Microsoft ®Access Specifications from the Microsoft® Access Help Files. Note, while these are from the Access 2010 Help files they do apply to earlier versions, as well as, thru Access 2016 desktop databases.
General
Attribute
Maximum
Total size for an Access 2010 database (.accdb), including all database objects and data
2 gigabytes, minus the space needed for system objects. Note You can work around this size limitation by linking to tables in other Access databases. You can link to tables in multiple database files, each of which can be as large as 2GB.
Total number of objects in a database
32,768
Number of modules (including forms and reports that have the HasModule property set to True)
1,000
Number of characters in an object name
64
Number of characters in a password
14
Number of characters in a user name or group name
20
Number of concurrent users
255
Table
Attribute
Maximum
Number of characters in a table name
64
Number of characters in a field name
64
Number of fields in a table
255
Number of open tables
2,048 including linked tables and the tables opened internally by Access
Table size
2 gigabyte minus the space needed for the system objects
Number of characters in a Text field
255
Number of characters in a Memo field
65,535 when entering data through the user interface; 1 gigabyte of character storage when entering data programmatically
Size of an OLE Object field
1 gigabyte
Number of indexes in a table
32 including indexes created internally to maintain table relationships, single-field and composite indexes.
Number of fields in an index or primary key
10
Number of characters in a validation message
255
Number of characters in a validation rule including punctuations and operators
2,048
Number of characters in a field or table description
255
Number of characters in a record (excluding Memo and OLE Object fields) when the UnicodeCompression property of the fields is set to Yes
4,000
Number of characters in a field property setting
255
Query
Attribute
Maximum
Number of enforced relationships
32 per table, minus the number of indexes that are on the table for fields or combinations of fields that are not involved in relationships*
Number of tables in a query
32*
Number of joins in a query
16*
Number of fields in a recordset
255
Recordset size
1 gigabyte
Sort limit
255 characters in one or more fields
Number of levels of nested queries
50*
Number of characters in a cell in the query design grid
1,024
Number of characters for a parameter in a parameter query
255
Number of AND operators in a WHERE or HAVING clause
99*
Number of characters in an SQL statement
Approximately 64,000*
*Maximum values might be lower if the query includes multivalued lookup fields.
Form and Report
Attribute
Maximum
Number of characters in a label
2,048
Number of characters in a text box
65,535
Form or report width
22,75 in. (57.79 cm)
Section height
22.75 in. (57.79 cm)
Height of all sections plus section headers (in Design view)
200 in. (508 cm)
Number of levels of nested forms or reports
7
Number of fields or expressions that you can sort or group on in a report
10
Number of headers and footers in a report
1 report header/footer; 1 page header/footer; 10 group headers/footers
Number of printed pages in a report
65,536
Number of controls and sections that you can add over the lifetime of the form or reportNeed to know how many controls you’ve *used* already?In Design View of any form go to the VBA Editor and in the Immediate window type: ?Forms(“FormName”).Controls.Count
754
Number of characters in an SQL statement that serves as the Recordsource or Rowsource property of a form, report, or control (both .accdb and .adp)
32,750
Macro
Attribute
Maximum
Number of actions in a macro
999
Number of characters in a condition
255
Number of characters in a comment
255
Number of characters in an action argument
255
Project specificationsThe following list of tables applies to Access 2010 and Access 2007 projects: General
Attribute
Maximum
Number of objects in an Access project (.adp)
32,768
Number of modules (including forms and reports that have the HasModule property set to True)
1,000
Number of characters in an object name
64
Number of columns in a table
250 (Microsoft SQL Server 6.5) 1024 (Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, 2000 and 2005)
Form and Report
Attribute
Maximum
Number of characters in a label
2,048
Number of characters in a text box (memo field, else 255)
65,535
Form or report width
22 in. (55.87 cm)
Section height
22 in. (55.87 cm)
Height of all sections plus section headers (in Design view)
200 in. (508 cm)
Number of levels of nested forms or reports
7
Number of fields or expressions that you can sort or group on in a report
10
Number of headers and footers in a report
1 report header/footer; 1 page header/footer; 10 group headers/footers
Number of printed pages in a report
65,536
Number of controls and sections you can add over the lifetime of the form or report
754
Number of characters in an SQL statement that serves as the Recordsource or Rowsource property of a form, report, or control (both .accdb and .adp)
Access MVP (2010-2015)
