View source for Wiki143:Article size

{{Short description|Wikipedia guideline about content length}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}{{pp-move-indef}}
{{redirect|WP:SIZE|information on the overall size of Wikipedia|Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia}}
{{other uses}}
{{subcat guideline|editing guideline|Article size|WP:AS|WP:SIZE|WP:LENGTH}}
{{nutshell|Articles should be neither too big nor too small.}}
{{Guideline list}}

This page contains an overview of the key issues concerning '''article size'''. There are three related measures of an article's size:

* ''Readable prose'' size: the amount of viewable text in the main sections of the article, not including tables, lists, or [[wp:footer|footer]] sections.
* ''Wiki markup'' size: the amount of text in the full page edit window, as shown in the character count in the article's [[wp:page history|page history]].
* ''Browser page'' size: the total size of the page as loaded by a [[web browser]].

The article size impacts usability in multiple ways:

*''Reader issues'', such as [[attention span]], readability, organization, information saturation, etc. (when articles are large); and fragmentation and duplication of related information the reader may be seeking  over multiple pages (when articles are short).
*''Maintenance'', such as articles becoming time-consuming to maintain when they are very long; and articles becoming time-consuming to maintain when duplicate or coordinated information, possibly with duplicate references, must be maintained across multiple short articles.
*''Technical issues'', such as size limits imposed by the MediaWiki software.

When an article is too large, consider [[Wikipedia:Split|breaking it into smaller articles]], [[Wikipedia:Content forks#Article spinoffs: "Summary style" meta-articles and summary sections|spinning part of it out]] into a new article, or [[Wikipedia:Merging|merging part of it]] into another existing article. When an article is too small, consider merging with one or more other existing articles. Such editorial decisions require [[Wikipedia:Consensus|consensus]]. Guidelines on the size of articles, and detailed solutions, are provided below. The [[Wikipedia:Copyrights|licensing policy]] mandates that whenever any content is copied from one article to another new or existing article, an edit summary containing the required [[Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia#Proper attribution|copy attribution]] must be used.

==Readability==
{{Shortcut|WP:CANYOUREADTHIS}}
{{See also|Readability}}

Each Wikipedia article is in a process of evolution and is likely to continue growing. Other editors will add to articles when you are done with them. Wikipedia has practically unlimited storage space; however, long articles may be more difficult to read, navigate, and comprehend.   
An article longer than one or two pages when printed should be divided into sections to ease navigation (see [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] and [[Wikipedia:Layout]] for guidance). For most long articles, division into sections is natural anyway. Readers of the [[Mobile Web|mobile]] version of Wikipedia can be helped by ensuring that sections are not so long or so numerous as to impede navigation. 

At 10,000 words it may be beneficial to move some sections to other articles and replace them with summaries per [[Wikipedia:Summary style]] – see {{section link||Size guideline}} below. Articles that cover particularly technical subjects should, in general, be shorter than articles on less technical subjects. While expert readers of such articles may accept complexity and length provided the article is well written, the general reader requires clarity and conciseness. There are times when a long or very long article is unavoidable, though its complexity should be minimized. ''Readability is a key criterion'': an article should have clear scope, be well organized, stay on topic, and have a good narrative flow. 

=== Readable prose ===
{{Shortcut|WP:RPS|WP:PROSEL}}
Readable prose is the main body of the text, excluding material such as footnotes and reference sections ("see also", "external links", bibliography, etc.), diagrams and images, tables and lists, Wikilinks and external URLs, and formatting and mark-up. The measure may substantially underestimate the amount of content in articles that summarize much of their information in tables, especially when these contain notes and explanations in text columns.

[https://xtools.wmflabs.org/articleinfo XTools] shows prose information, including number of characters (under "Prose" in the "General statistics" section). It may be used for an article currently being looked at by selecting the ''View History'' tab for the page, then ''Page Statistics'' from the line near the top headed External Tools. The [[Wikipedia:Prosesize|prosesize gadget]] is also helpful for estimating readable prose size.

