diff --git a/src/applications/search/compiler/PhutilSearchQueryCompiler.php b/src/applications/search/compiler/PhutilSearchQueryCompiler.php
--- a/src/applications/search/compiler/PhutilSearchQueryCompiler.php
+++ b/src/applications/search/compiler/PhutilSearchQueryCompiler.php
@@ -143,7 +143,8 @@
     if ($query_bytes > $maximum_bytes) {
       throw new PhutilSearchQueryCompilerSyntaxException(
         pht(
-          'Query is too long (%s bytes, maximum is %s bytes).',
+          'Query is too long (%s bytes, maximum is %s bytes). '.
+            'Please use more specific search criteria.',
           new PhutilNumber($query_bytes),
           new PhutilNumber($maximum_bytes)));
     }
@@ -298,6 +299,18 @@
       $tokens[] = $token;
     }
 
+    $query_tokens = count($tokens);
+    $maximum_tokens = 16;
+    if ($query_tokens > $maximum_tokens) {
+      throw new PhutilSearchQueryCompilerSyntaxException(
+        pht(
+          'Query has too many search tokens (%s tokens, maximum is %s '.
+            'tokens). Please use more specific search criteria.',
+          new PhutilNumber($query_tokens),
+          new PhutilNumber($maximum_tokens)));
+    }
+
+
     $results = array();
     $last_function = null;
     foreach ($tokens as $token) {