# Instance Settings
URL: https://usememos.com/docs/admin/instance-settings

Instance settings control authentication, storage, and memo policies. Admins can update these settings in the app or via the Instance Settings API.

Common areas include:

* Instance access policy: public or private access, stored independently of the canonical instance URL.
* General access controls: user registration, password auth, username and nickname changes, week start day, and custom instance profile.
* Storage settings: named database, local filesystem, or S3-compatible configurations with stable IDs, a default for new uploads, and file path templates.
* Usage limits: memo length, upload size, memo count, and total storage, for everyone or for named users.
* Memo-related settings: allowed reaction values.
* Notification settings: SMTP email delivery, sender details, reply-to address, and the email test endpoint.
* AI settings: instance-level OpenAI or Gemini providers and speech-to-text transcription defaults.

Tag colors and content-blur rules are user settings in Memos 0.30 and later, not instance settings. See [Tags](/docs/usage/tags).

## Access policy [#access-policy]

In 0.31, the `ACCESS` setting determines whether anonymous visitors may read public content. `MEMOS_INSTANCE_URL` supplies the canonical external address and no longer changes an existing access policy. Use [declarative configuration](/docs/configuration/declarative-configuration#access-policy) when infrastructure should own this setting.

Active instance admins manage these policies and can read and manage individual memos, including other authors' private and Space-only memos. They do not automatically become Space members, and collection listings still filter by audience. See [Users & Roles](/docs/admin/users-roles).

## Usage limits [#usage-limits]

From 26.10, **Settings › Usage limits** replaces the earlier upload size and memo content length settings; their old values are not carried over. Limits cover four metrics: memo length, size of one upload, number of memos (comments and archived memos included), and total upload storage.

Entries are checked in order. The last entry applies to all users, and an entry above it gives the users it names their own limits; each user gets the first entry that names them. An unset limit, or `0`, is unlimited, and administrators are limited like everyone else. Without any configured limits, Memos allows 8 KiB per memo and 32 MiB per file, with no memo count or storage limit.

A save or upload that would exceed a limit is refused with a message naming the limit. Nothing already stored is hidden or removed. Each user can see their current usage in **My Account**. Use [declarative configuration](/docs/configuration/declarative-configuration#usage-limits) when infrastructure should own these limits; while the configuration manages them, the setting cannot be changed in the app.

Double-click to edit is no longer an instance setting. Each person chooses it per browser under **Settings › Preferences › This device**.

## Sensitive settings [#sensitive-settings]

Storage, notification, and AI settings can contain credentials. API responses do not return stored S3 secrets, SMTP passwords, or AI provider API keys in plaintext. When updating those settings, submit a new secret only when you intend to replace it.

## Related API [#related-api]

* [Get Instance Setting](/docs/api/latest/instanceservice/GetInstanceSetting)
* [Batch Get Instance Settings](/docs/api/latest/instanceservice/BatchGetInstanceSettings)
* [Update Instance Setting](/docs/api/latest/instanceservice/UpdateInstanceSetting)
* [Test Instance Email Setting](/docs/api/latest/instanceservice/TestInstanceEmailSetting)