Facing doubled submissions and AI-assisted flood of thin papers, arXiv caps authors at two submissions per calendar month and three active submissions—while clarifying FAQ on holds, co-authors, and deletes.
arXiv has updated its rate limit policy for all submitters.
arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a massive transformation in how researchers communicate their results.
Before the advent of AI, there was an easily discernible, practical limit to the rate at which independent submissions could be produced, and arXiv’s volunteer moderators would limit submitters who were well above that threshold. With AI tools becoming more advanced and accessible to authors, the “practical limit” of how many papers can be submitted is now up for debate. As of October 1st, 2026, arXiv is instituting an updated rate limiting policy across all submitters and categories as a stopgap while we determine what may be the new best practice for authors employing more and more advanced AI tools, and to give us time to improve our moderation tools and procedures accordingly.
Open access repositories across the board are seeing a sharp increase in the number of submissions per author, per month. In September of 2016, arXiv received 9,869 submissions. In September of 2024, arXiv received 20,569 submissions. This September, arXiv received 40,363 submissions, which in turn generated almost 9,000 support tickets for arXiv staff and moderators. In only the past two years, submissions have doubled.
Advanced AI tools are helping drive these increases by making certain aspects of research faster and easier. arXiv policy permits authors to employ AI as a tool in support of their research as long as it is disclosed and the research meets arXiv’s standards of scholarly interest and advances the field of research. However, many of the submissions that arXiv is now receiving do not satisfy these requirements. Our moderators are observing an increase in thin papers of narrow scope, as well as ‘salami’ papers, where a single work is broken up and submitted as a set of smaller papers. There is also a marked increase in dense, AI-written papers.
The heart of arXiv’s process for detecting and rejecting low-quality papers is our many volunteer moderators… a relatively small proportion of authors are submitting a large number of low-quality papers and consuming a disproportionate fraction of the moderators’ time.
— Thomas Dietterich, Chair of the arXiv Editorial Advisory Council
arXiv now limits submitters to up to two submissions per calendar month, with a limit of three total active submissions at any given time.
FAQ (selected)
If my paper is rejected, does it count towards my monthly total? Yes — the limit is for submissions, not announced papers.
Different subject areas? The rate limit applies across all categories.
On hold into next month? Prior holds don’t count against next month’s submission limit, but do count toward the active-submission cap of 3.
Co-authors? Limits apply only to the submitter.
Delete before announcement? Deleted pre-announcement submissions do not count toward monthly or active limits.
As with all policies, arXiv will continue to monitor the effect of this update and modify as needed.