#Bug Title ChatGPT generates Project Instructions that exceed the known 8,000-character limit

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mild wigeonBOT
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Reported by @spice acorn

Bug Report: Bug Title ChatGPT generates Project Instructions that exceed the known 8,000-character limit
`Steps to Reproduce`

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open ChatGPT Projects.
  2. Go to Project Settings → Instructions.
  3. Ask ChatGPT to generate or revise Project Instructions.
  4. Explicitly tell ChatGPT that the field has an 8,000-character hard limit.
  5. Ask for paste-ready replacement instructions.
  6. Paste the generated instructions into the Project Instructions field.
  7. Observe that the UI rejects the text because it exceeds the limit.

Additional observations:

  • The model may still present the output as paste-ready.
`Expected Result`

Expected Result

When ChatGPT is asked to generate configuration text for a field with a known hard limit, it should:

  • remain under the specified limit;
  • count characters including spaces and line breaks;
  • verify the final output before presenting it as paste-ready;
  • clearly state the exact character count;
  • warn when the requested content is too large and should instead be split into project source/reference files.

Ideally, ChatGPT should have built-in awareness of limits for:

  • Project
`Actual Result`

Actual Result

ChatGPT generated Project Instructions that exceeded the 8,000-character limit, causing the UI to reject the text with:

“Project instructions cannot be longer than 8000 characters.”

This is confusing because the model already knew the target field had a hard limit but still produced over-limit configuration text.

`Environment`

Environment ChatGPT Projects Project Instructions field ChatGPT Pro GPT-5.5 Thinking / Heavy / Pro testing macOS Atlas browser and chatgpt.com testing