ArXiv's Updated Rate Limit Policy

arXiv is instituting a tightened rate-limit policy effective October 1, 2026, in response to a sharp surge in submissions driven in part by advanced AI tools. Submission volume has escalated from 9,869 in September 2016 to 20,569 in September 2024 and reached 40,363 in September 2026, generating nearly 9,000 support tickets. Volunteer moderators report more thin, narrowly scoped papers, “salami” slicing of work into multiple small papers, and dense AI-written manuscripts; a small subset of submitters is consuming a disproportionate share of moderation time and delaying processing of higher-quality submissions.

The new rules cap submitters at two submissions per calendar month and retain a three-active-submission limit at any time (the three-active cap has been in place since 2024). The monthly limit counts submissions regardless of acceptance; deleted submissions removed before announcement do not count. Submissions on hold don’t reduce next month’s allotment but do count toward the three active submissions. Coauthorship only counts against the submitting author’s rate. The change is presented as a stopgap to distribute moderator effort more equitably, protect the corpus from low-value flooding, encourage curation of substantive work, and buy time to improve moderation tools and procedures; effects will be monitored and the policy may be adjusted.