How to Increase the WordPress Upload File Size Limit

If you see "exceeds the maximum upload size for this site," WordPress is limited by PHP settings on the server. On cPanel shared hosting you can usually raise these limits yourself.

Change PHP Settings in cPanel

This is the cleanest method.

1. In cPanel, open Select PHP Version (or MultiPHP INI Editor).
2. Switch to the Options tab.
3. Increase these three values:

| Setting | Suggested value | |---|---| | upload_max_filesize | 128M | | post_max_size | 128M | | memory_limit | 256M |

post_max_size must be equal to or larger than upload_max_filesize, otherwise the upload still fails.

Alternative: php.ini or .htaccess

If the cPanel editor is unavailable, create or edit a php.ini file in public_html:

upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
memory_limit = 256M

Or add to .htaccess if the server allows PHP overrides:

php_value upload_max_filesize 128M
php_value post_max_size 128M

Confirm the New Limit

Go to Media > Add New and check the maximum upload size shown at the bottom. You can also view it under Tools > Site Health > Info > Media Handling.

If the limit will not change after editing these files, the host may enforce a hard cap, in which case contact support.