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Guidelines for Optimal Performance

While the Encord platform is able to handle large volumes of data, we strongly recommend working within the following limits to ensure smooth operations and limit loading times.
The limits outlined below apply for both the SDK, and the Encord platform.

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Get Help

As you explore the Encord platform, you may have questions about specific features or use cases. To assist you, Encord offers an AI documentation assistant designed to provide quick, accurate answers.
  1. Click Help in the top-right corner of the Encord platform.
  2. Select the Ask AI button to access the Encord documentation AI.
  3. Type your question in natural language, and the AI will provide the information you need.
AI Help widget You can close the AI Help widget at anytime if you feel it is in your way.

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Import Into Encord

The following recommendations apply to the Encord platform and the SDK.
We recommend uploading files in batches not exceeding 2GB, to ensure upload does not exceed 3 hours.
Image groups upload faster than image sequences.
Encord enforces the following upload limits for each JSON file used for registering files:
  • Up to 1 million URLs
  • A maximum of 500,000 items (e.g. images, image groups, videos, DICOMs)
  • URLs can be up to 16 KB in size
Optimal upload chunking can vary depending on your data type and the amount of associated metadata. For tailored recommendations, contact Encord support. We recommend starting with smaller registrations and gradually increasing the size based on how quickly jobs are processed. Generally, smaller chunks result in faster data reflection within the platform.
Before registering your data think about how you want to search for and filter your data. Custom metadata can always be added to your data after your initial data registration or import, but starting with a strong foundation of custom metadata (by importing it while registering your data) can significantly decrease the time to ROI and achieving your goals.
* Label row / Annotation task size limit: As a practical guideline, 50 MB typically supports up to ~30 minutes of labelled content in 30fps video with ~20 annotations per frame.
Active supports analysis (Advanced Metrics and Embeddings) on images and videos up to 4K resolution. Performance is affected for images and videos over 4K.For optimal performance, we strongly recommend downscaling images and videos over 4K to 4K resolution.
When a Project is too large, the files in the attached Dataset(s) must be resized.
Learn how to resize your videos here.

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Annotate Projects

* labels = number of instances multiplied by the number of frames they are present in. Labels often accumulate in long videos or large images with many separate objects.
If the number of labels in your Project exceeds our specified limits, consult us.

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Label Editor Rendering

For optimal labeling performance while labeling, refer to the table below for our recommendations for each modality.
Performance varies depending on the specification of your computer/laptop/tablet.
ModalityCapability
Image300 labels per image
VideoComing soon
Audio fileComing soon
Text fileComing soon
HTML fileComing soon
PDFComing soon
DICOM fileComing soon
NIfTI fileComing soon
Lidar fileComing soon

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Cloud Synced Folders

Cloud synced folders can contain a maximum of 10 million files

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Custom Metadata and Embeddings support

Active, Index, and to a degree Annotate, support custom metadata. Index supports custom embeddings. Active supports custom embeddings on data (images, image groups, image sequences, videos) and supports calculating embeddings using a generalized method for both data (images, image groups, image sequences, videos) and on labels and predictions (bitmasks, bounding boxes, rotatable bounding boxes, polygons).
FeatureIndexAnnotateActive
Custom MetadataSupports numerical, time date (filtering and analytics), varchar, text, enum and options, key framesSupports custom layouts for Label Editor.Supports numerical, time date (filtering), varchar, text, enum and options, key frames
Custom EmbeddingsSupports 1 to 4096 embeddings on images, image groups (individual images and the group as a whole), image sequences, and video framesN/ASupports 1 to 2000 embeddings on images, image groups (individual images and the group as a whole), image sequences, and video frames.

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Label Validation

Label validation refers to the Explore tab inside of your Projects.
Label validation supports up to 750K data units per Project, but we recommend 500K data units per Project.
Label validation supports analysis (Advanced Metrics and Embeddings) on images and videos up to 4K resolution. Performance is affected for images and videos over 4K. For optimal performance, we strongly recommend downscaling images and videos over 4K to 4K resolution.

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Workspace

Even if you stay within these limits, we recommend creating a new Project every 6 months and archiving the existing Project

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Access Control

Projects in Encord currently support the following roles:
  • Annotator: Responsible for completing annotation tasks.
  • Reviewer: Responsible for completing review tasks.
  • Annotator + Reviewer: Able to complete both annotator and reviewer tasks.
  • Team manager: Able to complete both annotator and reviewer tasks and access team management features.
  • Admin: Full access to all Project features. In order to successfully attach Ontologies and Datasets to a given Project, a user must have Admin permissions against each target resource.
Learn more about user based access control from here:
For collaborative teams using our SDK, we recommend creating a Service Account and creating and sharing access keys for use with the Service Account. For example, to have several people create Ontologies, Datasets, and Projects programmatically, create an email for the Service Account for use with Encord (for example, encord-admins@mycompany.com ) and generate an SSH for that email account.

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Screen Size

Encord is not supported on small screens such as tablets. The minimum application window resolution must be 800x600px.

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Resolution of Visual Media

The resolution of any videos and images should be limited to 4k pixels (4096x2160px) to avoid issues. If you have other requirements, contact us first and we can help evaluate suitability for specific use-cases.
Due to limitations of Chrome browser, unzipped files over 2 GB may cause unstable browser behavior, including crashing. See recommended browsers section below

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Compression Ratio

Encord supports a Compression Ratio of 10:1.
  • ~1 GB (gzipped): The size of the file after compression using a tool like gzip can be 1 GB.
  • ~10 GB (unzipped): This represents the original size of the file before compression. It can be 10GB.

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Medical Imaging

The following table outlines the recommended browsers for viewing DICOM and NIfTI files in the platform, along with important notes on performance and file size limitations. Review these details to ensure optimal functionality and avoid potential issues when working with large or unzipped files.
Files compressed in .gzipped formats can have very high compression ratios. Encord has a limit of 2GB on unzipped files.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Be sure to check out all the keyboard shortcuts available when using the Label Editor, to help speed up your annotations.
We recommend the Google Chrome or Brave web-browsers when using Encord. All exceptions are listed in the following table.
We recommend turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome. Hardware acceleration adds another layer of uncertainty to video rendering in the browser.
If you have any questions on the above or are experiencing performance issues, contact us at support@encord.com

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Change Identifier from Email to Display Name

Your email address might not be the best way for team managers, Project Admins, or Platform Admins to identify you in Encord. You can use a Display name instead of your email address.
  1. Go to User Profile > Settings. The Settings page appears. Settings page
  2. Click the Edit button in the Name row. The Name field becomes editable. Change display name
  3. Provide the display name you want to use.
  4. Press ENTER.