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a live 2013-era test image still returns 200 with Last-Modified 2024-05-01","source_url":"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why-it-is-set-to-2-mib","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"free, Cloudflare-fronted, cacheable — probe showed 'Server: cloudflare', 'cf-cache-status: HIT'","metered":false},"interface":["rest"],"interface_detail":"rest","tooling":"no official image-upload endpoint in the SE API; images are inserted by the web editor or by POSTing a post body containing an already-hosted URL. Wrapper only (Selenium/editor automation) — this is the failure point","chaining":"2 MiB x unlimited posts x unlimited answers x N Stack Exchange sites (180+ sites, one network account). 500 GB = ~256,000 images; not a practical bulk store without a browser farm","limits":[{"kind":"per-object-cap","value":"2 MiB hard cap","source":"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why-it-is-set-to-2-mib"}],"limits_note":"2 MiB hard cap after the 2024 migration off Imgur; images are re-encoded/downscaled, so it is not byte-exact storage; posting rate limits per site","identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":null,"country":null},"reliability_note":"the most permanent image host in this set — SE migrated every historical Imgur URL to i.sstatic.net in May 2024 precisely to guarantee links never rot; a live 2013-era test image still returns 200 with Last-Modified 2024-05-01","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://i.sstatic.net/mHJfs.jpg","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"probe: GET -> 200, content-type image/jpeg, 138754 bytes, Server: cloudflare, cf-cache-status: HIT, Last-Modified Wed, 01 May 2024"},{"url":"https://i.stack.imgur.com/mHJfs.jpg","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"probe: GET -> 302 (redirect to the new host, old URLs still resolve)"},{"url":"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"... — 'Created a new image uploading service at i.sstatic.net ... Migrated all images from Imgur ... Migration complete! May 28th 2024'"}],"verdict":"fails-quota","verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"2 MiB per image, no per-account total; unlimited images per post","extras":{"dead_end":{"failure_class":"quota","why":"2 MiB per image, no per-account total; unlimited images per post","retry_when":null,"first_recorded":"2026-10-21"}},"binding":"per-object-cap","binding_note":"the per-object cap sets the shard size and therefore the object count; it bounds the total more tightly than any headline quota"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":2.0,"unit":"MiB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:per-object-cap","num":2.0,"unit":"MiB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.extras.dead_end.retry_when","process"],["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.identity_cost.detail","defaulted"],["$.identity_cost.kind","identity-defaulted"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}]}