> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cortex.foundation/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Plans and quotas
> Guest, Free, Go, Plus and Pro: the message windows each plan allows, what the app draws as a meter, and how a limit fails.
A plan in Cortex is a named ceiling on a fixed window. Two windows are counted on every turn you send: **messages today** and **messages this month**. A turn charges both, and whichever runs out first is the one that stops you. Your plan, your usage and the reset countdowns live in **Settings → Plan & billing**.
This page lists the five plans as the product lists them, the message ceilings on each, the other entitlements that exist behind the scenes, what the app actually draws as a meter, and what a limit looks like when you reach it. The product is always the source of truth for a number you are about to rely on.
## The plans
| Plan | Price | What the product says it is for |
| --------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Guest** | Not sold | `Try Cortex without an account.` |
| **Free** | \$0 / month | `Intelligence for everyday tasks.` |
| **Go** | \$8 / month | `Extended access for everyday work.` |
| **Plus** | \$20 / month | `Go further with advanced intelligence.` |
| **Pro** | Quote only, shown as `Custom` | `Maximum access for people who live in Cortex.` |
**Plus** is marked `RECOMMENDED` in the product. Guest is not listed on the pricing cards: it is the allowance you get before you sign in, and the card simply reads `Guest allowance while signed out.` **Pro** is quote-only, so its price shows as `Custom` rather than an amount.
Three capabilities are reserved for **Pro**: single sign-on, audit log export and private model routing. When a plan does not include something at all, Cortex answers `Not included in your plan` rather than metering you down to zero.
## Message quotas
| Plan | Messages today | Messages this month |
| ----- | -------------- | ------------------- |
| Guest | 100 | 500 |
| Free | 500 | 3,000 |
| Go | 1,000 | 8,000 |
| Plus | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited |
The daily window is 24 hours and the monthly window is 30 days. Both are fixed rather than rolling: each window has a start, and the counter returns to zero when the window rolls over. The product never prints a wall-clock reset time; it shows `Resets in {label}` instead. Unused allowance does not roll over into the next window.
**Unlimited** here means there is no ceiling to hit, not a very large number. Quotas **fail closed**: when a window is used up Cortex says so and shows when it resets, rather than quietly shortening the answer.
The guest allowance belongs to the browser session, not to an account. It ends when you sign in and does not carry over, and the Free plan's windows start fresh on the account. See [Accounts and sign-in](/getting-started/accounts).
## Other ceilings
These entitlements exist on the plans and shape what Cortex lets you do, even though most of them are not drawn as meters.
| Ceiling | Guest | Free | Go | Plus | Pro |
| -------------------------------- | ------------- | ------ | ------------- | --------- | --------- |
| Projects | None | 3 | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Attachment size (`File storage`) | None | 10 MB | Not published | 10 MB | 10 MB |
| Library storage | 200 MB | 500 MB | Not published | 20 GB | Unlimited |
| `Images today` | 2 | 15 | Not published | 100 | Unlimited |
| `Exports today` | 2 | 15 | Not published | 100 | Unlimited |
| `Parallel agents` | Not published | 1 | Not published | 10 | 50 |
Reading the table:
* **None** means forbidden, not unlimited. A guest has no projects and cannot upload files.
* **Attachment size hardly varies.** Paying more does not raise it: where a plan can attach at all, the ceiling on a single file is 10 MB, which is why the plans that can upload all show the same number. A larger plan buys you more room in the Library, not bigger files. Go is the one plan this page will not print a figure for.
* **Not published** means this page has no figure it can responsibly print for the Go plan, so it will not invent one. Check **Settings → Plan & billing** on a Go account for what it actually allows.
* **Parallel agents** is a plan attribute that the product displays but does not currently enforce, so read those numbers as what the plan records rather than as what will stop you. The matching error code exists regardless, so handle it rather than assuming it can never arrive.
## What is not metered
Reasoning, code runs in the sandbox and web searches are **not metered on any plan**, Guest included. If you read older copy promising "five reasoning runs a day" or "fifty web searches a day", that copy is stale. Those counters were retired.
No plan carries a file-retention window either. Conversations, Chat Library files and Design canvases you still hold are not deleted on a plan timer; they stay until you delete them. See [Data and privacy](/getting-started/data-and-privacy) for what Cortex does prune, and on what schedule.
