> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.surnex.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Usage and limits

> What you've consumed this period, and what happens when you hit a limit.

**Settings → Billing** has a **Usage** section showing consumption against your plan's limits.

## What's tracked

| Metric               | Period  | Notes                                            |
| -------------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **Projects**         | Current | Total projects in the organization               |
| **Keywords Tracked** | Current | Total tracked keywords, active and paused        |
| **Site audits**      | Monthly | Site audit crawls                                |
| **Keyword lookups**  | Daily   | Research, suggestions, SERP lookups, rank checks |
| **Backlink lookups** | Daily   | Backlink refreshes and gap analyses              |
| **Domain lookups**   | Daily   | Domain overview and analysis                     |

Each is shown against its plan limit. On Enterprise, limits read **Unlimited**.

<Note>
  **Domain lookups have their own daily allowance** — 10 on Free, 100 on Pro, 500 on Team — separate from keyword and backlink lookups. Analysing a competitor's domain draws on it.

  **Web vitals checks are not metered.** They have no plan-limit check, only a one-at-a-time guard per project.
</Note>

## Two kinds of limit

**Standing limits** — projects, tracked keywords, team members — count what currently exists. Deleting a project frees its slot immediately.

**Consumption limits** — audits per month, lookups per day — count actions taken in a window. They reset when the window rolls over, and you can't free them by deleting anything.

Knowing which kind you've hit tells you what to do. A project limit is fixed by deleting; an audit limit is fixed by waiting or upgrading.

## Scheduled collection consumes quota

This is the part that surprises people. Every scheduled check draws on the same allowance as a manual action:

* A daily [rank check](/tracking/overview) on 500 keywords consumes keyword lookups **every day**
* A [backlink snapshot](/backlinks/overview) consumes backlink lookups on its cadence — daily on a new project until you lower it
* [GEO](/geo/overview) and [local SEO](/local/overview) snapshots consume theirs daily by default

All four schedules default to **daily**, which is the most expensive setting available. Lowering the ones you don't watch closely is the single biggest saving.

<Warning>
  Exhausting a daily lookup limit doesn't only block you from doing things by hand — it can stop scheduled collection. A rank check that doesn't run leaves a gap in your position history, and history can't be back-filled. Enable the **Usage Limit Warning** in [notification preferences](/notifications/preferences) so you hear about it first.
</Warning>

## At the limit

| Limit reached    | What you see                                                            |
| ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Projects         | **Add Project** greys out; clicking it goes to Billing                  |
| Tracked keywords | **Add Keywords** shows a padlock and *"Upgrade to track more keywords"* |
| Site audits      | New crawls are refused for the month                                    |
| Daily lookups    | Research and scheduled checks fail until the next day                   |

An upgrade prompt pins to the bottom of the page while you're at a limit.

## Reducing consumption

In the order that costs you least:

1. **Lower check frequencies.** Rank tracking from daily to weekly cuts that consumption by about 85%, and most sites don't move enough day to day to justify daily checks. Set it per feature on the relevant overview page.
2. **Pause keywords you're not acting on.** Stops the checks, keeps the history. Note a paused keyword still counts toward the tracked-keyword *limit* — this saves lookups, not slots.
3. **Batch audits.** One audit costs the same at any page limit, so one 1,000-page crawl beats ten 100-page crawls.
4. **Consolidate projects.** Each project runs its own scheduled collection, so a project nobody looks at is a daily cost.

## Who can see it

Every member can view usage, whatever their role — you need it to know whether an audit will run. Only the owner can change the plan. See [Roles and permissions](/organizations/roles).

## Related

* [Plans](/billing/plans) — the full limit table
* [How data collection works](/projects/data-collection) — what runs on a schedule
* [Manage your subscription](/billing/subscription) — upgrading