diff --git a/public/src/tts.js b/public/src/tts.js
index 07491df..4a3ddd0 100644
--- a/public/src/tts.js
+++ b/public/src/tts.js
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ const ttsCache = new Map();
 
 // Split long text into chunks at sentence boundaries for TTS API limits
 // OpenAI-compatible TTS endpoints typically cap at ~4096 characters
-const TTS_CHUNK_MAX = 3800; // leave headroom under 4096
+const TTS_CHUNK_MAX = 1500; // conservative limit for TTS server compatibility
 
 function splitTextIntoChunks(text) {
 	if (text.length <= TTS_CHUNK_MAX) return [text];
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ function splitTextIntoChunks(text) {
 		remaining = remaining.substring(splitAt).trim();
 	}
 
-	console.log(`TTS: split ${text.length} chars into ${chunks.length} chunks`);
+	console.log(`TTS: split ${text.length} chars into ${chunks.length} chunks:`, chunks.map((c, i) => `chunk${i + 1}=${c.length}chars`));
 	return chunks;
 }
 
@@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ function cleanTextForTTS(text) {
 		.replace(/_([^_]+)_/g, '$1') // Italic alt
 		.replace(/#+\s/g, '') // Headers
 		.replace(/\[([^\]]+)\]\([^)]+\)/g, '$1') // Links
+		.replace(/```[\s\S]*?```/g, '') // Code blocks (lazy match handles backticks in code)
 		.replace(/`([^`]+)`/g, '$1') // Inline code
-		.replace(/```[^`]*```/g, '') // Code blocks
 		// Remove HTML tags
 		.replace(/<[^>]+>/g, '')
 		// Remove excess whitespace