How many hops can a message travel?

Meshtastic Hop Limits

In Meshtastic, every packet is born with a "hop limit" — a countdown that decrements each time the packet is relayed by a node. When the hop limit reaches zero, the packet is dropped and not forwarded further.

• Default hop limit: 3 — A message can traverse 3 relay nodes between sender and receiver (total path = 4 nodes: sender + 3 relays + receiver would be 5, but the hop limit counts relay hops)
• Maximum configurable hop limit: 7 — Meshtastic enforces a hard cap of 7 to prevent runaway flooding
• Recommended range: 3-5 — 3 for most local networks; 4-5 for large geographic deployments; 7 only in special circumstances

Configure in app: Radio Config → LoRa → Hop Limit or via CLI: meshtastic --set lora.hop_limit 3

MeshCore Hop Behavior

MeshCore uses path-based routing, where hop limits work differently. A route discovery (RREQ) flood uses its own hop limit; once a route is established, data packets are forwarded along the specific path. The practical maximum network diameter depends on how many repeaters are in the discovered path, bounded by the RREQ hop limit setting (default sufficient for most deployments).

Why Not Set Hop Limit to Maximum?

Higher hop limits mean more retransmissions, more airtime consumption, and greater risk of broadcast storms (loops where packets bounce indefinitely). On a small, sparse network, a higher hop limit lets messages travel farther. On a dense network with many relays, hop limit 7 can cause severe congestion. Start with the default (3) and only increase if users at the network edges report messages not arriving.

Practical Distance Per Hop

Each hop adds roughly 2-30 km of distance, depending on terrain and antenna height: