If you've ever pasted listing copy into your MLS form and seen it truncated at a number that wasn't the number you were targeting, you already know the secret: there is no industry-wide MLS public-remarks character limit. Every board sets its own cap, every board enforces a slightly different prohibited-content list, and the line between "agent" and "public" remarks is drawn in a different place depending on which platform your board runs.
This guide is the reference we wish existed when we were building ListingToolkit's MLS output: the actual numbers, by board, plus the content categories that are forbidden across virtually every MLS in the country. Bookmark it and check it the next time your remarks get rejected.
The character-limit table
Public remarks limits, current as of 2026:
| MLS / Platform | Public Remarks Limit |
|---|---|
| CoreLogic Matrix (default) | 800 (private 400) |
| FlexMLS (default) | 800 (private 400) |
| FMLS (Georgia) | 800 |
| Bright MLS | 1,000 |
| MRED (Chicago) | 1,000 |
| NWMLS (Washington) | 1,000 |
| ACTRIS (Austin) | 1,024 |
| Paragon (Black Knight / ICE) | 1,300 |
| CRMLS (California Regional) | 1,500 |
| RMLS (Pacific NW) | 1,500 |
| MLSListings (California) | ~1,500 |
| SmartMLS (Matrix variant) | 1,500 public + 2,400 addendum |
| HAR (Houston) | 2,000 |
Sources for those numbers: ListingKit's per-board breakdown, BeachesMLS support for the Matrix and FlexMLS defaults, SmartMLS's Matrix Addendum article for the 1500+2400 split, Bay East's Paragon update for the 1300 (raised from 600 in September 2022), and MLSListings's own support article confirming their recent increase.
A few things to notice:
Matrix is not one number. It's a platform with a per-board configuration. SmartMLS runs on Matrix and allows 1500. Other Matrix-driven boards keep the 800 default. If you're on Matrix and don't know your board's specific cap, assume 800.
The 800-character floor is real. Matrix, FlexMLS, and FMLS all default to 800. If you write to that limit, your copy fits on roughly every MLS in North America. Writing to 1500 means you'll get truncated on a meaningful number of platforms, and the truncation happens at the database layer — you don't get to choose what gets cut.
Private (agent) remarks are usually half the public limit. Don't pad them. The agent-remarks field is for showing instructions and deal-mechanic notes, not extended descriptions.
What you can't put in public remarks — universal rules
These rules are functionally universal across major boards. They show up explicitly in Stellar MLS Article 04.06, Bright MLS's August 2024 rule update, NorthstarMLS's "Six Sections" guide, and most other boards' published rules.
1. Contact information. No agent name, phone number, email address, or website URL anywhere in the remarks. The MLS renders those in their own dedicated fields. Including them in the remarks gets you flagged on virtually every board.
2. Brokerage name in the remarks. Same logic. The MLS has a brokerage field; remarks aren't it.
3. Commission, compensation, or co-op references. Post-August 2024, the NAR settlement made this an industry-wide rule. No reference to buyer-agent compensation, BAC, "co-op," "% to buyer's agent," bonuses, or seller concessions framed as agent payment — in public OR private remarks. Bright MLS added automated detection for this on August 14, 2024, and other boards have followed.
4. Showing instructions. No "call agent for showings," no "appointment only," no lockbox codes, alarm codes, or gate codes. Those live in the dedicated showing-instructions or agent-remarks field, never in the public remarks.
5. Open-house dates or times. Open houses go in the open-house field, which has its own structured entry path and feeds the portals correctly. Putting open-house info in remarks means it doesn't render on Zillow/Realtor.com the way it should and creates conflicting data when you update the open house later.
6. Financing terms. "FHA welcome," "cash only," "owner financing" — these belong in the financing-allowed field, not the remarks. Some boards (including Bright) auto-flag them when they appear in public remarks.
7. Fair-housing-flagged language. Familial-status proxies ("perfect for families," "starter home"), safety claims ("safe neighborhood" is HUD's most-flagged race/color proxy), school-quality language ("great schools," "top-rated schools" — known steering proxy), disability proxies ("walking distance to"). Realcomp's restricted-words list and the Fair Housing Institute's word list consolidate the patterns most boards' automated scanners catch.
8. Third-party brand promotion or vendor recommendations. Specific appliance brand callouts ("Sub-Zero," "Wolf") are borderline — allowed as factual descriptors when they exist in the property, not as endorsements. Naming an inspection company, lender, or other vendor in remarks is explicitly prohibited on most boards.
What varies by board
A few categories sit on the line where one board allows them and the next one fines you for them:
Personal property sales. Most boards prohibit advertising the sale of personal property (boats, vehicles) in remarks. Some allow it when integral to the listing (a slip with the property, for example).
Tenant or occupancy details. "Tenant-occupied" is generally fine. Specific tenant move-out dates or rent figures often aren't. Check your board.
Branding in the remarks tagline. Canopy MLS and Realcomp explicitly prohibit any agent or team branding language in remarks. Some boards are looser.
Emoji and special characters. No board we've seen has a rule against them, but downstream syndication is inconsistent — Zillow and Realtor.com sometimes strip non-ASCII characters, and the resulting display can look garbled. Industry practice (not formal rule) is to keep remarks ASCII.
How the automated scanners work
Most major MLS systems run an automated content scanner against new listings, either at the time of input or shortly after. The most common one is CoreLogic's Listing Data Checker (LDC), which scans for fair-housing proxy phrases, contact information, and now (post-2024) compensation language. Pennsylvania Realtors and Realcomp both reference LDC-style scans in their compliance guidance.
The fines aren't theoretical. Stellar MLS's fines schedule lists violation penalties ranging from $500 to $5,000 with no courtesy warning when content potentially violates state or federal law. CRMLS raised its public-remarks-misuse fine to $250 in 2026. Metro MLS's top-10 violations list reads like a checklist of the categories above.
A flagged listing typically gets pulled into a review queue, the agent gets notified, and the listing has to be corrected within a window (often 24–48 hours) or the listing is suspended. That's a worse outcome than just writing within the rules to begin with.
A safe default
If you only want to remember one rule: write to 750 characters and avoid every category above, and your copy will pass on virtually every MLS in the country.
That's the number we use as the target in ListingToolkit's MLS output. It fits within the 800-character floor that Matrix, FlexMLS, and FMLS enforce by default, leaves enough room for a strong factual opener and two or three differentiating features, and stays well under the hard ceilings on every other major board.
If you're on CRMLS, Paragon, or HAR and want to use the additional space, fine — but earn it. Adding three extra fluff sentences to fill the field doesn't help your listing; it adds noise. Zillow and Redfin both syndicate from the MLS, and both publish guidance pointing toward ~250-word descriptions as the engagement sweet spot. More space isn't always better.
The agents whose listings move fastest are usually the ones whose remarks are tight, specific, and free of the patterns that get them flagged before a buyer ever sees the listing.
ListingToolkit generates compliant MLS public remarks, portal descriptions, social captions, marketing emails, seller summaries, and printable flyers from a single property input. The MLS output respects the 800-character floor by default, runs the same fair-housing and compensation-language checks the boards use, and tells you when you're flirting with a board-specific cap before you publish.