Max file size and max repository size in Git?

Question

I'm looking to have Git as the primary source control for my employer (250 people) company. Before proceeding further I would like to have answers to the following questions.

Does Git have any specific max file size limit that it can handle? If so, what is it?
What is the max repository size recommended by Git? This would help me determine the housekeeping I should set on the repository.

Possible duplicate of [File number and size limits in Git](http://stackoverflow.com/q/984707/456814). — , Jun 11 '14 at 03:32
I recently had a branch screwed up because of commit and push to origin files greater than 50mb. I stored the files offline and had to re-create the branch. I presume it's possible that Github will vary this limit for you depending on how much you pay. — NeilG, Mar 07 '23 at 07:50

score 51 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 14 '18 at 19:06

51

As mentioned in Git limits, Git has no file size or file number limit per se.
But it:

Won't manage large files too well (which is why a project like Git-BigFiles exists)
Tag every file within its repository, which is why, if you have many different sets of files which each have their own development life-cycle, it is better to use several Git repositories anyway (see true nature of submodules).
That approach is more suited to a component-driven development, and is quite different from the SVN external.

edited Nov 14 '18 at 19:06

Alexander Derck

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answered Jul 12 '10 at 18:11

VonC

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Git does not have size limits but Github and most other hosts do. – Ring Nov 06 '19 at 18:51
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@Ring I agree: *hosting* Git repositories comes with its own limitations. – VonC Nov 06 '19 at 19:28

score 27 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 22 '15 at 20:06

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Rule of thumb: 1GB per repository, 100MB per file

For best performance, github recommend repositories be kept under 1GB each. This limit is easy to stay within if large files (typically, binaries) are kept out of the repository. If your repository exceeds 1GB, you might receive a polite email from support requesting that you reduce the size of the repository to bring it back down under 1GB.

In addition, we place a strict limit of files exceeding 100 MB in size. For more information on why this is, see our article on working with large files.

Look at: Managing Large Files / What is my disk quota? (it refers to both GitHub and Git capabilities.)

edited Apr 22 '15 at 20:06

ArekBulski

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answered Jul 18 '13 at 12:33

user2454691

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I think this answer is better than I initially thought. His source backs up what he says. – ArekBulski Apr 22 '15 at 19:43
Here a slightly broader answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/3605544/7127519 – Rafael Valero May 03 '18 at 11:14
As you mentioned _"email from support requesting [...] to bring it back down under 1GB"_, is there some goto documentation about how to? – luckydonald Oct 17 '18 at 10:23
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This answer should be deleted since the question is about git, not about GitHub. For a thread about GitHub limits, see [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38768454/repository-size-limits-for-github-com). – Asclepius Dec 25 '19 at 14:09

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 20 '18 at 07:53

3

As of 2018-04-20 Git for Windows has a bug which effectively limits the file size to 4GB max using that particular implementation (this bug propagates to lfs as well).

answered Apr 20 '18 at 07:53

Kim Sullivan

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Max file size and max repository size in Git?

3 Answers3

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