Every plan has quotas that cap specific resources. Some are soft caps with overage pricing; others are hard caps that block new operations when exceeded. Understanding which is which helps you plan your usage and avoid surprises. This article covers each quota dimension, the monitoring surfaces, the overage rules, and the patterns for staying within limits without sacrificing throughput.
The Quota Dimensions
Seven quota dimensions shape your plan.
1. Contacts
What counts. Active (non-deleted) Contact rows in your workspace.
Soft or hard. Soft. Exceeding triggers an overage charge on the next invoice but does not block operations.
Default limits.
- Starter: 5,000
- Professional: 25,000
- Business: 100,000
- Enterprise: custom
Overage: roughly 20 percent above the marginal cost at the next tier per extra contact per month.
2. Sends per month
What counts. Total email sends across all campaigns. Warmup sends count but at a lower weight.
Soft or hard. Soft. Overage applies.
Default limits.
- Starter: 10,000 per month
- Professional: 100,000 per month
- Business: 500,000 per month
- Enterprise: custom
Exceeding by 10 percent triggers a warning. Exceeding by 50 percent prompts an upgrade suggestion. No hard block unless you are dramatically over (5x plan limit).
3. Sending inboxes
What counts. Connected EmailAccountHealth records. Active and paused both count. Only fully deleted accounts do not count.
Soft or hard. Hard. You cannot connect more inboxes than your plan allows.
Default limits.
- Starter: 10
- Professional: 50
- Business: 200
- Enterprise: unlimited
4. Seats
What counts. Team members with roles of owner, admin, or member. Viewers do not count.
Soft or hard. Hard. You cannot invite more members without an upgrade or a seat pack.
Default limits.
- Starter: 3
- Professional: 10
- Business: 50
- Enterprise: unlimited
5. Enrichment credits
What counts. Credits consumed through NimbusOS-managed enrichment. BYOK enrichment does not count.
Soft or hard. Hard. When credits run out, managed enrichment fails until you buy more or renew.
Default limits.
- Starter: 500 per month
- Professional: 2,500 per month
- Business: 10,000 per month
- Enterprise: custom
Unused credits do not roll over month to month. This encourages consistent consumption.
6. API calls
What counts. Requests to the REST API from user JWTs and API keys.
Soft or hard. Soft rate-limiting with 429 responses. Not an invoice-level overage.
Default limits. See the Rate Limits article. Per credential per minute.
7. Storage
What counts. Uploaded assets (CSVs, attachments, reports). Contact and campaign data is not counted; it is included in the plan.
Soft or hard. Soft. Overage applies at a per-GB rate.
Default limits.
- Starter: 5 GB
- Professional: 25 GB
- Business: 100 GB
- Enterprise: custom
Monitoring Usage
Usage is visible in several places.
The Usage tab
/billing/usage/ shows the current period's consumption against each quota. Bar charts for each dimension. Trend lines over the last 6 months.
Dashboard banners
When you approach a limit (over 80 percent for soft quotas, over 90 percent for hard quotas), a banner appears on the dashboard. The banner links to the upgrade flow or the usage detail.
Email alerts
Automatic alerts at 80 percent, 90 percent, and 100 percent of hard quotas. Alerts go to workspace admins and the billing contact.
API
GET /api/v1/usage/current/ returns a JSON document with every quota and current consumption. Useful for programmatic monitoring or custom dashboards.
Soft Cap Overage Behavior
For soft caps, exceeding the limit does not block operations. Instead:
- Overage usage is tracked per period.
- At invoice time, overage charges are added to the regular plan fee.
- Overage rates are published in the billing section.
Example. Your Professional plan allows 25,000 contacts. You have 27,500 at period end. Overage: 2,500 contacts at the overage rate.
Overage rates are generally higher than marginal cost at the next tier, so sustained overages are more expensive than upgrading. The platform nudges you toward upgrade when overages persist.
Hard Cap Enforcement
Hard caps block new operations when exceeded.
Seat limit hit
You try to invite a new member. The invite flow shows "Seat limit reached. Upgrade plan or remove a member." No invite is sent.
Sending inbox limit hit
You try to connect a new inbox. Connection flow blocks. Option: upgrade plan, buy an inbox pack add-on, or disconnect an existing inbox.
Enrichment credit limit hit
An enrichment job starts. At credit exhaustion mid-job, remaining contacts in the job are skipped with status credits_exhausted. The job completes with partial results. You see a notification in the dashboard.
To continue enrichment: buy a credit pack or wait for the next monthly renewal.
Usage Resets
Usage resets follow the billing period.
Monthly plan. Usage counters reset on the monthly renewal date.
Annual plan. Usage resets monthly for the current period. The annual cycle is purely for billing; the quota limits apply per month.
