# Quotas & limits

> Monthly check quotas, watched-URL caps, and the fastest crawl frequency allowed on each plan — and how Firehose behaves when a watch hits a limit.

URL Watch usage is metered as **checks**, against a monthly quota set by your
[plan](/billing/plans). A check is counted each time Firehose crawls one of your watched URLs and
gets a response back — one crawl, one check. When a crawl returns a non-200 status, Firehose backs
off and pushes the URL's next crawl further out, so a site that's down or erroring consumes fewer of
your checks instead of burning through the quota. Three limits apply per plan:

| Plan | Checks / month | Max watched URLs | Fastest frequency |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | 1,000 | 5 | 3 hours |
| Starter | 25,000 | 50 | 10 minutes |
| Advanced | 75,000 | 250 | 5 minutes |
| Business | 200,000 | 1,000 | 5 minutes |
| API only | — | — | URL Watch unavailable |

## How the limits behave

- **Checks / month** is a hard cap on a calendar-month bucket. When it's exhausted, your watches
  **pause**, and the next month's reset (or an upgrade) won't reactivate them on its own — turn them
  back on from each watch's detail page.
- **Max watched URLs** caps how many subscriptions can exist at once. Adding more (including via
  bulk import) is rejected until you remove some or upgrade.
- **Fastest frequency** is the shortest interval you may select. Slower cadences are always allowed.

<Callout type="info">
  URL Watch checks are **separate** from API stream billing — they don't draw down your match credit.
  See [How billing works](/billing/how-billing-works).
</Callout>

## Next steps

<CardGrid>
  <Card title="Plans & pricing" href="/billing/plans">
    Check quotas, watched-URL caps, and fastest frequency per tier.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Creating watches" href="/url-watch/creating-watches">
    Add URLs and pick a cadence that fits your quota.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>