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WPBeginner» Blog» Tutorials» How to Limit Comment Length in WordPress

How to Limit Comment Length in WordPress

Last updated on May 5th, 2015 by Editorial Staff
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How to Limit Comment Length in WordPress

WordPress comments encourage discussions around your topic. However you may find that comments below a certain length or above a certain length are not very helpful. In this article, we will show you how to limit comment length in WordPress, so you can set both minimum and maximum comment length limit for your WordPress site.

Why limit comment length in WordPress?

Set Comment Length Limits in WordPress

In our experience of moderating online discussions for the past decade, we have found that most helpful comments are above 60 characters and below 5000 characters in length.

When a person writes a one-word comment, it usually is not very helpful. In most cases, it is spam because the author is simply trying to earn a backlink from your site.

However when a person writes a comment above 5000 characters, its usually a rant / complaint that in most cases is not relevant to that particular article.

By setting comment length limits in WordPress, you can improve the quality of your comments.

Let’s take a look at how to control comment length in WordPress.

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If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

There are two methods to limit comment length in WordPress. The first method requires you to install a plugin. The second method uses a simple code snippet that you can add to your site.

Method 1: Limiting Comment Lenght Using a Plugin

First thing you need to do is install and activate Control Comment Length plugin. Upon activation, simply go to Settings » Control Comment Length to configure the plugin settings.

Controlling comment length in WordPress using a plugin

The plugin’s user interface is in German with English. You can set both minimum and maximum number of characters a comment can have. We recommend using 60 for minimum and 5000 for maximum character count.

You can also add messages that will be visible to users when there comments are either too short or too long. The plugin only provides these messages in the German language. You can replace it with your own message.

Method 2: Limit Comment Length Using Code Snippet

The second method is for users who don’t mind dealing with code code. We will add a filter hook to preprocess_comment. This filter is run before WordPress saves any comments to database or runs any other pre-processing on submitted comments. We will use it to check the comment length. If it is above or below the set comment length parameters, then we will show users an error message.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter( 'preprocess_comment', 'wpb_preprocess_comment' );

function wpb_preprocess_comment($comment) {
    if ( strlen( $comment['comment_content'] ) > 5000 ) {
        wp_die('Comment is too long. Please keep your comment under 5000 characters.');
    }
if ( strlen( $comment['comment_content'] ) < 60 ) {
        wp_die('Comment is too short. Please use at least 60 characters.');
    }
    return $comment;
}

Comment too long error

We hope this article helped you limit comment length in WordPress. You may also want to checkout our guide on 12 vital tips and tools to combat comment spam in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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17 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. connie mergel says:
    Jan 2, 2021 at 8:28 am

    The control comment length plugin is no longer available> Do you have any suggestions about another plugin that will do the same thing.

    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 4, 2021 at 10:48 am

      While we don’t have a recommendation at the moment, we will be sure to update this article when we find a plugin we would recommend.

      Reply
  2. Binh Pham says:
    Apr 30, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    Awsome! Thank you so much for the tip.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 1, 2020 at 9:54 am

      You’re welcome, glad you found our guide helpful :)

      Reply
  3. Efe Obasuyi says:
    Dec 16, 2019 at 3:42 am

    For your information, the “Control Comment Length” is no longer on WordPress directory. Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 16, 2019 at 10:58 am

      Thank you for letting us know, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for an alternative plugin :)

      Reply
  4. Stephen says:
    Sep 5, 2019 at 11:19 am

    The plugin is no longer available. Update your article!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 6, 2019 at 9:20 am

      Thanks for letting us know, we’ll be sure to look for an alternative

      Reply
  5. ghost says:
    Sep 11, 2017 at 2:03 pm

    hi,
    first thanks for your code
    and how can i stay in my page and open a popup message showing the message error ?

    thanks

    Reply
  6. Charlie Lynburg says:
    Jan 20, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    I am thrilled to have found this! It’s life-changing in a site like mine!

    Can you give me a code to add that EXEMPTS this limit for myself (admins)? Thanks

    Reply
  7. MGK says:
    Nov 2, 2015 at 7:36 am

    is there any way to add read more tag on comment?

    Reply
  8. Bharat Sharma says:
    Sep 18, 2015 at 6:32 am

    Hi,

    The plugin is no longer in WordPress directory, but the code works very well. However, I want to know is there a way we can “gray out” or “disable” the submit button if the comment length conditions are not met. Right now, what this code do is it allow the user to submit comment and they get an error message if their comment length is not as per code criteria. By greying out the button we will be able to stop users from getting irritated and their will be no need to hit the back button.

    Reply
  9. stanley says:
    Jun 3, 2015 at 8:46 pm

    hi where can i download the wordpress application?
    can you give the link?or send it thru my gmail? thanks

    Reply
  10. Abdul Halim says:
    May 5, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    Can I do comment length limit 50 to 500 instead of 5000? What will be code for that?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 6, 2015 at 1:11 am

      You can use the same code to set set the character limit to whatever you want.

      Reply
    • paunkumar says:
      May 22, 2015 at 12:45 am

      add_filter( ‘preprocess_comment’, ‘wpb_preprocess_comment’ );

      function wpb_preprocess_comment($comment) {
      if ( strlen( $comment[‘comment_content’] ) > 5000 ) {
      wp_die(‘Comment is too long. Please keep your comment under 5000 characters.’);
      }
      if ( strlen( $comment[‘comment_content’] ) < 60 ) {
      wp_die('Comment is too short. Please use at least 60 characters.');
      }
      return $comment;
      }

      Reply
  11. Tom says:
    Apr 30, 2015 at 1:13 pm

    Is there any way to limit comments, and if the limit is exceeded a new page will be created and the rest of the comment is on a new page?

    Reply

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