Optimize database load times & performance

We’re always working to improve your experience with Notion, and we appreciate your feedback and patience. If your databases aren’t feeling very fast when you use them, there are a few reasons why this might be happening, and a few ways you can make improvements.

• Number of pages: If your database has a ton of pages, it might be slower to load.

• Number of properties: The more visible properties your database has, the longer it might take to load.

• Complex sorts and filters: If your database has a sort or filter on properties like title, text, formula, or rollup, the logic behind it can make load times longer.

If you have a large workspace, avoid having lots of inline databases, like dashboards, in high-traffic pages. The more simultaneously viewed databases, the more stress on your setup.

Try housing each database in its own page first. Once you’ve done that, if you’d like all of the databases to be displayed in one page, you can:

1. Type /linked in that page and select Linked view of a database to create a linked database.

2. Create database views in this linked database and configure them to point to your desired source databases. Different database views can point to different source databases!

When using a single linked database, only one database view is open at a time, and therefore only that one database is listening for updates. You should see an improvement in performance with this setup.

Formulas and rollups are extremely powerful, but the more complex they are, the slower your database may be. For example, a formula that depends on several other formulas that each depend on rollups may take longer to calculate.

Databases that are filtered and sorted on formula and rollup properties may take a bit longer to load.

Adding filters based on simple properties such as select, multi-select, status, number, and date may improve the speed of your database. Even if you have complex filters, this may help by reducing the number of pages that need to be processed.

If some properties are less important in your database view, hiding them may improve responsiveness and interactivity.

We suggest removing any unnecessary or duplicative pages from your database to keep it as simple and up-to-date as possible. If that’s not an option for you, adding a filter on the Created time property to filter out old pages may significantly improve performance for very large databases.

To ensure the best database performance for all users, we apply size limits to databases. Once these limits are hit, new changes to your database will not be saved.

For each page in a database, all data from all properties of that page is limited to a total size of 2.5MB.

This limit doesn’t impact:

• Files and media properties. The actual size of your uploaded file doesn’t count toward the limit.

• Formulas and rollups.

• Content in the body of database pages (not properties).

• The number of properties you have in a database. For example, a database with 50 properties can still be under the limit if each property has short descriptions or options.

When you’ve reached the limit for database pages, you’ll see a banner at the top of specific database pages letting you know. In order to stay under this limit, you can do the following:

• Make your property options smaller or shorter. For example, on a multi-select property, you can remove the number of options or shorten some of the options’ names. On a person property, you can delete some people referenced in specific pages.

• Delete any unnecessary properties, which will also delete the data within those properties.

There is also a 1.5MB limit for the total size of all properties used in your database. You can think of this limit as applying to the overall structure of your database, like how many properties you have in a database and how many options each database property (like a select or multi-select property) contains.

You might run into this limit when adding new properties or adding a new property option (like an additional select property option) to your database.

In order to stay under this limit, you can do the following:

• Delete any unnecessary properties.

• Delete any unnecessary property options from select and multi-select properties.

• Shorten the character count of any property options (for example, you could change a Complete option to Done).

• Shorten the length of any formulas you’re using in formula properties.

If you choose to delete a property to clear up space and avoid hitting any limits, you can always restore those deleted properties and their data. To do this:

1. Click the slider icon at the top of your database.

2. Select Edit properties → Deleted properties.

3. Select ↩️ next to the property you want to restore.

Note that you can keep up to 1.5MB of deleted properties in the trash. Once you’ve reached this limit, you’ll need to permanently delete some properties. To do this:

1. Click the slider icon at the top of your database.

2. Select Edit properties → Deleted properties.

3. Select 🗑️ next to the property you want to permanently delete. You can also choose Permanently delete all at the bottom of the menu.

After a property and its data are permanently deleted, you won’t be able to recover them.