# Greenhouse ATS Resume Format & Limits > Greenhouse takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF and TXT, and will not parse a resume larger than 2.5 MB. Its own support docs name what makes a parse fail — columns, contact details in a header, abbreviated job titles and more. | | | | --- | --- | | System | Greenhouse | | Vendor | Greenhouse Software | | Also known as | Greenhouse Recruiting | | Rendered page | https://atsprep.com/ats/greenhouse | | This document | https://atsprep.com/ats/greenhouse.md | Greenhouse is unusual among applicant tracking systems: it publishes a specific list of what makes a resume fail to parse. Most guidance on this subject is guesswork passed between blogs, so a page you can check your file against — in the vendor's own words — is worth more than any of it. ## Taking the file in | | | | --- | --- | | Accepted file types | PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT | | Maximum upload size | 100 MB | | Maximum size that will be parsed | 2.5 MB | Source: [Greenhouse Support — supported resume file types](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/360052218132-Supported-formats-for-resumes-cover-letters-and-other-candidate-uploads) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ## Autofill Greenhouse scans an uploaded resume and auto-fills the fields it recognises when a candidate or prospect is added, confirming when it succeeds and showing an error when it does not. When a parse fails, the documented fallback is for the recruiter to enter the details by hand. A failed parse is a worse first impression, not an automatic rejection. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ## What Greenhouse does differently ### The upload limit and the parsing limit are different numbers Greenhouse will accept a file far larger than it will read. The support documentation states plainly that it cannot parse resumes larger than 2.5 MB, while the upload itself allows much more. A heavy, image-rich export can therefore go through without a single warning and still arrive as an empty record. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Contact details in a header, footer or text box Greenhouse lists name and contact information placed in the header, footer or a text box as a direct cause of an unsuccessful parse. This is the single most common way a resume that looks immaculate produces a record with no email address on it. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Columns and tables A columned layout and complex layouts using tables both appear on the official list of parse failure causes. Two columns look organised to a person and interleave into nonsense for an extractor reading the page in a single pass. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Abbreviated job titles Greenhouse specifically names shortened titles — “Sr. Account Exec” instead of “Senior Account Executive” — as something that trips the parser. Abbreviation costs you nothing to undo and is one of the few fixes the vendor asks for by name. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Company names without an identifier The list calls out company names that lack an identifier such as Inc., Co., Ltd or LLC. The suffix is one of the signals used to recognise that a line is an employer rather than a project or a client. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Letter-spaced words Spaces inserted between individual letters — a common way to stretch a section heading across a page — are listed as a parse failure cause. The extractor sees separate characters, not a word. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Graphics, photos and word art Greenhouse names graphics, photos and word art, and separately calls out resumes uploaded as an image rather than a document. Anything where the text is painted rather than written has nothing for a parser to recover. Source: [Greenhouse Support — unsuccessful resume parse](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/200989175-Unsuccessful-resume-parse) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ### Parsing covers 28 languages Greenhouse publishes the list of languages it can parse, which runs to 28 and includes Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. A resume outside that set may still be readable by a person but will not populate fields. Source: [Greenhouse Support — resume parsing languages](https://support.greenhouse.io/hc/en-us/articles/205019689-Resume-parsing-with-non-English-languages) (checked Jul 30, 2026) ## What to do about it ### Keep the file under 2.5 MB This is the number that decides whether you are parsed, and it is not the number on the upload button. Plain text-based exports land far below it; anything approaching the limit usually means embedded images. ### Put contact details in the body Name, email and phone belong in the first lines of the page itself, not in a header, footer or text box. This is the correction Greenhouse asks for most explicitly. ### One column, no tables Let the document read top to bottom in one pass. If you would need to explain the reading order to a person, an extractor has no chance of guessing it. ### Spell job titles out in full Write “Senior Account Executive”, not “Sr. Account Exec”. Greenhouse names this one directly, and full titles also match what a recruiter types into a search. ### Name employers the way they file Include the Inc., Ltd, LLC or Co. that belongs to the legal name. It costs a few characters and it is on the vendor's own list. ### Let headings be words Skip letter-spacing as a design device. If you want a heading to feel wider, change the size or the weight rather than putting spaces inside the word. ## Questions ### What file types does Greenhouse accept for a resume? PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF and TXT. Greenhouse publishes this list in its support documentation, and it covers both the candidate-facing application and resumes added by a recruiter. ### Why did my resume fail to parse in Greenhouse? Greenhouse names the causes directly: a file over 2.5 MB, graphics, photos or word art, a resume uploaded as an image, complex layouts using tables, headers or footers, contact details placed in a header, footer or text box, a columned layout, no clear sections, company names without an identifier such as Inc. or Ltd, abbreviated job titles, and spaces placed between individual letters. ### How large can a resume be in Greenhouse? The upload accepts files far larger than the parser reads. Greenhouse states it cannot parse resumes larger than 2.5 MB, so that is the limit that matters. A file above it can upload successfully and still produce no extracted data. ### Does a failed parse mean Greenhouse rejected my application? No. The documented response to a failed parse is that the details get entered manually instead. The parse determines how complete and searchable your record is, not whether your application survives. ### Does Greenhouse parse resumes in languages other than English? Yes, in 28 languages including Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. Greenhouse publishes the full list. ## Exporting from ATSPrep to Greenhouse ATSPrep exports a linear, single-column, parser-safe document. Against Greenhouse's published list of accepted types: - **PDF** — on Greenhouse's accepted list - **DOCX** — on Greenhouse's accepted list ## The other guides - [Oracle Taleo](https://atsprep.com/ats/taleo) — Oracle ships Taleo with a 1 MB default attachment limit and no resume parser of its own — parsing only works if the employer has enabled a third-party partner integration, so behaviour differs from one Taleo site to the next. - [SmartRecruiters](https://atsprep.com/ats/smartrecruiters) — SmartRecruiters accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, JPG and PNG at 2 MB per file, and its CEO named Textkernel as the parsing engine — whose own documentation warns about PDFs more bluntly than any resume blog does. - [Ashby](https://atsprep.com/ats/ashby) — Ashby accepts PDF, DOC and DOCX up to 50 MB but does not support Markdown. Its docs name the two reasons a resume fails to parse, and its better parser is an opt-in feature some employers never switch on. - [Workable](https://atsprep.com/ats/workable) — Workable accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML and ODT for a resume, with a 5 MB ceiling — while other attachments on the same form are allowed four times that size. - [Manatal](https://atsprep.com/ats/manatal) — Manatal takes PDF, DOC, DOCX and RTF, parses every resume the moment it lands with a parser it built rather than licensed, and keeps the original file where recruiters can open it. ## About ATSPrep ATSPrep (https://atsprep.com) is a free ATS resume checker and builder. It shows the exact text an applicant tracking system extracts from a resume, then grades each bullet on whether it carries evidence a reader can verify. - **Price:** free. Checking, importing, editing and exporting are all unpaid. No export paywall or watermark. A separate Job Hunt Pass is only a waitlist today. - **Account:** none required. An optional email checklist and product waitlist do not block the Studio. - **Your file:** parsed and exported inside the browser. The resume file itself is never uploaded. - **Optional:** one button-gated feature, semantic match, sends selected resume lines and job-posting requirement lines to a matching service. Never your name, email, phone, address or links, and nothing is stored. - **Offline:** works once the page has loaded. - **Accepts:** PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, or pasted plain text. Start here: https://atsprep.com/studio