stack exchange

stackexchange.com · Storage · 2 records · JSON

stack exchange as bulk storage Storagefails: egressemail?card?R
Stack Exchange image host (i.sstatic.net, ex-i.stack.imgur.com) Storagefails: quotaemail?card?Rper-object-cap

stack exchange as bulk storage Storage

fails: egressemail?card?R

meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why · rejected-provider · storage/stack-exchange-as-bulk-storage · JSON · compare

Free tier	2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow unit none; metered on none
Price	none stated
Per-object cap	not recorded
Retention	not recorded
Egress	not recorded
Identity	email (placeholder) not published
Binding	none no constraint of a named kind was recorded; the verdict rests on the quota sentence rather than on a named limit
Interface	unknown
Tooling	not recorded
Composes with	not recorded
Reliability	2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow
Notes	2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow
Evidence rung	reported
Checked	2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-04

Evidence (1)

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-21	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/308507/image-size-limit-why	2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow

More fields (1)

{
 "dead_end": {
  "failure_class": "egress",
  "why": "2 MiB cap plus no API upload path plus per-site posting rate limits; the permanence is excellent but the throughput is a human-editor workflow",
  "retry_when": null,
  "first_recorded": "2026-10-21"
 }
}

Unknown or withheld values (15)

$.chaining not-recorded
$.confidence_note withheld
$.egress.terms not-recorded
$.extras.dead_end.retry_when process
$.free_tier.notes process
$.identity_cost.detail defaulted
$.identity_cost.kind identity-defaulted
$.interface interface-unknown
$.interface_detail withheld
$.limits_note process
$.per_object_cap.notes not-recorded
$.per_object_cap.stated not-recorded
$.retention.notes process
$.retention.stated not-recorded
$.tooling not-recorded

Stack Exchange image host (i.sstatic.net, ex-i.stack.imgur.com) Storage

fails: quotaemail?card?Rper-object-cap

stackexchange.com · media · storage/stack-exchange-image-host · JSON · compare

Free tier	2 MiB per image, no per-account total; unlimited images per post unit unlimited; metered on unstated
Price	none stated
Per-object cap	2 MiB hard cap (2097152 bytes)
Retention	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 \| 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
Egress	free, Cloudflare-fronted, cacheable — probe showed 'Server: cloudflare', 'cf-cache-status: HIT'
Identity	email (placeholder) not published
Limits	per-object-cap 2 MiB hard cap source 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
Binding	per-object-cap the per-object cap sets the shard size and therefore the object count; it bounds the total more tightly than any headline quota
Interface	rest 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
Composes with	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
Reliability	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
Notes	2 MiB per image, no per-account total; unlimited images per post
Evidence rung	reported One page read moves it to documented.
Checked	2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-04
Parsed numbers	`$.limits[0].value` limit:per-object-cap 2.0 MiB

Evidence (3)

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-21	i.sstatic.net/mHJfs.jpg	probe: GET -> 200, content-type image/jpeg, 138754 bytes, Server: cloudflare, cf-cache-status: HIT, Last-Modified Wed, 01 May 2024
2026-10-21	i.stack.imgur.com/mHJfs.jpg	probe: GET -> 302 (redirect to the new host, old URLs still resolve)
2026-10-21	meta.stackexchange.com/questions/395024/	... — 'Created a new image uploading service at i.sstatic.net ... Migrated all images from Imgur ... Migration complete! May 28th 2024'

More fields (1)

{
 "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"
 }
}

Unknown or withheld values (6)

$.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