diff --git a/views/settings.tpl b/views/settings.tpl
index 7291b5b..69f38df 100644
--- a/views/settings.tpl
+++ b/views/settings.tpl
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 	<hr>
 	<b>Context words</b> <small class="gray">(number of words shown in search results)</small>
 	<input name="context" value={{context}}><br><br>
+	<b>Context characters</b> <small class="gray">(max characters in a snippet)</small>
+	<input name="maxchars" value={{maxchars}}><br><br>
 	<b>Time</b> <small class="gray">(time format string)</small>
 	<input name="timefmt" value={{timefmt}}><br><br>
 	<b>Folder depth</b> <small class="gray">(number of levels of the folder dropdown)</small>
diff --git a/webui.py b/webui.py
index 8a6a19d..78b1f87 100755
--- a/webui.py
+++ b/webui.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ DEFAULTS = {
     'stem': 1,
     'timefmt': '%c',
     'dirdepth': 3,
+    'maxchars': 500,
 }
 
 # sort fields/labels
@@ -152,7 +153,7 @@ def recoll_search(q, sort, ascending):
     tstart = datetime.datetime.now()
     results = []
     db = recoll.connect()
-    db.setAbstractParams(contextwords=int(config['context']), maxchars=5000)
+    db.setAbstractParams(contextwords=int(config['context']), maxchars=config['maxchars'])
     query = db.query()
     query.sortby(sort, int(ascending))
     try: