---
title: "Pausing and archiving"
description: "How to stop a Project without deleting it, what archiving changes, how a Project comes back, and the one case where Blogged archives one for you."
updated: "2026-08-28"
verifiedAgainst:
  - packages/shared/src/project-lifecycle.ts
  - packages/shared/src/autopilot.ts
  - apps/web/lib/server/free-grant-lifecycle.ts
  - packages/shared/src/free-grant.ts
---

A Project is in exactly one lifecycle state, and only one of them is fully
operational. You move a Project between them yourself, with one exception, which
is [a Free Project that has spent its grant](#when-a-free-project-runs-out).

| State | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| `active` | Normal. Everything works. |
| `archiving` | The archive is being applied. Changes are refused while this runs. |
| `archived` | Stopped. Restore it before making changes or starting work. |
| `restoring` | The restore is being applied. Changes are refused while this runs. |

## Archiving

Archiving stops a Project without destroying anything. Content, settings,
knowledge and analytics stay where they are.

Two consequences are worth knowing before you do it:

- **Autopilot is paused by the archive itself.** The pause is recorded as coming
  from the archive rather than from you, so restoring the Project does not
  silently leave automation off with no explanation.
- **Requests against an archived Project are refused**, with a message saying the
  Project is archived rather than a generic failure.

## Restoring

Restore returns the Project to `active`. While the restore is being applied the
Project is in `restoring` and still refuses changes, which is a transient state
rather than an error.

## When a Free Project runs out

This is the one transition you do not start yourself. A Project on the
[Free grant](/billing/free-grant) has a lifetime allowance, and running out of
its posts or its images starts a clock.

<Steps>
  <Step title="The posts or the images run out">
    Production stops for that Project. Nothing else changes yet: the Project is
    still active, the blog is still served, and everything already made is still
    there. The clock is anchored to the moment one of those two meters fills, and
    it does not restart if the other fills later.
  </Step>
  <Step title="14 days later, the Project is archived">
    The same archive described above, applied for you. Autopilot pauses with it
    and changes are refused until the Project is restored.
  </Step>
  <Step title="30 days later, the blog stops being served">
    Measured from the same moment, not from the archive. The public blog is
    unpublished and its address stops answering.
  </Step>
</Steps>

You are told before each one rather than after. Reminder emails go out three days
and one day before the archive, and seven days and one day before the blog is
unpublished, each naming the date.

<Callout variant="warning" title="Nothing is deleted at either point">
  Both steps stop the Project from being used and served. Neither removes
  content. Posts, drafts, topics, knowledge, assets and analytics are all still
  there afterwards, which is why upgrading later returns a working Project rather
  than an empty one.

  One caveat on the unpublish: it stops Blogged serving the blog. It cannot
  retrieve a page a crawler, a cache or a reader already has.
</Callout>

Putting a plan on the Project cancels both steps outright, and cancels the
remaining reminder emails with them. If the archive has already happened,
upgrading also restores the Project rather than leaving you to do it: the
conversion and the restore are the same action. See
[the Free grant](/billing/free-grant) and [usage and limits](/billing/usage).

## Pausing without archiving

If the goal is only to stop publishing, pause Autopilot instead. That leaves the
Project fully usable: you can still draft, edit and publish by hand. See
[configuration](/autopilot/configuration).

<Callout variant="note">
  Archiving is about the Project, not the subscription. If the goal is to stop
  paying, see [cancelling](/billing/cancel).
</Callout>