# Usage Limits and Quotas
You can find usage indicators on the dashboard page, showing your current position within the limit. The limit depends on your selected free or paid membership plan. **Once the limit is exceeded, the Documentero service will be temporarily unavailable (hard stop)**. To continue using the service, you should consider upgrading to a higher plan.
### Documents Generations Limit
It counts all document creations per user and user’s shared forms:
* Documents generated from Documentero App
* All documents generated from share form’s shared by user
* Documents generated using API
> Please be careful when you send your shared form public link. If you share it to everyone you can expect that you will reach your Documents Generation limit quicker than expected.
To help you avoid unexpected interruptions, Documentero sends automatic email notifications to the account owner as usage approaches the limit:
* At 80% of the available quota, you receive an early warning.
* At 90% of the available quota, you receive an action warning.
* At 100% of the available quota, you receive a final notification that document generation has been stopped for the current cycle.
Once the quota is fully used, new document generations are blocked until the quota resets for the next cycle or your plan is upgraded.
### **Templates Limit**
It counts all document templates associated with your account (including documents in all folders).
If you hit the limit you need to remove unused documents or upgrade to higher plan.
**Maximum size of uploaded document templates (.docx) is 10MB.**
**Maximum size of online templates is 1MB**
### **Data / API Limits**
**The maximum size of data passed as content for the generated document is 10MB (JSON format).**
If you hit the limit most likely you are using base64 images extensively. Consider passing them as public URLs (or in a smaller format)
**Rate limiting**
The API enforces a rate limit of **200 (document generation) requests per minute per API key** to maintain performance and fair usage. If this limit is exceeded, the server responds with an **HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests)** status code and a JSON error message indicating that the rate limit has been reached.
**Secure API Usage and Key Protection**
The API is designed strictly for **server-to-server use** and must **not** be accessed directly from client-side environments such as websites, browsers, or mobile applications. Your **API key is a confidential credential** and should never be exposed publicly in code, network requests, or repositories. Any API keys found to be publicly accessible or misused may be **suspended or permanently blocked** to ensure security and prevent unauthorized use.
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