Per-plan limits
Each plan has quotas on usage. This page explains the quotas, how they’re measured, and what happens if you exceed them.
Main quotas
(Same table as Comparison, explained in depth here.)
”Active members”
A member counts as active if in the last 12 months they had at least one of:
- Recorded check-in.
- Processed donation.
- Event registration.
- Cell-group assignment.
- Mobile-app login.
Members with no activity become inactive and don’t count against the limit. See Growth.
”Sent messages”
| Channel | Counts as one |
|---|---|
| 1 send to 1 recipient | |
| SMS | 1 segment (160 chars) to 1 recipient; a long message counts as 2-3 |
| 1 conversation started in 24h. Messages within 24h: free | |
| Push | 1 delivery to 1 device |
Transactional email system-triggered (donation receipt, confirmation) doesn’t count against the quota. Only campaigns and custom email count.
Behavior on overage
| Quota type | On overage |
|---|---|
| Soft cap | We notify and let you continue; overage charged at month-end |
| Hard cap | We block the send; user must upgrade or wait for the cycle |
| Quota | Cap |
|---|---|
| Monthly email | Soft. $0.50 USD per 1,000 extra. |
| Monthly SMS | Hard. Raise limit or upgrade plan. |
| Monthly WhatsApp | Hard. |
| Monthly push | Soft. $0.20 USD per 1,000 extra. |
| Active members | Soft (notif at 90% and 100%). Hard at 120% of plan. |
| Campuses | Hard. |
| Staff users | Hard. Buy extra seats ($5/user/mo). |
| API rate limit | Soft. Auto throttle. |
Quota notifications
At 80%, 90%, and 100% of the monthly limit:
- Email to
org_admin. - Dashboard banner.
- Optional push.
This avoids surprises. If your volume grew, upgrade before capping.
Burst quotas (instantaneous)
Some ops have spikes: Easter Sunday, Christmas, major event. We allow burst:
- Email: up to 2× daily average of the month in a single day.
- Push: up to 5×.
- API: up to 3× for 60 seconds.
Beyond burst, we throttle for 15 min and revert to normal.
Check current usage
Settings → Plan → Current usage shows:
Plan: Growth (monthly, cycle 15th to 14th)
Days remaining: 11
Active members: 872 / 1,000 (87%)
Campuses: 2 / 3
Staff users: 8 / 10
Email this month: 28,450 / 50,000 (57%)
SMS this month: 420 / 1,000 (42%)
Push this month: 12,300 / 100,000 (12%)
API requests today: 4,823 / 864,000Buy add-on packs
For hard quotas, instead of upgrading you can buy a one-off pack:
- Pack 1,000 SMS: $15 USD once.
- Pack 5,000 SMS: $60 USD.
- Pack 1,000 WhatsApp: $25 USD.
- Pack 100 extra active members (Starter/Growth only): $10 USD/mo.
Handy for a one-off event without annual commitment.
If you exceed the API rate limit, we don’t return 429 on the first attempt — we first slow you to 75% of your rate. If you continue, down to 50%. If still, then 429. This prevents a misconfigured Zap from crashing your integration.
Custom limits (Enterprise)
Enterprise negotiates custom quotas:
- Multi-million members with no cap.
- Unlimited email/SMS/WhatsApp.
- Dedicated API rate limit per shard.
- Audit log retention > 7 years.
Talk to sales@ministrium.com.