Two systems keep usage fair:
- Rate limits cap how fast anyone can fire expensive actions. They're per account, meaning per person, so a shared office network doesn't share one bucket. Anonymous visitors on the public tools get tighter buckets on the public tools.
- Credits meter the paid work a workspace runs. Audits, articles, page designs and the other AI runs each carry a price, and each plan grants an allowance a month. See plans and credits for the price of every run.
You meet them as two answers. Too fast returns a 429: wait under a minute and retry. A spent balance returns a 402 and the "You're out of credits" dialog: add credits or move up a plan. Nothing is charged for a run that was refused.
The limits
Representative limits, per account:
| Action | Limit |
|---|---|
| Audits | 5 per minute |
| Standard article generation | 10 per minute |
| Skyscraper articles, and the Content Refresher | 10 per hour |
| Competitor discovery | 10 per minute (3 for anonymous visitors) |
| Free tools | Per-tool buckets, tighter for anonymous use |
Note that a failed run is refunded: an audit that dies before finishing gives its credits back, and a resumed multi-leg audit charges once for the whole run.
How many credits do I have left?
The credit chip in the header states the balance on every signed-in page. Settings, then Plan & credits, breaks it down: Credits remaining at the top, what each action costs under Price list, and Credit history with one row per run. A run that would pass the balance is refused at the moment you start it, before it spends anything.
Fair use
- Rate limits protect the platform's shared capacity and are the same on every plan. Credits are the part that depends on your plan.
- Fair use backs the generous wording on the pricing page: unlimited-style allowances assume human-scale usage, not scripted extraction.
- A free trial carries 20 credits, enough to evaluate the product on a real site. A workspace created before 2026-09-17 runs on free preview credits instead.
If something isn't working
A 429 during normal work. You're probably running bulk work in parallel. Run it one job at a time. The buckets refill every minute.
Out of credits on a plan you just bought. The webhook that grants the new plan's credits can lag checkout by a minute, so reload Settings, then Plan & credits. If it persists, see billing and invoices.
A client-role user reports a limit. Clients read the websites they are assigned to and start no paid runs, so what they hit is read-rate limiting, which clears within the minute.
Related guides
For what shipped recently, see the changelog.