Max parallel HTTP connections in a browser?

Max Number of default simultaneous persistent connections per server/proxy:

Firefox 2:  2
Firefox 3+: 6
Opera 9.26: 4
Opera 12:   6
Safari 3:   4
Safari 5:   6
IE 7:       2
IE 8:       6
IE 10:      8
Edge:       6
Chrome:     6

The limit is per-server/proxy, so your wildcard scheme will work.

FYI: this is specifically related to HTTP 1.1; other protocols have separate concerns and limitations (i.e., SPDY, TLS, HTTP 2).

HTTP/1.1

IE 6 and 7:      2
IE 8:            6
IE 9:            6
IE 10:           8
IE 11:           8
Firefox 2:       2
Firefox 3:       6
Firefox 4 to 46: 6
Opera 9.63:      4
Opera 10:        8
Opera 11 and 12: 6
Chrome 1 and 2:  6
Chrome 3:        4
Chrome 4 to 23:  6
Safari 3 and 4:  4

source: http://p2p.wrox.com/book-professional-website-performance-optimizing-front-end-back-end-705/

HTTP/2(SPDY)

Multiplexed support(one single TCP connection for all requests)

 BrowserVersion | ConnectionsPerHostname | MaxConnections
----------------------------------------------------------
 Chrome34/32    | 6                      | 10
 IE9            | 6                      | 35
 IE10           | 8                      | 17
 IE11           | 13                     | 17
 Firefox27/26   | 6                      | 17
 Safari7.0.1    | 6                      | 17
 Android4       | 6                      | 17
 ChromeMobile18 | 6                      | 16
 IE Mobile9     | 6                      | 60

The first value is ConnectionsPerHostname and the second value is MaxConnections.

Source: http://www.browserscope.org/?category=network&v=top

Note: ConnectionsPerHostname is the maximum number of concurrent http requests that browsers will make to the same domain. To increase the number of concurrent connections, one can host resources (e.g. images) in different domains. However, you cannot exceed MaxConnections, the maximum number of connections a browser will open in total - across all domains.

2020 Update

Number of parallel connections per browser

| Browser              | Connections per Domain         | Max Connections                |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------ | ------------------------------ |
| Chrome 81            | 6 [^note1]                     | 256[^note2]                    |
| Edge 18              | *same as Internet Explorer 11* | *same as Internet Explorer 11* |
| Firefox 68           | 9 [^note1] or 6 [^note3]       | 1000+[^note2]                  |
| Internet Explorer 11 | 12 [^note4]                    | 1000+[^note2]                  |
| Safari 13            | 6 [^note1]                     | 1000+[^note2]                  |

• [^note1]: tested with 72 requests , 1 domain(127.0.0.1)
• [^note2]: tested with 1002 requests, 6 requests per domain * 167 domains (127.0.0.*)
• [^note3]: when called in async context, e.g. in callback of setTimeout, + requestAnimationFrame, then...
• [^note4]: of which the last 6 are follow-ups (2,4,6 available at 0.5s,1s,1.5s respectively)

Various browsers have various limits for maximum connections per host name; you can find the exact numbers at http://www.browserscope.org/?category=network and here is an interesting article about connection limitations from web performance expert Steve Souders http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2008/03/20/roundup-on-parallel-connections/

Firefox stores that number in this setting (you find it in about:config): network.http.max-connections-per-server

For the max connections, Firefox stores that in this setting: network.http.max-connections