Limits & Usage
Limits & Usage
Every plan sets caps on how much you can create (users, documents, projects, expense claims, receipt scans, e-sign templates) and a set of features that are switched on or off. This page explains how those are enforced, how the counters are measured, when they reset, and exactly what you'll see when you hit a wall.
How feature gating works
Features are checked on the server, every time you take a gated action. The UI may hide a button, but the real decision is made by the backend — so there's no way to bypass a gate from the app.
When the server decides whether a feature is available, it resolves in this order:
- Internal-team bypass — Anhourtec staff accounts have all features (used for support).
- Per-org feature override — Your organization's settings can force-enable or force-disable an individual feature regardless of plan. This is how a feature can be turned on for your org outside the normal plan, or held back even if your plan would include it.
- Plan-based — If no override applies, your current plan decides.
If a gated action is blocked, the server returns HTTP 403 "Feature Unavailable" along with the feature that was required and the plan needed to unlock it.
Past-due degradation
If your subscription becomes past_due or suspended (a failed renewal, an unpaid invoice), your organization is treated as the Free plan — for both limits and features — until payment is fixed.
That means paid-only features (calendar sync, reporting, SSO, QuickBooks, etc.) stop working, and your usage caps drop to Free-plan levels. Restoring a working payment method in the billing portal lifts the degradation automatically.
Counting & resets
How a counter resets depends on your plan.
| Counter | Free | Pro / Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documents | Lifetime total | Per billing period | Unlimited |
| Projects | Lifetime total | Per billing period | Unlimited |
| Expense claims | Lifetime total | Per billing period | Unlimited |
| Receipt scans | Per calendar month | Per billing period | Unlimited |
| Users (seats) | Always-on cap | Always-on cap | Unlimited |
| E-sign templates | n/a (0) | Always-on cap | Unlimited |
When per-period counters reset:
- Paid plans (Pro / Business): counters reset on your organization's Stripe invoice anniversary — the day your billing period rolls over — not the 1st of the calendar month.
- Free / no-subscription orgs: counters reset on the first of the calendar month, in your organization's timezone.
The Usage view in your billing settings shows the current count, the cap, and when each counter next resets.
How specific things are counted
Limit-reached errors
When you hit a cap, the action is blocked and you'll see one of these messages (X = current count, Y = your cap; "this month" appears on per-period counters):
| Limit | Message |
|---|---|
| Users | User limit reached (X/Y). Upgrade your plan to add more users. |
| Documents | Document limit reached (X/Y[ this month]). Each shared document and signing request counts toward your quota… |
| Projects | Project limit reached (X/Y[ this month])… |
| Expense claims | Expense claim limit reached (X/Y[ this month])… |
| Receipt scans | Monthly receipt scan limit reached (X/Y). Each scan uses AI tokens whether saved or not… |
| E-sign templates | Template limit reached (X/Y)… |
| Over seats (at login) | Your organization has exceeded its user limit. Please contact your organization's executive to upgrade. |
To clear a limit, either wait for the next reset (per-period counters), remove items to get back under the cap, or upgrade your plan.
Seat enforcement
If the number of active users exceeds your plan's user limit, the org doesn't lock everyone out — instead, only the oldest N users by join date keep access, where N is your seat limit. Everyone beyond that is blocked at login with the over-seats message above.
This matters most on downgrade: dropping from Business (30 seats) to Pro (10 seats) with 15 active users means the 10 oldest keep their seats and the remaining 5 (non-executives) lose login until you upgrade again or deactivate users.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Feature Unavailable" (403) | The feature isn't in your plan, or it was force-disabled for your org via a per-org override | Upgrade your plan, or ask support if you believe it should be enabled |
| Paid features suddenly stopped working | Subscription is past_due or suspended → org degraded to Free | Update your card in the billing portal |
| "Limit reached" but I deleted items | Per-period counters reset on the billing anniversary, not instantly; lifetime counters (Free) don't reset on delete of historical usage | Check the reset date in the Usage view, or upgrade |
| Document count higher than the number of files | Each recipient/signing request also counts | Expected — see counting rules above |
| Receipt-scan count higher than receipts saved | Scans are billed even when not saved | Expected — re-scans count too |
| A user can't log in | Org is over its seat limit; this user isn't in the oldest-N | Upgrade, deactivate other users, or have an EXECUTIVE log in |
Related
- Plans — the limit and feature tables
- Managing Your Subscription — upgrade/downgrade and proration
- Audit & Monitoring — the audit log (now on every plan)
Plans
Compare the Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans — what's included, the seat and usage limits, and which features unlock at each tier.
Managing Your Subscription
Start a trial, check out, upgrade or downgrade with proration, cancel and reactivate, manage cards and invoices in the billing portal, and recover from payment failures.