diff --git a/internal/controller/template_controller.go b/internal/controller/template_controller.go
index 31cc5152a..056fe5bac 100644
--- a/internal/controller/template_controller.go
+++ b/internal/controller/template_controller.go
@@ -52,6 +52,17 @@ import (
 	"github.com/segmentfault/pacman/log"
 )
 
+// maxTemplateAnswerPageSize caps how many answers are rendered into the
+// server-side page. The template shows every answer it is given and has no
+// pagination, so this value is also the number of answers a crawler sees.
+//
+// It exists because the previous value of 999 made long questions unusable:
+// the server fetches the answers, then the comments for every one of them,
+// and the browser has to parse and hydrate the result. On a question with
+// 999 answers that took 2.6s on the server and 23.5s until the first answer
+// was visible, against 0.2s for an ordinary question.
+const maxTemplateAnswerPageSize = 100
+
 var SiteUrl = ""
 
 type TemplateController struct {
@@ -345,7 +356,7 @@ func (tc *TemplateController) QuestionInfo(ctx *gin.Context) {
 		QuestionID: id,
 		Order:      "",
 		Page:       1,
-		PageSize:   999,
+		PageSize:   maxTemplateAnswerPageSize,
 		UserID:     "",
 	}
 	answers, answerCount, err := tc.templateRenderController.AnswerList(ctx, answerReq)
diff --git a/ui/src/pages/Questions/Detail/index.tsx b/ui/src/pages/Questions/Detail/index.tsx
index 8c8921b88..2734c021a 100644
--- a/ui/src/pages/Questions/Detail/index.tsx
+++ b/ui/src/pages/Questions/Detail/index.tsx
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ import {
 
 import './index.scss';
 
+// Answers are paginated; the request, the page count and the pagination
+// control all have to agree on this number.
+const ANSWER_PAGE_SIZE = 15;
+
 const Index = () => {
   const navigate = useNavigate();
   const { t } = useTranslation('translation');
@@ -101,8 +105,8 @@ const Index = () => {
     const res = await getAnswers({
       order: order === 'updated' || order === 'created' ? order : 'default',
       question_id: qid,
-      page: 1,
-      page_size: 999,
+      page: page || 1,
+      page_size: ANSWER_PAGE_SIZE,
     });
 
     if (res) {
@@ -121,7 +125,7 @@ const Index = () => {
         return v;
       });
 
-      setAnswers({ ...res, count: res.list.length });
+      setAnswers({ ...res, count: res.count });
       if (page > 0 || order) {
         // scroll into view;
         const element = document.getElementById('answerHeader');
@@ -275,11 +279,11 @@ const Index = () => {
           </>
         )}
 
-        {!isLoading && Math.ceil(answers.count / 15) > 1 && (
+        {!isLoading && Math.ceil(answers.count / ANSWER_PAGE_SIZE) > 1 && (
           <div className="d-flex justify-content-center answer-item pt-4">
             <Pagination
               currentPage={Number(page || 1)}
-              pageSize={15}
+              pageSize={ANSWER_PAGE_SIZE}
               totalSize={answers?.count || 0}
             />
           </div>