals in Throttling, and every row is answerable as data:

from office365.limits import catalog, catalog_products
from office365.sharepoint.thresholds import Limits, limit, warn_if_exceeds

warn_if_exceeds(Limits.LIST_VIEW, item_count, context="list 'Orders'")

@limit(Limits.LIST_VIEW, arg="page_size")   # declare + enforce on the model
def get_items(page_size=None): ...

catalog_products()  # ['graph', 'directory', 'outlook', 'teams', 'sharepoint', ...]
catalog("sharepoint")  # the table below, as data

Sources:

Limit	Value	Kind	Scope	Bound at	Notes
list view threshold	5,000 items	threshold	list	Folder.get_files, List.get_items	page through the data or index the filtered/sorted column to exceed it
list view threshold (auditors/admins)	20,000 items	threshold	list	List
index add/remove threshold	20,000 items	threshold	list	List	applies while adding or removing a column index
delete list/folder threshold	100,000 items	threshold	list	List
rename folder threshold	100,000 items	threshold	folder	Folder	renaming a folder within the same library
list view lookup threshold	8 joins	threshold	query	List	queries with more joins are blocked
max items per list/library	30,000,000 items	supported	list	List
max indexed columns	20 columns	supported	list	List	SharePoint Online allows roughly 20 indexed columns
single line of text column length	255 chars	threshold	column	Field	indexed text columns are limited to 255 characters
list row size	8,000 bytes	boundary	list item	ListItem	300 bytes are reserved; ~7,700 are usable
file upload	250 GB	boundary	file	FileCollection.upload_content	SharePoint Server 2016/2019 caps at 10 GB (15 GB in Subscription Edition)
file attached to a list item	250 MB	boundary	list item	Attachment
ZIP download	20 GB	boundary	download	MoveCopyUtil	the autogenerated ZIP when downloading multiple files
simple upload (Files/add)	4 MB	threshold	file	File	larger files use a resumable upload session
upload session chunk	4 MB	supported	file	File	default chunk size for resumable uploads
decoded file path length	400 chars	boundary	file	File	the folder path plus file name after decoding
long OneDrive URL	400 chars	boundary	url	File	the decoded full file URL; OneDrive/SharePoint sync fails beyond it
file name length	128 chars	threshold	file	File	the FileLeafRef name; the migration path scanner flags longer names
Excel workbook opened in the browser	10 MB	threshold	file	File	larger Excel files prompt to open in the Excel client instead of the browser
items per bulk/batch operation	100 items	boundary	batch	ClientContext.execute_batch, ClientContext.execute_batch_async, Entity.execute_batch, Entity.execute_batch_async	the OData batch size the client uses
batch request size	1 MB	supported	batch	ClientContext.execute_batch	conservative client cap for a SharePoint OData batch
managed metadata terms	1,000,000 terms	supported	tenant	TermStore	global and site-level terms combined
managed metadata term labels	2,000,000 labels	supported	tenant	TermStore
managed metadata term properties	1,000,000 properties	supported	tenant	TermStore
global term sets	1,000 term sets	supported	tenant	TermStore
global term groups	1,000 term groups	supported	tenant	TermStore
terms per managed metadata column (default)	50 terms	supported	column	Field	more than this is allowed but downstream experiences aren't guaranteed
permission inheritance break/reinherit	100,000 items	threshold	list	List	above this many items you can't break or reinherit permissions on the list/folder
unique security scopes	50,000 scopes	threshold	list	List	the recommended general limit is 5,000
recommended unique security scopes	5,000 scopes	supported	list	List
ACL propagation child objects	500 objects	threshold	list	List	propagation fails beyond this many uniquely scoped children
SharePoint groups per site	10,000 groups	supported	site	Site
users per SharePoint group	5,000 users	supported	group	Group
compliance policies per tenant	10,000 policies	supported	tenant	—	eDiscovery/retention holds count toward this, shared with DLP and sensitivity labels
major versions	50,000 versions	supported	file	File	SharePoint Server 2019 allows 400,000
minor versions	511 versions	boundary	file	File
lists and libraries per site collection	2,000 lists	supported	site	Site
subsites per site	2,000 sites	threshold	site	Site
max storage per site collection	25 TB	boundary	site	Site
overall site metadata	1000 GB	supported	site	Site	metadata rarely reaches this size
move/copy total file size	100 GB	threshold	transfer	MoveCopyUtil	across sites and containers
move/copy file count	30,000 files	threshold	transfer	MoveCopyUtil
cross-geo copy/move file size	15 GB	threshold	file	File
OneNote file in move/copy	2 GB	threshold	file	File
large file for migration (SMAT)	15 GB	supported	file	File	SMAT flags files over this as slow/hard to migrate; SPO upload allows 250 GB (SP2019 10-15 GB)
files in a synced library	300,000 files	supported	library	—	OneDrive sync performance limit

Migration assessment¶

The pre-migration assessment (MigrationAssessor / MigrationTenantAssessor) reports several of these limits as SPMT scan-assessment risk codes:

SPMT risk code	Limit	Scanner
`LIST_VIEW_EXCEED_LIMIT`	list view threshold	`LargeListScanner`
`ITEM_COUNT_EXCEED_INDEX_LIMIT`	index add/remove threshold	`LargeListScanner`
`ITEM_COUNT_EXCEED_LIMIT`	max items per list/library	`LargeListScanner`
`LIST_VIEW_LOOKUP_EXCEED_LIMIT`	list view lookup threshold	`LookupColumnScanner`
`UNIQUE_PERMISSION_EXCEED_LIMIT`	unique security scopes	`PermissionScanner`

Each AssessmentIssue carries the risk_code, and report.by_risk_code groups the issues by code. The LongOneDriveUrls detail report (LongOneDriveUrlsScanner) additionally flags files whose full URL crosses LONG_ONEDRIVE_URL; ThicketFolder (THICKET_FOLDER_UNSUPPORTED) and UnsupportedSiteTemplates cover the remaining blockers.