I have been using the free tier for about 2 months...
# ask-aib
billions-terabyte-62474
09/19/2025, 6:50 AMI have been using the free tier for about 2 months now, I never even exceeded half the limit, why does it say I need to upgrade? Is there a time limit?
"Your project has exceeded its free tier limit. Please upgrade now."
t
tall-airline-16756
09/19/2025, 6:50 AMThanks for reaching out, Shawn. I'm an AI assistant and I'm here to help. Give me a moment while I research this topic.
tall-airline-16756
09/19/2025, 6:51 AMThank you for reaching out! I’d love to help clarify how the LiveKit free tier ("Build" plan) works. There isn’t a specific time limit on this plan, but it does come with some monthly usage quotas and restrictions to keep in mind. If your project goes beyond these limits, you might see a prompt encouraging you to upgrade.
Here are the key free tier limits to be aware of:
• 5,000 WebRTC participant minutes per month
• 50 GB of downstream data transfer
• 60 minutes of transcode or track egress time
• 100 total participants across all rooms at any time
These quotas reset every month, so if you do happen to exceed them, upgrading will help you continue using the service smoothly. But if you feel you haven’t gone over these limits and still have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out—I’m here to help!
Sources: Quotas and limits | LiveKit Docs
b
billions-terabyte-62474
09/19/2025, 6:53 AMIn the past SIXTY days I haven't gone anywhere near the limit, so why am I asked to upgrade my plan?
t
tall-airline-16756
09/19/2025, 6:54 AMI understand how frustrating it can be to see a "limit exceeded" message, especially when your overall usage seems low. Let me help clarify a few common reasons this might happen on the free tier:
• Concurrency limits: The free tier allows up to 100 participants across all rooms at the same time. If this number is briefly exceeded, it can trigger the message.
• Shared quotas: Your free tier includes 5,000 participant minutes and other limits that are shared across all your projects. So, if another project is using a lot, it might impact this one.
• API rate limits: Making more than 1,000 API requests per minute can also lead to this issue.
To get a clearer picture, I recommend checking your usage and limits in the LiveKit Cloud dashboard under your project settings. And if after that you still feel something’s not right, please don’t hesitate to reach out—I’m here to help you sort this out.
Sources: .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug_report.md | protobufs/livekit_rtc.proto | lib/src/proto/livekit_rtc.pbenum.dart | Quotas and limits | LiveKit Docs
b
billions-terabyte-62474
09/19/2025, 6:56 AMCould you connect me to a person that I could clarify this with?
t
tall-airline-16756
09/19/2025, 6:56 AMI don't have the answer you're looking for.
You could also try asking your question:
• in one of the other Slack channels
or
• to https://deepwiki.com/livekit/livekit_composite which is trained on all LiveKit source code
If you find the answer, please post it here to help others!
b
billions-terabyte-62474
09/19/2025, 7:11 AMI figured it out, it was my egress limit, sorry, my fault
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