Instruction limits

What it is

Two separate limits apply to instructions, and confusing them causes most of the questions on this page:

• Length. Each instruction item is capped at 200 characters. This is fixed and does not change with your plan.
• Count. How many items a chatbot may have. This one is set by your plan.

There is no hidden word budget beyond those two. Ten items of 200 characters is exactly as acceptable as one.

Plan	Instruction items per chatbot
Free	1
Starter	3
Standard	8
Pro	12
Agency	20

The cap is per chatbot, not per workspace and not per teammate. Five chatbots on Standard get eight items each, not eight between them.

When you would use it

When Add Instruction is greyed out, when saving fails on a long item, or when you are deciding whether a plan upgrade would actually help.

Where to find it

Open Dashboard → Chatbots → your chatbot → Settings → Instructions (?tab=instructions). The section description states your current maximum, and the Add Instruction button shows your count against it — something like Add Instruction (3/8).

Steps

1. Open Settings → Instructions.
2. Read the section description. It reflects your live plan, not a hardcoded number.
3. Count what you have. The add button already does this for you.
4. At the cap, choose one of three moves: merge two items, delete one you no longer enforce, or upgrade.
5. To upgrade, the workspace owner changes the plan under Settings → Billing. See Upgrade or downgrade.
6. After the plan changes, reload the Instructions tab. The new maximum appears and the add button re-enables.

Making a small allowance go further

On Free or Starter you have very few slots, so each one has to earn its place.

Merge related rules into one item. Two rules about tone can usually share a sentence:

• Before (two slots): Always use a professional tone. and Never use emoji.
• After (one slot): Always use a professional tone; never use emoji or slang.

Spend your slots on prohibitions. "Never invent a price" changes behaviour far more than "be helpful". If you only have one item, make it the thing that would embarrass you if the chatbot got it wrong.

Do not spend a slot on a fact. Instructions steer wording; they are not a reliable place to store your warranty length or your opening hours. That goes in Knowledge, which has its own, much larger allowance.

Do not spend a slot describing when an action should fire. That belongs in the action's own When should the AI use this? field, which is not capped by this limit and is far more effective there. See Create a Call Action.

What the 200-character cap means in practice

Two hundred characters is roughly one firm sentence — about 30 to 35 English words, and fewer in Arabic. Some real examples that fit comfortably:

• Never invent a price. If the price is not in your knowledge, say you will check and offer to take their email. (110)
• Answer in the language the visitor used and never switch mid-conversation. (73)
• Use short paragraphs and bullet points; keep answers under 120 words unless the visitor asks for more detail. (108)

If you are over, you are almost certainly describing two rules. Split them or cut the explanation — the chatbot needs the rule, not the reasoning behind it.

What you will see

Each item is a text field with a live character counter. Exceeding 200 shows "Instruction must be 200 characters or less" and Save stays disabled until you fix it. At the cap, Add Instruction is disabled and a note reads "Your plan allows up to N instructions. Upgrade to add more."

A Want more instructions? notice appears above the list — but only when a higher plan genuinely offers more. On the top plan you never see a pointless upgrade nudge.

How this differs from other limits

Limit	What it counts	Where
Instruction items	Standing rules per chatbot	This page
Enabled Call Actions	Things the chatbot may do, per chatbot	What are Call actions?
Knowledge size	How much content it can answer from	Knowledge limits
Message credits	How many replies you can send	Message credits
Chatbots	How many chatbots the workspace may have	Chatbot and knowledge limits

They are independent. Being at your instruction cap does not affect your action allowance, and adding knowledge does not consume instruction slots.

Limits and plan notes

• 200 characters per item, on every plan.
• Item counts: Free 1, Starter 3, Standard 8, Pro 12, Agency 20 per chatbot. See Plans and what you get.
• There is no separate instruction add-on. The count comes from the plan, and the only way to raise it is to change plan.
• Only the workspace owner can change the plan. See Billing is owner only.
• A Viewer cannot save instruction changes at all, regardless of the cap. See Roles and permissions.
• Downgrading to a plan with a smaller allowance does not delete what you already saved, but you will not be able to add more until you are back under the new cap.

Common problems

I upgraded and still see the old maximum.

Two checks. Confirm Settings → Billing shows the new plan on the workspace that owns this chatbot — in a team, the plan belongs to the owner's workspace, not to you personally. Then reload the chatbot page; the section description reads the live plan. See Seats and billing for teams.

A long paragraph is rejected.

You are over 200 characters. Split it across items if you have slots, or shorten it. This field is not a document.

Add Instruction is greyed out but I only have a couple of items.

You are on a plan with a small allowance — Free is one item. The button label shows your exact count and maximum.

I deleted an item and the count did not change.

Save the section. Deletions are edits like any other, and the section shows Save and Reset until you commit them.

Do teammates each get their own instructions?

No. Instructions belong to the chatbot. Everyone with edit permission sees and changes the same list.