Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for limiting the rendering of instances of recursive elements in view output. A schema provides a definition of elements, wherein at least one of the elements comprises a recursive element of a recursive data type, wherein the recursive data type allows for instances of the recursive element to include instances of that same recursive data type at different levels in a hierarchy. A condition is received for terminating recursion for the recursive element. A view is generated for the schema including information on the condition for terminating the recursion, wherein the processing of the view causes a parser to chunk instances of the recursive element in schema data in response to the condition indicating to terminate recursion at the level of the instance of the recursive element being processed.