diff --git a/qutebrowser/browser/hints.py b/qutebrowser/browser/hints.py
index 6ecbf5dc5..cd42d9668 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/browser/hints.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/browser/hints.py
@@ -187,14 +187,20 @@ class HintManager(QObject):
             chars = '0123456789'
         else:
             chars = config.get('hints', 'chars')
+
+        min_chars = config.get('hints', 'min-chars')
         # Determine how many digits the link hints will require in the worst
         # case. Usually we do not need all of these digits for every link
         # single hint, so we can show shorter hints for a few of the links.
-        needed = math.ceil(math.log(len(elems), len(chars)))
+        needed = max(min_chars, math.ceil(math.log(len(elems), len(chars))))
         # Short hints are the number of hints we can possibly show which are
         # (needed - 1) digits in length.
-        short_count = math.floor((len(chars) ** needed - len(elems)) /
-                                 len(chars))
+        if needed > min_chars:
+            short_count = math.floor((len(chars) ** needed - len(elems)) /
+                                    len(chars))
+        else:
+            short_count = 0
+
         long_count = len(elems) - short_count
 
         strings = []
diff --git a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
index 230187a91..787b6b040 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/config/configdata.py
@@ -606,6 +606,10 @@ DATA = collections.OrderedDict([
          SettingValue(typ.String(minlen=2), 'asdfghjkl'),
          "Chars used for hint strings."),
 
+        ('min-chars',
+         SettingValue(typ.Int(minval=1), '1'),
+         "Mininum number of chars used for hint strings."),
+
         ('uppercase',
          SettingValue(typ.Bool(), 'false'),
          "Make chars in hint strings uppercase."),