---
title: "Usage and limits"
description: "What is metered, the two reset cadences, what happens at a limit, and why there is no workspace wide number."
updated: "2026-08-29"
verifiedAgainst:
  - packages/shared/src/entitlement-period.ts
  - packages/shared/src/free-grant.ts
  - apps/web/lib/server/acquisition-runtime-control.ts
  - apps/web/lib/server/free-grant-lifecycle.ts
  - apps/web/lib/usage-report.ts
  - apps/web/lib/project-capacity-notice.ts
  - apps/web/components/billing-lifecycle-banner.tsx
---

Five things are metered, and whether any of them resets depends on what the
Project is running on.

## The two cadences

<PropertyList>
  <Property name="A paid Project" type="resets each billing period">
    Posts, topics and images refill when the billing period rolls over. This is
    the cadence every plan uses.
  </Property>
  <Property name="A Free Project" type="lifetime, never resets">
    The Free grant is a one-time total for the life of the Project rather than an
    amount per period. It has no period start and no period end, and nothing
    refills it. Spending it is the end of it until the Project is upgraded.
  </Property>
</PropertyList>

| Meter | Scope | Resets on a paid plan | Resets on Free |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Posts | Per Project | Each period | No |
| Topics | Per Project | Each period | No |
| Images | Per Project | Each period | No |
| Revisions | Per post | No | Not applicable, regeneration is off |
| Competitors | Per Project | No, it is a standing limit | No, it is a standing limit |

A Free Project's grant is 3 posts, 40 topics, 15 images and 7 competitors, with
no AI article regenerations.

## Where to see it

Settings, then Usage, for the active Project. Workspace usage shows each
Project's usage side by side rather than adding them together.

<Callout variant="warning" title="There is no workspace wide posts number">
  A workspace running a Starter Project and an Ultra Growth Project has two
  different allowances and two separate counters. Any single "posts used" figure
  covering both would be wrong for each of them.
</Callout>

## At a limit

Production stops for that Project. Autopilot stops producing, and a manual
generation request is refused with the reason rather than failing quietly.

On a paid plan it starts again when the period rolls over. On a Free Project it
does not, because there is no period to roll over: upgrading the Project is what
lifts the limit.

Nothing already produced is affected, and nothing is deleted. A Free Project that
runs out of its posts or its images does start a lifecycle clock, though: 14 days
later it is archived, and at 30 days its public blog stops being served.
Upgrading before then cancels both. See
[what happens when a Free Project runs out](/workspaces/lifecycle).

## The notice you will see

When a Project exhausts one of posts, topics, images or competitors, a notice
appears at the top of the workspace naming the Project, listing the dimensions
that are full, and saying that existing work is safe. It reads the current
counters rather than a history of refusals, so raising the allowance or removing
a tracked competitor makes it disappear on its own.

What it offers depends on what the Project is running on.

| Running on | What the notice says to do | Can it be dismissed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The Free grant | Choose a paid plan for this Project | No |
| A trial | Start the chosen plan now, or wait for the trial to end | No |
| A paid plan | Review a higher plan, or wait for the next period | Yes |

<Callout variant="note" title="Only the paid one can be dismissed">
  A paid Project's allowance comes back by itself at the next period, so the
  notice is information you can put away. Free and trial notices describe
  something that will not resolve on its own, so they stay until the thing they
  describe changes.
</Callout>

If you cannot manage billing for the workspace, the notice says the same thing
but asks you to speak to an owner or admin rather than offering a button that
would refuse you.

## Reservations

Work is reserved before it is done, which is why the counter can move before an
article appears. A failed run releases its reservation instead of consuming the
allowance for something that does not exist. See
[quotas and reservations](/autopilot/quotas).

## Needing more

Change the plan on that Project, or put a plan on it if it is still on the Free
grant. Either takes effect immediately, and neither costs you the work already in
the Project. See [changing a plan](/billing/change-plan).