When we talk about performance we’re usually referring to two separate but tightly connected things, size and speed. Each one affects the other and you’ll see that we discuss them both separately as well as together.
A good metaphor for thinking about doc performance is packing for a camping trip. The more gear you pack, the more comfortable you’ll be while camping. However, the more weight you carry, the slower you will hike. The less gear you pack, the faster and farther you go, but you'll be a little less comfortable.
There is always a balance to consider. This article aims to guide you in keeping your doc size healthy based on your specific use case and needs.
💡 If you are unsure about the cause of a performance issues in your doc, please take a look at this overview article on improving doc performance.
Within this article, you’ll find...
Doc size basics
ℹ️ If you’re on Coda’s Free plan, be aware that specific doc size limits may apply to your docs.
If you’re on a Pro, Team, or Enterprise plan, there are no doc size limits. However, you may notice your doc becoming less performant if it has grown particularly large. Continue reading to learn more.
Doc size refers to how much storage space a doc uses and is measured in megabytes (MB). When you access a Coda doc, the full doc is downloaded into your browser cache so that you can work in it even without an internet connection. But the bigger the doc size, the tougher it is for your browser to run it.
The doc size distribution of all active Coda docs. Typically, you will only notice the impact of doc size, if your doc has reached the 80th percentile. Less than 1% of all active Coda docs are larger than the 20th percentile.
If the doc grows big enough, it may become too big for your browser to load at all, and your doc’s calculations may be turned off until its size is reduced. On lower powered devices such as mobile, you may notice issues arising even earlier. This is why downsizing the doc is a good idea - we want to catch things before it’s too late!
💡 Has your doc reached the formula calculation limit, resulting in calculations being disabled? Check out this article to learn how to resolve this.
Downsizing your doc: start here
This section will cover the most likely culprits when it comes to doc size. If you need to scale down your doc to regain some speed, we recommend you start by considering the following:
Rows
The more columns you have in a table, the more space each row will take up. We have seen docs that run just fine with 100,000 rows and others that have trouble at 10,000 rows. It depends on your particular doc setup as to how many rows you can remove to bring the doc size down enough.
As a ballpark starting point, you can refer to the Formula Calculation Limit - found in your doc’s Statistics panel. Here you will see the percentage of space left before you hit the calculation limit. Note that if you’re not seeing the Formula Calculation Limit section, this means your doc is less than 50% of the way to the limit, so you are in good shape. If you have a 10,000 row table and you are at 99%, you will want to try removing 2,000 rows if your target is to get down to 80%.
💡Tip: Want to see how many rows are in a given table? Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of your doc, then click into Doc map. Find your table in the list of tables, then click on Details. The number of rows (and columns) will then show at the top of the panel. You can also sort the list of tables by Rows to reveal the tables with the highest row count. Learn more about table sorting via the doc map here.
After removing rows to bring your doc back down to a workable size, we recommend setting up a row archiving system to keep the doc size down moving forward. Check out this guide on row archiving to learn more.
Want more info? Check out this helpful guide on managing row count.
Tables
Check your doc for any stale tables or views - including sync tables - that are not being used anymore, and delete them. Before you do this, it’s a good idea to double-check that no other tables or formulas are reliant on the data in these tables.
In the doc map, you can check to see if a table has any connected views or if its data is referenced by any formulas in your doc:
If your table has zero connections or references, or if the connected tables or formulas are no longer relevant, you can proceed with deleting them.
Should you go to delete a table without first checking if it’s connected to anything important, Coda will let you know if the table has connections to review before it allows you to proceed with deleting.
💡 Within the doc map, you can sort your tables in a few different ways (learn more here), including:
Sort by Size to reveal your largest tables and views.
Sort by Last Modified to gauge which tables are used more frequently, and which ones may be stale and ready to delete.
Check out these guides on managing table count and managing view count for more info.
Canvas columns
Not all canvas columns are an issue. But if you have canvas columns that have a default value that is rather complex, that can lead to a lot of content in each cell, which can contribute to hindered performance.
