diff --git a/routes/ai_summary.py b/routes/ai_summary.py
index bcef04e..b146b2c 100644
--- a/routes/ai_summary.py
+++ b/routes/ai_summary.py
@@ -182,9 +182,10 @@ def _extract_text(file_obj, ext: str) -> str:
 # Office address used as origin for distance/travel-time estimates.
 _OFFICE_ADDRESS = "2815 Hartland Road, Falls Church, VA 22043, USA"
 
-# Text character limit sent to the API. llama-3.3-70b supports 128K tokens (~500K chars);
-# 60K chars is a safe ceiling that leaves room for the prompt and response.
-_TEXT_LIMIT = 60_000
+# Text character limit sent to the API per stage-1 call.
+# Groq's HTTP payload limit is ~100 KB; our prompt template adds ~2.5 KB of overhead,
+# so 30K chars of document text keeps the total JSON body safely under that ceiling.
+_TEXT_LIMIT = 30_000
 
 # Analyst persona injected as the system message in every API call.
 _SYSTEM_PROMPT = (