Best Practices
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.
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.
- Click Help in the top-right corner of the Encord platform.
- Select the Ask AI button to access the Encord documentation AI.
- Type your question in natural language, and the AI will provide the information you need.
You can close the AI Help widget at anytime if you feel it is in your way.
Import Into Encord
The following recommendations apply to the Encord platform and the SDK.
Encord enforces the following upload limits for each JSON file used for file uploads:
- 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 uploads and gradually increasing the size based on how quickly jobs are processed. Generally, smaller chunks result in faster data reflection within the platform.
Before importing 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 import, but starting with a strong foundation of custom metadata (by importing it with your data) can significantly decrease the time to ROI and achieving your goals.
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum # of data units at one time | 10,000 | 2,500 | 1000 |
| Maximum image/video/DICOM file size | 1 GB | 1 GB | 25 MB |
| Maximum JSON file size | 100 MB or 10,000 entries | 100 MB or 2500 entries | 10 MB |
| Label row / Annotation task limit | 50 MB | 50 MB | 10 MB |
| Model predictions import limit | 50 MB | 50 MB | 10 MB |
| Maximum resolution | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) | 4K (3840 x 2160 px) |
| Number of frames per video | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) | 200,000 (2hrs at 30fps) |
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.
Annotate Projects
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of Projects | Unlimited | Unlimited | 10 |
| Maximum dataset size per Project | 100 GB | 100 GB | 100 GB |
| Maximum number of labels per Project * | 5,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Maximum number of instances per Workflow Project | 500,000 | 500,000 | 5,000 |
| Maximum number of instances per Manual QA Project | 5,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| Maximum number of tasks per Workflow Project | 500,000 | 500,000 | 1,000 |
* labels = number of instances multiplied the frames they are present in. Labels often accumulate in long videos or large images with many separate objects.
Manual QA Projects are being deprecated. We strongly recommend moving your Projects to Workflow Projects. We provide an SDK script to convert Manual QA Projects into Workflow Projects. Contact support if you need assistance.
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).
| Feature | Index | Annotate | Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Metadata | Supports numerical, time date (filtering and analytics), varchar, text, enum and options, key frames | Supports custom layouts for Label Editor. | Supports numerical, time date (filtering), varchar, text, enum and options, key frames |
| Custom Embeddings | Supports 1 to 4096 embeddings on images, image groups (individual images and the group as a whole), image sequences, and video frames | N/A | Supports 1 to 2000 embeddings on images, image groups (individual images and the group as a whole), image sequences, and video frames. |
Encord Active Projects
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of data units | 500,000 | 500,000 | 25,000 |
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.
Organization
| Limit | Enterprise | Team | Free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum number of users | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 |
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:
Screen Size
Encord is not supported on small screens such as tablets. The minimum application window resolution must be 800x600px.
Resolution of Data / 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
Medical Imaging
| Modality | Browser | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DICOM | Firefox | No tab memory limit allows large files to load. However, large files can slow down your computer significantly. |
| NIfTI | Firefox | No tab memory limit allows large files to load. However, large files can slow down your computer significantly. |
| DICOM | Chrome | 2 GB limit. Due to limitations of the Chrome browser, unzipped files over 2 GB may cause unstable browser behavior, including crashing. See recommended browsers below. |
| NIfTI | Chrome | 2 GB limit. Due to limitations of the Chrome browser, unzipped files over 2 GB may cause unstable browser behavior, including crashing. See recommended browsers below. |
Keyboard Shortcuts
Be sure to check out all the keyboard shortcuts available when using the Label Editor, to help speed up your annotations.
Recommended Browser
We recommend the Google Chrome or Brave web-browsers when using Encord. All exceptions are listed in the following table.
| Modality | Recommended Browser | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Videos | Chrome | Includes image sequences. |
| Images | Chrome | Includes image groups. Excludes TIFF files. |
| DICOM | Firefox | No tab memory limit allows large files to load. However, large files can slow down your computer significantly. |
| NIfTI | Firefox | No tab memory limit allows large files to load. However, large files can slow down your computer significantly. |
| Images (TIFF) | Safari | Due to Chromium-based browser limitations, TIFF files can only be viewed in the Label Editor using the Safari browser. More details can be found here. |
This is primarily due to optimizing performance & ensuring data integrity. Modern browsers give no control over deterministically rendering media files (e.g., displaying frames and rendering videos). Further, we also recommend turning off hardware acceleration in Chrome.
Hardware acceleration adds another layer of uncertainty to video rendering in the browser. To eliminate unexpected behavior, we strongly recommend disabling hardware acceleration.
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