Lemmy + pict-rs — per-instance image store, no per-user quota

Free allowance: No per-user quota in Lemmy's own schema — the bound is pict-rs (the separate Rust image server) and the instance's disk.
Verdict: fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
Cost: free tier
Identity: institution?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
Binding limit: per-object-capper-object-cap set by pict-rs (max_file_size, commonly 40 MB
Evidence: reported2 sources; a third party said so
Freshness: stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05

Free tier	No per-user quota in Lemmy's own schema — the bound is pict-rs (the separate Rust image server) and the instance's disk. Upload is gated per-instance by the `image_upload` / `image_mode` local-site flag rather than by bytes. unit mixed; metered on unstated
Price	none stated
Limits	per-object-cap (binding) per-object-cap set by pict-rs (`max_file_size`, commonly 40 MB source per-object-cap set by pict-rs (`max_file_size`, commonly 40 MB); no per-user byte quota; per-instance disk.
Identity	institution (inferred, not read) not published
Egress	Free.
Per-object cap	per-object-cap set by pict-rs (`max_file_size`, commonly 40 MB (40000000 bytes)
Retention	not stated
Interface	rest rest
Tooling	Lemmy API v3: POST /api/v3/pictrs/image (multipart) or /api/v3/upload; needs a JWT from POST /api/v3/user/login. pict-rs itself exposes POST /image on its own port (often 8080) — on instances that expose it, that is a cleaner upload path than the Lemmy API.
Composes with	Lemmy is the weakest of the family: most large instances now REQUIRE an application (lemmy.world registration_mode = 'RequireApplication'), and `image_mode` is frequently set to block uploads entirely or to proxy-only. Multiplier depends entirely on finding a permissive instance.
Reliability	Registration gated on the big instances. Also note Lemmy stores federated/remote images too, so operator disk fills from other people's content, which is why uploads get turned off.
Parsed numbers	has-free-tier 1 per-object-cap 40 MB

Evidence 2

date	source	what it proved
2026-10-21	lemmy.world/api/v3/site	probe: GET -> 200, local_site.registration_mode='RequireApplication', version 0.19.19-9-gc55dd1b1a; local_site carries NO image upload size field (only image_mode/enable_nsfw-style flags) — confirms the quota lives in pict-rs, not Lemmy
2026-10-21	join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/configuration.html	pict-rs is a separate service; 'Generate thumbnails for external post urls and store them persistently in pict-rs. This also increases storage usage.'

More fields 1

dead end	{"failure_class": "quota","why": "No per-user quota in Lemmy's own schema — the bound is pict-rs (the separate Rust image server) and the instance's disk. Upload is gated per-instance by the `image_upload` / `image_mode` local-site flag rather than by bytes.","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"}

Unknown values 3