diff --git a/klbr-bench/src/longmemeval.rs b/klbr-bench/src/longmemeval.rs
index bc1f8e9..8fe9e5d 100644
--- a/klbr-bench/src/longmemeval.rs
+++ b/klbr-bench/src/longmemeval.rs
@@ -1783,7 +1783,7 @@ async fn run_ingest(data_path: &str, db_dir_path: &str) -> Result<()> {
                                 Ok(e) => e,
                                 Err(err) => {
                                     eprintln!("Warning: Failed to embed chunk (len {}): {}; attempting with truncated text...", text.len(), err);
-                                    let truncated: String = text.chars().take(4000).collect();
+                                    let truncated: String = text.chars().take(2000).collect();
                                     match llm.embed(&truncated).await {
                                         Ok(e) => e,
                                         Err(err2) => {
diff --git a/klbr-core/src/pipeline.rs b/klbr-core/src/pipeline.rs
index 526a02b..bd76f2e 100644
--- a/klbr-core/src/pipeline.rs
+++ b/klbr-core/src/pipeline.rs
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ impl MemoryPipeline {
             if episode_body.trim().is_empty() || !self.profile.write_episode_memories {
                 None
             } else {
-                let emb = self.llm.embed(&episode_body).await?;
+                let emb = self.llm.embed(&dense_embedding_text(&episode_body)).await?;
                 let id = self.memory.store_with_metadata(&MemoryRecordInput {
                     memory_id: None,
                     namespace: "default".to_string(),
@@ -1570,7 +1570,7 @@ fn unix_timestamp() -> i64 {
 }
 
 fn dense_embedding_text(body: &str) -> String {
-    const MAX_CHARS: usize = 3_000;
+    const MAX_CHARS: usize = 1_200;
     if body.chars().count() <= MAX_CHARS {
         body.to_string()
     } else {
@@ -2011,7 +2011,7 @@ mod tests {
     fn dense_embedding_text_is_bounded_for_local_embedder() {
         let long = "x".repeat(7_000);
         let bounded = dense_embedding_text(&long);
-        assert_eq!(bounded.chars().count(), 3_000);
+        assert_eq!(bounded.chars().count(), 1_200);
     }
 
     #[test]