## What you can actually see
Three things are drawn as meters on the plan cards, in the form `{used} / {limit}` with `Resets in {label}` underneath: **Messages today**, **Messages this month** and **Projects**. Every other entitlement is suppressed from the cards, so do not go looking for an images meter or a web-search meter. The tab notes this itself: `Quota bars on this tab come from the plan, not a certificate.`
Elsewhere in **Settings → Plan & billing** you also get:
| Section | What it shows |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `STORAGE` | Library usage, with a `Manage` link that opens Library. Failure shows `Storage usage could not be loaded` and a `Retry`. |
| Current plan | `{name} plan`, the price, and a `CURRENT PLAN` badge |
| `Usage` | Tokens this account used, split across Cortex Chat, Cortex Code, Cortex Bot and `Unattributed`, over a `7 days`, `30 days` or `90 days` window, `Per day` or `PER MODEL`. Empty windows stay zeros. |
| `Billing history` | Columns `DATE`, `DESCRIPTION`, `AMOUNT`, `STATUS` |
The sidebar carries the same information in miniature: a plan chip reading `{name} plan` and a quota chip reading `{used} of {limit} {quota}`.
## When you reach a limit
Cortex has a dedicated notice for this, separate from a generic error card. It reads **Plan limit reached** with `You have used everything this plan allows in the current window.`, then `Resets in {label}`, `Current plan: {plan}`, and where a model is still available under the limit, `Continue with {model}`. The heading is specific to the window you exhausted, for example `You have used today's messages`, `You have used this month's messages` or `You have reached your project limit`.
| What happened | Problem code | What to do |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The window for today or this month is used up | [`quota_exceeded`](/problems/quota_exceeded) | Wait for the reset shown in the product, or move to a plan with higher ceilings |
| The plan does not include the capability at all | [`entitlement_required`](/problems/entitlement_required) | Compare plans under **Settings → Plan & billing** |
| Requests arrived faster than the limit allows | [`rate_limited`](/problems/rate_limited) | Pause, then retry. This clears by itself. |
| Too many runs in parallel on the account | [`concurrency_limit_reached`](/problems/concurrency_limit_reached) | Let a session or a run finish to free a slot |
| An attachment is larger than Cortex accepts | [`payload_too_large`](/problems/payload_too_large) | `Files can be at most 10 MB. Remove or shrink the attachment and try again.` |
There is a second notice for the plan side of the same check, headed `That attachment is over your plan's size limit`. That one is raised against what your plan allows you to attach at all rather than against the 10 MB ceiling, which is why a plan that permits no attachments refuses every upload with it.
## Changing plan
**Settings → Plan & billing → Change plan** lists the ladder with `Switch anytime — changes take effect at the next billing cycle.` The plan you are on reads `Current plan`; the others read `Get {plan}` or `Downgrade`. A guest sees `Sign in to change plan`.
There is no checkout in the product today. When billing is not configured, the plan actions and `Manage billing` carry a `HOLD` badge instead of opening a payment form, `Billing history` always reads `No invoices yet — your receipts will appear here.`, and `Usage credits`, `Spend cap` and `Add credit` resolve to `Not available on this deployment` or `Not reported`. Expect to arrange a plan change outside the app for now.
## Frequently asked
No. The guest allowance belongs to the browser session and ends when you sign in. Free has its own daily and monthly windows on the account, and they start fresh.
No. Each window has a start and a length, and the counter returns to zero when it rolls over. What you did not use is not banked.
Every published chat model is available from the Free plan up, so in practice no Chat model is plan-gated today and you will not meet a locked row in the picker. When a model is unavailable or a limit is reached, Cortex says so and offers what is still available rather than quietly substituting something else, and the composer always shows which model is answering. See [Models](/chat/models).
No plan carries one, so the retention line never appears on the plan card. Files stay until you delete them.
Yes, and it has closed. During the beta a banner offered signed-in accounts one free month of a paid plan, one grant per account, and claiming twice never stacked months. The offer window ended on 7 September 2026. The banner and its `Claim a free month` button are still in the build, so treat anything you see there as expired until the product says otherwise.
## Related
* [Accounts and sign-in](/getting-started/accounts) - guest versus member, and what an account lifts.
* [Settings](/getting-started/settings) - the Plan & billing tab among the seven tabs.
* [Limits reference](/reference/limits) - the hard numbers in one table.
* [Models](/chat/models) - the published chat models, and what Cortex does when one is unavailable.
* [`quota_exceeded`](/problems/quota_exceeded) - the problem code behind a used-up window.