diff --git a/bigframes/_config/display_options.py b/bigframes/_config/display_options.py
index 360292dd80..b7ce29e47e 100644
--- a/bigframes/_config/display_options.py
+++ b/bigframes/_config/display_options.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ class DisplayOptions:
     progress_bar: Optional[str] = "auto"
     repr_mode: Literal["head", "deferred", "anywidget"] = "head"
 
+    max_colwidth: Optional[int] = 50
     max_info_columns: int = 100
     max_info_rows: Optional[int] = 200000
     memory_usage: bool = True
@@ -52,6 +53,8 @@ def pandas_repr(display_options: DisplayOptions):
     so that we don't override pandas behavior.
     """
     with pd.option_context(
+        "display.max_colwidth",
+        display_options.max_colwidth,
         "display.max_columns",
         display_options.max_columns,
         "display.max_rows",
diff --git a/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py b/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
index 58bfc615ef..323956b038 100644
--- a/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
+++ b/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
@@ -888,6 +888,30 @@ def test_join_repr(scalars_dfs_maybe_ordered):
     assert actual == expected
 
 
+def test_repr_w_display_options(scalars_dfs, session):
+    metrics = session._metrics
+    scalars_df, _ = scalars_dfs
+    # get a pandas df of the expected format
+    df, _ = scalars_df._block.to_pandas()
+    pandas_df = df.set_axis(scalars_df._block.column_labels, axis=1)
+    pandas_df.index.name = scalars_df.index.name
+
+    executions_pre = metrics.execution_count
+    with bigframes.option_context(
+        "display.max_rows", 10, "display.max_columns", 5, "display.max_colwidth", 10
+    ):
+
+        # When there are 10 or fewer rows, the outputs should be identical except for the extra note.
+        actual = scalars_df.head(10).__repr__()
+        executions_post = metrics.execution_count
+
+        with display_options.pandas_repr(bigframes.options.display):
+            pandas_repr = pandas_df.head(10).__repr__()
+
+    assert actual == pandas_repr
+    assert (executions_post - executions_pre) <= 3
+
+
 def test_repr_html_w_all_rows(scalars_dfs, session):
     metrics = session._metrics
     scalars_df, _ = scalars_dfs