I'm curious about the maximum URL lengths supported by various browsers. I know server restrictions can change things, but I'm mainly interested in what fits into the browser's address bar. I tested in Chrome and hit a limit of 512,000 characters, but I found conflicting information that suggests it could be up to 2 MB. For Firefox, I couldn't find a limit either, but a source claims it's 65,536 characters. I'm unsure about Safari since I don't use Apple products, but I've read it might be 80,000 characters. Are there reliable sources that clarify this? I'm looking into this because I want to encode information in the URL's hash, which isn't sent to the server, so server limits are less concerning for my use case.
1 Answer
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend stuffing URLs that full. It’s good to consider that while encoding information in a URL might seem simple, there are definitely better ways to handle data. You have to also keep in mind that Internet Explorer had a length limitation of around 2048 bytes, so even shorter URLs can face issues across different platforms.
But using the hash is a solid method! It makes sharing info simple across devices without needing a server, and since the hash isn’t sent to the server, server limits shouldn’t matter much.