HTML attribute: maxlength

The maxlength attribute defines the maximum number of characters (as UTF-16 code units) the user can enter into an <input> or <textarea>. This must be an integer value 0 or higher.

If no maxlength is specified, or an invalid value is specified, the input or textarea has no maximum length.

Any maxlength value must be greater than or equal to the value of minlength, if present and valid. The input will fail constraint validation if the length of the text value of the field is greater than maxlength UTF-16 code units long. Constraint validation is only applied when the value is changed by the user.

Constraint validation

While the browser will generally prevent user from entering more text than the maxlength attribute allows, should the length be longer than the maxlength allows, the read-only tooLong property of a ValidityState object will be true.

Examples

<input type="password" maxlength="4"/>

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• minlength
• size
• pattern
• Constraint validation
• Constraint validation API
• <input>