diff --git a/app/validators/status_length_validator.rb b/app/validators/status_length_validator.rb
index 575aaf1869..02aa04fa4b 100644
--- a/app/validators/status_length_validator.rb
+++ b/app/validators/status_length_validator.rb
@@ -1,20 +1,23 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
 class StatusLengthValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
-  MAX_CHARS = 500
   URL_PLACEHOLDER_CHARS = 23
   URL_PLACEHOLDER = 'x' * 23
 
+  def max_chars
+    @max_chars ||= ENV.fetch('MAX_CHARACTERS', 500).to_i
+  end
+
   def validate(status)
     return unless status.local? && !status.reblog?
 
-    status.errors.add(:text, I18n.t('statuses.over_character_limit', max: MAX_CHARS)) if too_long?(status)
+    status.errors.add(:text, I18n.t('statuses.over_character_limit', max: max_chars)) if too_long?(status)
   end
 
   private
 
   def too_long?(status)
-    countable_length(combined_text(status)) > MAX_CHARS
+    countable_length(combined_text(status)) > max_chars
   end
 
   def countable_length(str)
@@ -56,4 +59,4 @@ class StatusLengthValidator < ActiveModel::Validator
     result << str[last_index..]
     result
   end
-end
+end
\ No newline at end of file