Limits
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      1. Ably FAQs
      2. Account billing and packages
      3. Limits

      What happens if I exceed my package connection, channel or message limits?

      When you exceed your account allocation of messages, connections, channels etc. we will rarely simply disable or degrade your Ably realtime service, unless you exceed your limits significantly.  Instead, we will typically send you a notification when nearing your pre-paid quota and when you exceed your pre-paid quota, so that you have time to review your options. 

      Depending on the type of subscription package you have with Ably, we will do the following:

      Free account

      If you're using Ably with one of our free packages, and you exceed your connection or message limit, we will do the following:

      1. You will receive an email notification when you are nearing one of your limits
      2. Any messages, connections or channels that exceed your quota will automatically be rejected by the platform
      3. When you exceed any of your limits, we will get in touch to discuss upgrading to a paid account or reducing your usage
       
      PAYG paid account

      If you're using Ably with our PAYG package (live from October 2022) you will be billed at the end of the month for the effective usage that you have incurred, with no pre-paid quota. The limits for this account are high so we don't expect that they will be easily exceeded, however if you do exceed your connection or message limit, we will do the following:

      1. You will receive an email notification when you are nearing one of your limits
      2. Any messages, connections or channels that exceed your quota will automatically be rejected by the platform
      3. If you exceed any of your limits or believe that you will, you can consider reserving (pre-purchasing) additional capacity

      Legacy paid accounts (Self-service or Business)

      If you have a legacy Self Service or Business paid subscription to Ably and you exceed your connection, channel or message limit, we will do the following:

      1. You will receive an email notification when you are nearing one of your limits
      2. When you exceed any of your limits, you will receive an email to alert you that you exceeded your limits. You will start incurring charges for any message, connection and channel overages.  See "Overage pricing" below. When you exceed your limits, we highly recommend that you consider upgrading your account as it is more cost effective to pay for connections and messages as part of your subscription package

       

      Enterprise accounts

      If you have a bespoke Enterprise contract with Ably, and you exceed your connection or message limit, we will do the following:

      1. You will receive an email notification when you are nearing one of your limits
      2. Depending on your Enterprise package, you might or might not be charged for any overages, but your customer success manager will be in touch to review your account if you are consistently using more resources than what you are paying for

       

      PaaS partner paid account

      If you have a paid subscription through one of our partners (such as Heroku), and you exceed your connection or message limit, we will do the following:

      1. You will receive an email notification when you are nearing one of your limits
      2. Any messages, connections or channels that exceed your quota will be automatically be rejected by the platform
      3. When you reach any of your limits, we will get in touch to discuss upgrading your account or reducing your usage

       

      Overage pricing for Self Service(legacy), Business (legacy) and Enterprise packages

      If you exceed your paid subscription quota, we charge for any overages (excluding local taxes) at a standard rate *:

      Note: We calculate the number of messages sent by picking the higher of the message count or the data transferred divided by 2KiB. Hence, data transfer overage charges are incorporated as a part of message overages.
       
      * You can review your pricing on your "Billing and Upgrades" page.  To view the "Billing and Upgrades", login, then drop down your account login and select "Billing and Upgrades"
       

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