Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communication employing two-stage control channel messaging. Systems, methods, and apparatuses for two stage two-stage physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) with a downlink control information (DCI) flag and DCI format size indicator are described. For instance, the present disclosure presents an example method of wireless communication at a wireless device, which may include receiving, at a first bandwidth and during a transmission time interval (TTI), a first control channel message. In addition, the example method may include determining, based on a flag in the first control channel message, whether a second control channel message is present in the TTI. Furthermore, the example method may include receiving, at a second bandwidth, the second control channel message where the flag indicates that the second control channel message is present for the TTI.