Managing Contacts Near the Limit
Contact count is the easiest quota to manage actively.
Soft delete old contacts
Contacts soft-deleted do not count against the active quota. Retention policies (Account Settings -> Data Retention) can auto-soft-delete contacts with no engagement after N days.
Typical pattern: contacts with no engagement for 180 days auto-soft-delete. Freshly re-engaged contacts restore automatically.
Archive segments
Dynamic segments do not consume contact quota directly; contacts do. But archiving a campaign-specific segment is part of list hygiene: contacts who are in no active segment are candidates for retention-based removal.
Purge fully deleted contacts
GDPR deletion requests remove contacts permanently. These do not count. A workspace with high GDPR activity has a natural contact churn that helps stay within limits.
Managing Sends Near the Limit
Sends are harder to reduce without killing pipeline. Three tactical options.
Concentrate on tier A
Cut tier C and tier D from cold outreach. Tier A usually has higher reply rates per send, so the revenue per send is better and overall volume can drop without pipeline drop.
Shorten sequences
A 5-step sequence to a contact that does not reply uses 5 sends. A 3-step sequence uses 3. Shortening underperforming sequences cuts volume without cutting fresh prospects.
Merge campaigns
Two campaigns running to similar segments with similar sequences can often be merged, dedup-ing the overlap in contact lists and reducing redundant sends.
Managing Seats
Viewers do not count
Invite stakeholders as viewers when they do not need to modify anything. Unlimited viewers on most plans.
Suspend rather than remove
Members on leave can be suspended; suspended members still count toward the cap. Removing them frees the seat but loses their attribution history. Choose based on expected return.
Consolidate admin roles
Three admins often become two admins and one power member with custom permissions. Same effective access, lower admin count.
Managing Enrichment Credits
BYOK for providers you use heavily
The managed credit pool is best for ad-hoc enrichment across providers. For a provider you use systematically (e.g., Apollo for every cold campaign), BYOK lets you use the provider directly without burning managed credits.
Cache aggressively
Every enrichment writes to EnrichmentCache. A cache hit does not consume a credit. Force-refresh only when you have reason to believe data has changed.
Enrich after scoring
Rather than enriching every imported contact, score first and enrich only the tier A and B cut. Cuts enrichment volume by 50 to 80 percent for most lists.
Usage Reporting for Agencies
Agencies running multiple sub clients can configure per sub-client usage tracking.
- Contacts scoped per sub client
- Sends per sub client
- Enrichment credits per sub client
The per sub-client usage report supports internal chargeback and client-facing usage transparency.
Overage Forecasting
The usage page forecasts end-of-period usage based on the current run rate. If you are projected to exceed a soft cap by period end, the forecast is shown in the warning banner.
The forecast accounts for seasonal patterns (weekend send pauses, holidays). It is usually within 5 percent of actual end-of-period.
Plan Limit Hard Stops
Some quota breaches trigger immediate operational stops.
Sending inbox limit. Hard. No new connects.
Seat limit. Hard. No new invites.
Enrichment credits. Hard. No more managed enrichment calls.
API rate limit. Soft, with 429 responses. Not a permanent block.
Send volume. Soft. Overage, not block.
Contact count. Soft. Overage, not block.
Troubleshooting
"Usage page shows zero even though I know we have contacts"
The usage counter refreshes every 5 minutes. Right after a large import, the number may lag. Wait or refresh.
"I bought a credit pack but credits are not showing"
Credits appear within 1 minute of purchase. If longer, check the invoice status. Failed Stripe payment means credits were not actually charged yet.
"I am at my seat limit but one of the seats is an ex-employee"
Remove them (or suspend if you need their attribution history). Seat count updates immediately.
"Overage charges surprised me"
Set a usage alert threshold below 100 percent. The default 80, 90, 100 schedule can be aggressive; you can lower it to 70 and 85 for earlier warning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do viewers count against any quota?
No. Viewers are unlimited on most plans.
Do warmup sends count against my monthly send quota?
Yes, but at a reduced weight (0.1 multiplier). 1,000 warmup sends count as 100 toward your quota. This is intentional to encourage warmup without penalizing fleet development.
Can I temporarily raise a limit for a one-time event?
Yes. Contact support with the event details and expected volume. Temporary raises are approved case by case.
Does the API have a usage endpoint beyond usage/current/?
Yes. GET /api/v1/usage/history/ returns usage over the last 12 months per quota dimension. Useful for trend analysis.
What to Read Next
Useful next pages after this one: Plans and Pricing for upgrade and downgrade flows, Rate Limits for the API throughput envelope, and Account Settings for configuring usage alerts and billing contacts.