Configure Payload Size and Binary Data Mode for Large Files

By default, n8n stores binary data (files, images, PDFs) in memory and in the database. This causes out-of-memory crashes and database bloat when handling files larger than 10-20 MB. Two environment variables fix this immediately.

Real-world example: A workflow downloads vendor invoices as PDFs (5-50 MB each), processes them with an OCR service, and archives them to S3. Without these settings, the workflow crashes after the third file.

# .env or docker-compose.yml environment section

# Increase max payload from default 16MB to 256MB

N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX=256

# Store binary data on filesystem instead of in database/memory

N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem

# Set the directory for binary file storage (default: ~/.n8n/binaryData)

N8N_BINARY_DATA_STORAGE_PATH=/data/n8n-binary

# Also increase Node.js memory if processing very large files

NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096
```text
```yaml

# docker-compose.yml example

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    environment:
      - N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX=256
      - N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem
      - N8N_BINARY_DATA_STORAGE_PATH=/data/n8n-binary
      - NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096
    volumes:
      - n8n_binary:/data/n8n-binary
    # ...

volumes:
  n8n_binary:
```text
After enabling filesystem mode, binary data is stored as files on disk and only references are passed between nodes. Memory usage drops dramatically.

**Related:** [Flatten Deeply Nested API Responses](../code-node-mastery/01-flatten-deeply-nested-api-responses.md) | [Use Docker Compose with Health Checks for n8n and PostgreSQL](../self-hosting-operations/01-use-docker-compose-with-health-checks-for-n8n-and-postgresql.md)