# rpc error: code = ResourceExhausted desc = grpc: received message larger than max (5242881 vs. 4194304)

- **ID:** `go/grpc-max-message-size-exceeded`
- **Domain:** go
- **Category:** resource_error
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

The serialized protobuf message exceeds the default 4 MiB receive limit on either the client or server side.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| google.golang.org/grpc v1.50+ | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **** (95% success)
   ```
   // server
s := grpc.NewServer(grpc.MaxRecvMsgSize(16*1024*1024), grpc.MaxSendMsgSize(16*1024*1024))
// client
conn, _ := grpc.NewClient(addr,
    grpc.WithDefaultCallOptions(
        grpc.MaxCallRecvMsgSize(16*1024*1024),
        grpc.MaxCallSendMsgSize(16*1024*1024),
    ),
)
   ```
2. **** (88% success)
   ```
   stream, err := client.Upload(ctx)
if err != nil { return err }
for _, chunk := range chunks {
    if err := stream.Send(&pb.Chunk{Data: chunk}); err != nil { return err }
}
_, err = stream.CloseAndRecv()
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **** — Still hits the limit if reassembly happens before unmarshal; also doubles memory pressure. (70% fail)
- **** — The limit is checked on the decompressed wire size after gRPC's own compression; ineffective for incompressible data. (65% fail)