# Limits on irc channels join?

**URL:** <https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247>\
**Category:** Chat and IRC\
**Created:** [June 18, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247 "2018-06-18T20:52:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![abondarev](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/abondarev/32/4684_2.png) [@abondarev](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/abondarev)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247/1 "2018-06-18T20:52:40Z")

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I am inquiring if there is a limit on irc channel joins by a single user account from a single IP.

To give context, I am testing scaling on a bot we started working on this weekend. Right now it is joining a list of 20-30k channels on twitch and I am spot checking 2-5 minutes after to see if it connects and shows on the viewerlist. I am having mixed results. On some channels it joins, others it does not, on the some that it joins it leaves after a while (say around 10 minutes after it joins and shows up). We are going to look at using sockets instead of the irc python module to get better info, but I wanted to inquire if anyone knows more.

Also I am not spamming or issuing commands during this test. I am just joining channels, which doesn’t seem to have a documented limit on the docs.

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**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247/2 "2018-06-18T22:16:52Z")

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In theory, the limit on channels you can be in is infinity.

But you will get disconnected if the message send buffer is too big, which will happen if you join a few big channels.

Theres a few threads on scale advice on the forums, but 20k/30k is a lot of channels to join and/or respond to if you intend to actually start replying to command triggers

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**Author:** ![abondarev](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/abondarev/32/4684_2.png) [@abondarev](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/abondarev)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247/3 "2018-06-18T22:26:19Z")

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Thanks for the reply Barry.

I apologize if its a dumb question, but does the message send buffer still apply even though there are no messages being sent? Also I am running my test on smaller channels (ones that typically have very little members in their chat). None of the big channels are being targetted.

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**Author:** ![BarryCarlyon](https://d3ovvz0v2ajtpu.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.dev.twitch.com/barrycarlyon/32/253_2.png) [@BarryCarlyon](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/BarryCarlyon)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247/4 "2018-06-18T22:27:59Z")

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The message send buffer is the messages being sent from Twitch to You in this description

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**Author:** ![system](https://d2opxh93rbxzdn.cloudfront.net/original/2X/0/05909729875cce3b53e59d5561c4d23bb14948fc.png) [@system](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://discuss.dev.twitch.com/t/limits-on-irc-channels-join/16247/5 "2018-07-18T22:33:14Z")

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