===Lists, tables and summaries===
{{see also|Wikipedia:Naming conventions (long lists)|Wikipedia:Content forking#List formats}}
{{Shortcut|WP:SPLITLIST}}

Lists, tables, and other material that is already in summary form may not be appropriate for reducing or summarizing further by the [[Wikipedia:Summary style|summary style]] method. If there is no "natural" way to split or reduce a long list or table, it may be best to leave it intact, and a decision made to either keep it [[WP:Embedded lists|embedded]] in the main article or [[Wikipedia:SPINOFF|split it off]] into a [[WP:Stand-alone lists|stand-alone page]]. Regardless, a list or table should be kept as short as is feasible for its purpose and scope. Too much statistical data is against [[WP:NOT#STATS|policy]].

==Maintenance==
Wikipedia articles are in constant need of maintenance. This ranges from minor edits correcting spelling and grammar, to major updates reflecting new events and new source material. Some articles may require being rewritten after some time, especially articles created about recent events. It is generally good practice to ensure that articles do not become too long to maintain, especially articles in need of frequent updating. Maintenance can become more difficult when the amount of text on a topic grows, especially when information, possibly with duplicate references, must be maintained across multiple articles.

==Technical issues==
{{shortcut|WP:CHOKING}}

Total article size should be kept reasonably low, particularly for readers using slow internet connections or mobile devices or who have slow computer loading. Some large articles exist for topics that require depth and detail, but typically articles of such size are [[WP:SPLIT|split]] into two or more smaller articles.

The maximum limit for Wikipedia is set, via the MediaWiki software's [[mw:Manual:$wgMaxArticleSize|wgMaxArticleSize]], to 2&nbsp;[[mebibyte|MiB]] (specifically, 2048 [[kibibyte]]s or 2,097,152 bytes). Exceeding the [[Wikipedia:PEIS|post-expand limit]] will result in templates in the article appearing incorrectly.

==Size guideline==
{{Anchor|A rule of thumb}}
{{Shortcut|WP:SIZERULE|WP:TOOBIG}}
Some useful rules of thumb for splitting, trimming or merging articles:

{| class="wikitable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"
|-
! Readable prose
! scope="col" | What to do
|-
| >&nbsp;15,000&nbsp;words || Almost certainly should be divided or trimmed.
|-
| > 9,000 words || Probably should be divided or trimmed, though the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading material.
|-
| > 8,000 words || May need to be divided or trimmed; likelihood goes up with size.
|-
| < 6,000 words || Length alone does not justify division or trimming. 98.5% of Wikipedia's articles are shorter than this.
|-
| < 150 words || If an article or list has remained this size for over two months, consider merging it with a related article. Alternatively, the article could be expanded; see [[Wikipedia:Stub]].
|}
Most articles on Wikipedia are [[Wikipedia:Stub|stubs]] or otherwise short articles.  As of 2024, article lengths had this distribution:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Measures of article size
!Percentile ranking
!1
!10
!20
!30
!40
!50
!60
!70
!80
!90
!95
!99
!99.9
|-
|Number of words
|20
|50
|100
|150
|250
|350
|450
|650
|950
|1,700
|2,700
|7,000
|16,000
|-
|Sentences
|1
|2
|4
|6
|9
|13
|18
|24
|35
|60
|95
|235
|500
|-
|[[Help:Footnotes|References]]
|0
|1
|1
|2
|3
|4
|5
|7
|11
|20
|30
|85
|200
|-
|[[Help:Link|Links]] to other articles
|2
|7
|10
|14
|18
|23
|30
|40
|55
|95
|150
|500
|850
|}
If an article is in the top 1% (99th percentile) or higher for number of words or sentences, you should consider whether the article needs copyediting to omit needless words and maintain encyclopedic concision, or if it might need to be split.  If the article is in the top 0.1%, then it almost certainly needs to be divided or trimmed.

===How to find word count===
{{anchor|Wikipedia:Article size#How to find word count}}
{{shortcut|WP:WORDCOUNT}}
'''Please note:''' These rules of thumb are intended to be '''approximate''' and apply only to '''readable prose''' – ''not'' to wiki markup size (as found via the [[Help:Page history|page history]] or other means). Word counts can be found with the help of '''[[User:Shubinator/DYKcheck|Shubinator's DYK tool]]''' or '''[[Wikipedia:Prosesize|Prosesize gadget]]''' (either [[Special:Preferences#mw-input-wpgadget-Prosesize|as a script]] or on [https://prosesize.toolforge.org web version]), or by copying and pasting the text (not including references) to a word processor or other tool on your computer that can count words.  The latter method is more accurate for [[Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists|stand-alone lists]] and articles with significant list content, as the other tools do not count words in image captions, lists, or tables. When considering splitting [[Wikipedia:List guideline|list]]s, consider the impact of breaking up a [[Help:Sortable tables|sortable table]].