Pack columns
If your tables have Pack columns that pull in a ton of additional metadata, this may be contributing significantly to your doc size. We commonly see this with the Salesforce Pack, for example. When you hover over these metadata columns, you’ll see that there is lots of additional data within each cell of that column (as demonstrated in the gif below). Evaluate where you might be able to remove these Pack columns within your doc.
Relation columns
If you have a relation column that returns many row values per cell, it’s possible that this is taking up a lot of space in your overall doc size. Relations are a powerful feature in Coda, but when used to an extreme and returning 100’s of values per row, they can cause the column size to grow fairly large.
Removing columns like this or finding a different strategy can help both doc speed and doc size performance. See this resource on building best practices for more details on this.
Additional downsizing tips
If you’re still experiencing performance issue after working through the suggestions above, here are some more tips on reducing the size of your doc.
Delete unnecessary objects
If you've got empty pages, subpages, or tables that no longer spark joy, or pages that are older versions of new-and-improved pages, consider deleting these older objects. Remember: views, controls and buttons can be deleted to free up space as well.
Split up your doc
You may have a doc that contains a lot of data but that data isn't necessarily dependent on each other. It is a great idea in those cases to split up your doc into smaller docs focused on each individual use case. This can also help your team focus on work relevant to each use case.
You can conveniently copy pages into new docs. And with sync pages and Cross-doc, it’s easier than ever to keep separate docs feeling connected and bring the necessary info in from each. Check out this resource for more guidance on knowing when to create a new page vs a brand new doc!
Archive or delete stale data
If you have big tables containing data that is no longer needed (e.g. from last year), you can delete or archive those rows to another doc. Check out this resource to learn how to set up a convenient row archiving system.
Use automations
Rather than deleting rows manually, you can use an automation to delete old rows. For example, you can set up an automation that runs once every night and deletes all rows older than 6 months. Learn more about using automations to archive old rows in this resource.
FAQs
Can I see the total size of my doc?
Can I see the total size of my doc?
Due to the fluid and complex nature of doc size, you can’t see the actual MB size in your doc. But check out the following FAQs to get a better understanding of the current size of your doc.
How do I understand what’s contributing to my doc size?
How do I understand what’s contributing to my doc size?
You can get a sense of what’s taking up space in your doc by following these steps:
Click the Settings gear icon at the top-right of your doc
Click into Statistics
The Statistics panel will show you how many rows, pages, tables and views, buttons and controls, and formulas are in use in your doc.
You can also use the doc map to see the total size of each of your tables, and the size of the columns within each table. Learn more here.
How do I tell if my doc is getting too large?
How do I tell if my doc is getting too large?
Doc size is complex and dynamic. But one useful thing to consider is the formula calculation limit. If your doc size reaches a certain point, it will hit this calculation limit and calculations will be disabled. Within the Statistics panel of your doc, you may see a Formula calculation limit section*. This will show you how close your doc size is to hitting this limit.
*Note that if your doc is less than 50% of the way towards this limit, then the formula calculation limit section won’t appear. This means your should be in good shape as far as doc size goes.
Where can I learn more about the various limits on docs?
Where can I learn more about the various limits on docs?
Glad you asked! Check out this article all about the different doc limits that exist, including doc size limits, attachment limits, version history limits, and more. Note that most limits do vary depending on your plan type.
Are there any doc size limitations on the Free plan?
Are there any doc size limitations on the Free plan?
Shared docs on the Free plan can have up to 50 objects, which include pages. Have a shared doc that’s close to - or has already gone over - the Free size doc limits? When this happens, you can either:
upgrade to a higher plan (Pro, Team, or Enterprise)
or downsize your doc to bring it back within the Free plan limits via the tips shared in this article.
For unshared docs on the Free plan, and for all docs on all other Coda plans, there are no doc size limits.
Are there any doc size limitations when using the Coda API?
Are there any doc size limitations when using the Coda API?
On all plan types, docs with a size of 125MB or more will no longer be accessible via the Coda API. This limitation is set to preserve the performance of our API, and we have observed it to affect only a very small percentage of API users.
Note that both Cross-doc and Coda's Zapier integration use the API, so docs using those features will also need to be within this size limit.
If your doc has reached this size limit, we recommend you to remove unnecessary or unused content from the doc or otherwise reduce doc size via the steps outlined in this article.