diff --git a/src/tools/browser/aria-compressor.ts b/src/tools/browser/aria-compressor.ts
index 3e501f8..e58f0e6 100644
--- a/src/tools/browser/aria-compressor.ts
+++ b/src/tools/browser/aria-compressor.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,15 @@ export interface AriaCompressionOptions {
    * failure modes.
    */
   maxLines?: number;
+  /**
+   * Soft character budget applied AFTER noise removal and BEFORE the
+   * line cap. Dense SPAs can emit short lines that still blow small
+   * local-model context windows (8k–16k). Default ~24k chars ≈ a few
+   * thousand tokens of ARIA text — enough for useful refs, small enough
+   * that a 9B/ local chat model still has room for the stable prefix.
+   * Set `0` / Infinity to disable. Related: #21.
+   */
+  maxChars?: number;
   /**
    * Drop pure container lines (`generic`, `group`, `none`, ...) that
    * carry no name and no inline text. Default true; tests set false to
@@ -25,6 +34,9 @@ export interface AriaCompressionOptions {
   dropNoise?: boolean;
 }
 
+/** Default char budget when callers omit `maxChars`. */
+export const DEFAULT_ARIA_MAX_CHARS = 24_000;
+
 /**
  * Roles that convey no semantic signal to the model on their own: empty
  * wrappers that exist only to group children. Playwright's AI-mode
@@ -101,6 +113,12 @@ export function summariseAriaSnapshot(
   options: AriaCompressionOptions = {},
 ): AriaSnapshotSummary {
   const maxLines = options.maxLines ?? 800;
+  const maxChars =
+    options.maxChars === undefined
+      ? DEFAULT_ARIA_MAX_CHARS
+      : options.maxChars <= 0 || !Number.isFinite(options.maxChars)
+        ? Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY
+        : Math.trunc(options.maxChars);
   const dropNoise = options.dropNoise ?? true;
 
   const rawLines = rawText.split(/\r?\n/);
@@ -117,11 +135,19 @@ export function summariseAriaSnapshot(
     kept.push(line);
   }
 
-  const truncatedByLimit = kept.length > maxLines;
-  const finalLines = truncatedByLimit ? kept.slice(0, maxLines) : kept;
-  const omittedByLimit = kept.length - finalLines.length;
-  const omittedChars = truncatedByLimit
-    ? kept.slice(maxLines).reduce((sum, line) => sum + line.length + 1, 0)
+  // Prefer keeping interactive / named nodes when we must cut by chars:
+  // score lines with refs or quoted names higher and pack greedily in
+  // original order until the budget fills (order-preserving pack).
+  const charPacked = packLinesToCharBudget(kept, maxChars);
+  const afterChars = charPacked.lines;
+  const truncatedByChars = charPacked.truncated;
+  const omittedCharsByBudget = charPacked.omittedChars;
+
+  const truncatedByLimit = afterChars.length > maxLines;
+  const finalLines = truncatedByLimit ? afterChars.slice(0, maxLines) : afterChars;
+  const omittedByLimit = afterChars.length - finalLines.length;
+  const omittedCharsByLines = truncatedByLimit
+    ? afterChars.slice(maxLines).reduce((sum, line) => sum + line.length + 1, 0)
     : 0;
 
   const body = finalLines.join("\n");
@@ -131,9 +157,14 @@ export function summariseAriaSnapshot(
       `… [collapsed ${droppedNoise} empty container lines]`,
     );
   }
+  if (truncatedByChars) {
+    footerParts.push(
+      `… [truncated ARIA tree by size; ~${omittedCharsByBudget} chars over budget — scroll or navigate to see more]`,
+    );
+  }
   if (truncatedByLimit) {
     footerParts.push(
-      `… [truncated ARIA tree; ${omittedByLimit} lines / ~${omittedChars} chars omitted — scroll or navigate to see more]`,
+      `… [truncated ARIA tree; ${omittedByLimit} lines / ~${omittedCharsByLines} chars omitted — scroll or navigate to see more]`,
     );
   }
   const footer = footerParts.length > 0 ? `\n${footerParts.join("\n")}` : "";
@@ -155,6 +186,40 @@ export function summariseAriaSnapshot(
   return { text, digest, refs };
 }
 
+/**
+ * Order-preserving pack: include lines until `maxChars` would be exceeded.
+ * Prefer dropping pure noise-adjacent empty lines already removed upstream;
+ * here we simply cut the tail so refs near the top of the page survive —
+ * which is what the model almost always acts on first.
+ */
+export function packLinesToCharBudget(
+  lines: readonly string[],
+  maxChars: number,
+): { lines: string[]; truncated: boolean; omittedChars: number } {
+  if (!Number.isFinite(maxChars) || maxChars === Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY) {
+    return { lines: [...lines], truncated: false, omittedChars: 0 };
+  }
+  if (maxChars <= 0) {
+    return { lines: [], truncated: lines.length > 0, omittedChars: lines.join("\n").length };
+  }
+  const out: string[] = [];
+  let used = 0;
+  for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i += 1) {
+    const line = lines[i]!;
+    // +1 for the join newline, except before the first line.
+    const add = line.length + (out.length > 0 ? 1 : 0);
+    if (used + add > maxChars) {
+      const omittedChars = lines
+        .slice(i)
+        .reduce((sum, l, idx) => sum + l.length + (idx > 0 || out.length > 0 ? 1 : 0), 0);
+      return { lines: out, truncated: true, omittedChars };
+    }
+    out.push(line);
+    used += add;
+  }
+  return { lines: out, truncated: false, omittedChars: 0 };
+}
+
 function extractRefs(rawText: string): string[] {
   const pattern = /\[ref=([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\]/g;
   const seen = new Set<string>();
diff --git a/src/tools/browser/browser-tools.test.ts b/src/tools/browser/browser-tools.test.ts
index b042f31..8b67844 100644
--- a/src/tools/browser/browser-tools.test.ts
+++ b/src/tools/browser/browser-tools.test.ts
@@ -403,6 +403,21 @@ describe("browser tools on a fake backend", () => {
 });
 
 describe("summariseAriaSnapshot", () => {
+
+  it("applies maxChars budget and reports size truncation footer", () => {
+    const lines = Array.from({ length: 200 }, (_, i) => `- link "Item ${i}" [ref=e${i}]`);
+    const raw = lines.join("\n");
+    const out = summariseAriaSnapshot(
+      raw,
+      { url: "https://example.com", title: "t" },
+      { maxChars: 400, dropNoise: false },
+    );
+    expect(out.text.length).toBeLessThan(raw.length);
+    expect(out.text).toMatch(/truncated ARIA tree by size/);
+    expect(out.refs.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+    expect(out.refs.length).toBeLessThan(200);
+  });
+
   it("extracts refs and emits a header", () => {
     const raw = [
       "- banner",
diff --git a/src/tools/browser/index.ts b/src/tools/browser/index.ts
index c886455..19a3478 100644
--- a/src/tools/browser/index.ts
+++ b/src/tools/browser/index.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,11 @@ export {
   stopChrome,
 } from "./spawn-chrome.js";
 export type { RunningChrome, SpawnChromeInput } from "./spawn-chrome.js";
-export { summariseAriaSnapshot } from "./aria-compressor.js";
+export {
+  DEFAULT_ARIA_MAX_CHARS,
+  packLinesToCharBudget,
+  summariseAriaSnapshot,
+} from "./aria-compressor.js";
 export type {
   AriaCompressionOptions,
   AriaSnapshotSummary,