The rules of thumb apply somewhat less to [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation]] pages and naturally do not apply to [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirects]].

===Lead section size===
{{see|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section#Length}}
The appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. Most leads of [[Wikipedia:Featured articles|featured articles]] are 250–400 words.

==Splitting an article==
{{main|Wikipedia:Splitting}}
{{seealso|WP:SPINOFF|Wikipedia:Summary style}}
{{shortcut|WP:SPINOUT|WP:SUBARTICLE}}

Very large articles should be [[Wikipedia:Splitting|split]] into logically separate articles. Long [[Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists|stand-alone list articles]] are split into subsequent pages alphabetically, numerically, or subtopically. Also consider splitting and [[Wikipedia:Transclusion|transcluding]] the split parts (for example with [[Template:Excerpt]]).

When splitting a section into a new article, you should refer to the steps in [[WP:PROPERSPLIT]], including an [[WP:ES|edit summary]] in the new article attributing the origin of the content to the existing article.

===No need for haste===
{{Shortcut|WP:HASTE}}

There is no need for haste in splitting an article when it starts getting large. Sometimes an article simply needs to be big to give the subject adequate coverage. If uncertain, or with high-profile articles, start a discussion on the talkpage regarding the overall topic structure. Determine whether the topic should be treated as several shorter articles and, if so, how best to organize them.  If the discussion makes no progress consider adding one of the [[Wikipedia:Template index/Splitting|split tags]] in order to get feedback from other editors.

===Breaking out trivial or controversial sections===
{{details|Wikipedia:Content forks}}

A relatively trivial topic may be appropriate in the context of the larger article, but inappropriate as the topic of an entire article in itself. In most cases, it is a violation of the [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|neutral point of view policy]] to specifically break out a ''controversial'' section without leaving an adequate summary. It also violates that policy to create a new article specifically to contain information that consensus has rejected from the main article. Consider other organizational principles for splitting the article, and be sure that both the title and content of the broken-out article reflect a neutral point of view.

===Breaking out an unwanted section===
{{shortcut|WP:UNWANTEDSECTION}}
If a section of an article is a magnet for unhelpful contributions (such as the "external links" section or [[WP:AVTRIV|trivia]] sections), be aware that while moving it to another article may help to clean up the main article, it creates a new article that consists entirely of a section for unwanted contributions.  If an article includes large amounts of material not suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia, it is better to remove that content than to create a new article for it.

==Trimming or content removal==
{{Further|Wikipedia:Content removal}}

Text can often be trimmed to use fewer words to say the same thing; some good essays have been written on how to do this, including [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Copy-editing essentials|WikiProject Military history's Copy-editing essentials]], [[User:Tony1/Redundancy exercises: removing fluff from your writing|User Tony1's redundancy exercises]] and the [[Wikipedia:Principle of Some Astonishment]]. This technique not only leads to (slightly) shorter articles, but [[readability]] of those articles typically improves.

Removing appropriate content, especially [[Wikipedia:Summary style|summary style]], and/or reliably sourced and non-tangential information, from an article simply to reduce length without moving that content to an appropriate article either by merging or splitting, may require a consensus discussion on the talk page; see {{section link|Wikipedia:Content removal|Reasons}} for acceptable reasons.

==Markup size==
{{See|Help:Wiki markup}}
{{sh|WP:MARKUPSIZE}}

Markup or [[markup language]] is the code used to organise a document and make it readable. Wiki markup is the codes used on Wikipedia. Markup size includes readable prose, the wiki codes, and any media used in the article, such as images or audio clips. 

