if you use a client-side uploader like filepond or dropzone then you can set a limit on the client end.
Otherwise the server has no way of knowing how much data is coming, it tries to read the file and at some point hits the limit and rejects the connection.
Thank you both ... looks like there's not a straight forward solution here.
I was hoping there could be something out of the box from the browser / ajax request or something, but now that I read about it, I understand why that's not the case.
I was trying to upload the file alongside some information (I'm uploading a video, alongside with description, title, section and that kind of stuff), but I realize now I have to handle the upload and the record creation in database separately.