diff --git a/src/jquery.tagsinput.js b/src/jquery.tagsinput.js
index 420e953..8cb84e9 100644
--- a/src/jquery.tagsinput.js
+++ b/src/jquery.tagsinput.js
@@ -177,6 +177,7 @@
          interactive:true,
          defaultText:'add a tag',
          minChars:0,
+         inputMaxLength:null,
          width:'300px',
          height:'100px',
          autocomplete: {selectFirst: false },
@@ -220,7 +221,11 @@
          var markup = '<div id="'+id+'_tagsinput" class="tagsinput"><div id="'+id+'_addTag">';
 
          if (settings.interactive) {
-            markup = markup + '<input id="'+id+'_tag" value="" data-default="'+settings.defaultText+'" />';
+            var extraAttributes = '';
+            if (settings.inputMaxLength !== null) {
+               extraAttributes += ' maxlength="'+settings.inputMaxLength+'" ';
+            }
+            markup = markup + '<input id="'+id+'_tag" value="" '+extraAttributes+' data-default="'+settings.defaultText+'" />';
          }
 
          markup = markup + '</div><div class="tags_clear"></div></div>';