You can find the size of the markup of a page in [[byte]]s from its [[WP:page history|page history]] (near the bottom).  Also the [[Wikipedia:Searching|search]] box entry: <code>intitle:Article title</code> will show both number of words in the article and the size of the article in kilobytes. In most cases these are not reliable indications on their own of whether an article should be split. 

The largest articles by markup size are listed at [[Special:Longpages]].

Note that the ability to [[Wikipedia:Section|edit a section rather than the entire page]] decreases wait time, removing some of the many, oversized-page problems for ''editors''; however, ''readers'' with slow connections will still have to wait for the entire page to load.

==Browser page size==
The browser page size includes the size of the rendered [[HTML]] as well as any resources such as [[JavaScript|scripts]], images, [[CSS|style sheets]], or other content loaded by the browser. The size can vary based on the browser, which files have been [[Web cache|cached]], and [[Help:Preferences|Wikipedia preferences]]. The method for determining this varies by browser, but one method from [[Google Chrome]] and other [[Chromium]]-based browsers is listed below:
# While logged out of Wikipedia (or in a [[Private browsing]] tab, also known as "Incognito mode" or "InPrivate browsing"), open the Wikipedia page in [[:mw:Manual:Safemode|Safemode]] by appending the parameter <code>safemode=1</code> to the URL, e.g. <code>{{URL|1=https:{{SERVER}}{{replace|{{ARTICLEPATH}}|$1|{{FULLPAGENAMEE}}}}?safemode=1|2=https:{{SERVER}}{{replace|{{ARTICLEPATH}}|$1|{{FULLPAGENAMEE}}}}'''?safemode=1'''}}</code>
# Open the browser's [[HELP:CONSOLE|developer tools]] by pressing {{Key press|F12}} or {{Key press|Option|Command|K}} and click on the "Network" tab at the top.
# Click and hold on the browser's refresh button until a menu pops up, and then select "Empty cache and hard reload" or Empty cache and hard refresh".
# As the page loads, the bottom status network tab will display a number of statistics, the second from the left will indicate the amount of data transferred (e.g. "### kB transferred"), and the third will indicate the size of all resources after they have been [[Data compression|decompressed]]. Once the page has completely finished loading, these numbers should indicate the browser page size with and without compression.

==If you have problems editing a long article==
If you have encountered an article that is so long you can't edit it, or if your browser chops off the end of the article when you try to edit it, there are a few ways you can solve the problem.

Often, you can edit the article one [[Wikipedia:Section|section]] at a time by using the "Edit" links you see next to each header in the article. You can [[meta:Help:Section#Editing before the first section|edit the article lede]] before the first section by appending <code>&section=0</code> to the URL. (See [[phab:T2156|T2156]] and two JavaScript workarounds: [[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Edit Top|1]], [[Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Add edit section 0|2]].) You can [[Wikipedia:Section#Section editing|insert a new section]] either by using the "{{MediaWiki:Addsection}}" link (if there is one) in the "Views" section, or by editing an existing section and explicitly adding a second header line within it. 
If you find a section that is itself too long to edit, you can post a request for assistance on the [[Wikipedia:Help desk|help desk]].

==See also==
* {{tl|section length}}, returns the length of a given section, or the article
* [[Help:Template limits]]
* [[Phab:T248796]] (Mobile formatter breaks past 1000 images)
* [[Special:LongPages]]
* [[Wikipedia:Article series]]
* [[Wikipedia:Database reports/Featured articles by size]] (prose size and word count)
* [[Wikipedia:Database reports/Long pages]]
* [[Wikipedia:Database reports/Long stubs]]
* [[Wikipedia:Database reports/Talk pages by size]]
* [[Wikipedia:Featured articles/By length]] (in bytes)
* [[Wikipedia:Out of scope]]
* [[Wikipedia:Too much detail]]
* [[Wikipedia:Words per article]]
* [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/November 2023/Op-ed|Wikipedia:Size considered harmful]] 
* [[Wikipedia:Writing better articles#Stay on topic]]
*{{myprefs|gadgets|Browsing|check={{int:gadget-Prosesize}}}} ([[Special:Preferences#mw-input-wpgadget-Prosesize|direct link]]), and then save.

{{Wikipedia policies and guidelines}}

[[Category:Wikipedia page help|{{PAGENAME}}]]