PDF upload via chat trigger - PayloadTooLargeError: request entity too large

Description

Hi, I try to add a PDF document (23 MB) to qdrant, but can’t even add via a chat trigger since the size is apparently too big. I use the docker (desktop) AI starter kit on a Silicon Mac. I changed the env-variables N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX=1024 and N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem, but the error still occurs.

Error Message

2025-03-15 18:56:25 PayloadTooLargeError: request entity too large
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at readStream (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:156:17)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at executor (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:113:5)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at new Promise ()
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at getRawBody (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:112:10)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at IncomingMessage.req.readRawBody (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/dist/middlewares/body-parser.js:40:56)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at parseBody (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/dist/middlewares/body-parser.js:51:15)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at bodyParser (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/dist/middlewares/body-parser.js:77:33)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at newFn (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/express-async-errors/index.js:16:20)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
2025-03-15 18:56:25 at trim_prefix (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:328:13)

Please share your workflow

docker-compose.yml

x-n8n: &service-n8n
image: n8nio/n8n:latest
networks: [‘demo’]
environment:
- DB_TYPE=postgresdb
- DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
- DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
- DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
- N8N_DIAGNOSTICS_ENABLED=false
- N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED=false
- N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY
- N8N_USER_MANAGEMENT_JWT_SECRET
- OLLAMA_HOST=host.docker.internal:11434
- N8N_PAYLOAD_SIZE_MAX=1024
- N8N_DEFAULT_BINARY_DATA_MODE=filesystem

Share the output returned by the last node

Information on your n8n setup

  • **n8n version:1.81.4
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • **Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):Docker
  • **Operating system:MacOS

does this help?

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