diff --git a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_bert.py b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_bert.py
index 04f35aa4..8ea71ba9 100644
--- a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_bert.py
+++ b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_bert.py
@@ -139,6 +139,14 @@ class BertTokenizer(PreTrainedTokenizer):
                                                   tokenize_chinese_chars=tokenize_chinese_chars)
         self.wordpiece_tokenizer = WordpieceTokenizer(vocab=self.vocab, unk_token=self.unk_token)
 
+    @property
+    def max_len_single_sentence(self):
+        return self.max_len - 2  # take into account special tokens
+
+    @property
+    def max_len_sentences_pair(self):
+        return self.max_len - 3  # take into account special tokens
+
     @property
     def vocab_size(self):
         return len(self.vocab)
diff --git a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_roberta.py b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_roberta.py
index edf4717c..44047e63 100644
--- a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_roberta.py
+++ b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_roberta.py
@@ -160,6 +160,14 @@ class RobertaTokenizer(PreTrainedTokenizer):
         text = bytearray([self.byte_decoder[c] for c in text]).decode('utf-8', errors=self.errors)
         return text
 
+    @property
+    def max_len_single_sentence(self):
+        return self.max_len - 2  # take into account special tokens
+
+    @property
+    def max_len_sentences_pair(self):
+        return self.max_len - 4  # take into account special tokens
+
     def add_special_tokens_single_sentence(self, token_ids):
         """
         Adds special tokens to a sequence for sequence classification tasks.
diff --git a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_utils.py b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_utils.py
index d2855e09..a128c3fd 100644
--- a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_utils.py
+++ b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_utils.py
@@ -67,6 +67,14 @@ class PreTrainedTokenizer(object):
                                  "pad_token", "cls_token", "mask_token",
                                  "additional_special_tokens"]
 
+    @property
+    def max_len_single_sentence(self):
+        return self.max_len  # Default to max_len but can be smaller in specific tokenizers to take into account special tokens
+
+    @property
+    def max_len_sentences_pair(self):
+        return self.max_len  # Default to max_len but can be smaller in specific tokenizers to take into account special tokens
+
     @property
     def bos_token(self):
         """ Beginning of sentence token (string). Log an error if used while not having been set. """
diff --git a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlm.py b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlm.py
index 2d2f3a8c..b544923e 100644
--- a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlm.py
+++ b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlm.py
@@ -215,6 +215,14 @@ class XLMTokenizer(PreTrainedTokenizer):
         out_string = ''.join(tokens).replace('</w>', ' ').strip()
         return out_string
 
+    @property
+    def max_len_single_sentence(self):
+        return self.max_len - 2  # take into account special tokens
+
+    @property
+    def max_len_sentences_pair(self):
+        return self.max_len - 3  # take into account special tokens
+
     def add_special_tokens_single_sentence(self, token_ids):
         """
         Adds special tokens to a sequence for sequence classification tasks.
diff --git a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlnet.py b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlnet.py
index 371b3c94..a282d679 100644
--- a/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlnet.py
+++ b/pytorch_transformers/tokenization_xlnet.py
@@ -177,6 +177,14 @@ class XLNetTokenizer(PreTrainedTokenizer):
         out_string = ''.join(tokens).replace(SPIECE_UNDERLINE, ' ').strip()
         return out_string
 
+    @property
+    def max_len_single_sentence(self):
+        return self.max_len - 2  # take into account special tokens
+
+    @property
+    def max_len_sentences_pair(self):
+        return self.max_len - 3  # take into account special tokens
+
     def add_special_tokens_single_sentence(self, token_ids):
         """
         Adds special tokens to a sequence pair for sequence classification tasks.