There are two types of limits in the Ably system: local limits and global limits. In short, emails for hitting the soft and hard limits will be sent for global and not local limits.
Local Limits:
As suggested by the name, these limits apply to a local part of the system such as an individual channel or connection.
Examples of these include:
- Max channels per connection
- Max receive rate per connection
- Max publish rate per channel
These limits are capped meaning that if the limit is exceeded then all further requests will be refused until slots are made available by the limit subsiding.
Notification emails are not sent here to prevent potential email surges in case this happens across many channels or connections at once.
Global Limits:
These limits apply to your account as a whole. It is important to note that this will be the aggregate of your usage across all your apps.
Examples of these include:
- Max message rate per second
- Peak connections
- Token requests max rate
Should you exceed your soft limit:
- For free and PAYG accounts: This is for information only
- For all other accounts: You will be charged overages at your agreed rate
When the hard limit is breached there will be a probabilistic rejection (similar to local limits) if it is a rate limit; for hourly limits, the limit will be reset on the hour and for the monthly message quota, at the beginning of the following month. Please see the following article for further information.
N.B. Local message rates limits are enforced by all messages after the quota in a given six-second period being refused.
To learn more about limits within Ably, check out this comprehensive article.
If you have any questions about any of the above, don't hesitate to contact our support team by emailing support@ably.com