# Track your usage and how long messages are kept

> Receiving a message uses your quota, reading it uses nothing, and every message is purged after your plan's number of days.
> https://facteur.eu/en/help/quotas-et-retention

Two different limits apply to your organization: **how many messages** you can
receive in a month, and **how long** they are kept.

Your plan's figures are on the [Pricing page](/en/pricing) and in
[**Settings → Billing**](https://app.facteur.eu/settings/billing). They are not copied
here, so that a stale value cannot sit around in an article.

## What uses your quota, and what uses nothing

Your monthly quota is counted in **operations**. An operation is a product event,
never an API call.

| What you do | What it uses |
|---|---|
| Receive an email in an inbox | 1 operation |
| Read that message, once or forty times | Nothing |
| Wait for it to arrive with `wait`, for five minutes | Nothing |
| List your inboxes, search, download an attachment | Nothing |
| Receive a message once the quota is reached | Nothing: it is refused before being stored |

The rule that places any case without consulting this table: **you pay when a message
arrives, or when it is duplicated. Never when you read it.**

A test that receives 3 emails and reads them back 40 times therefore uses
3 operations, not 43. You can poll the API as often as you like without watching the
counter. The only ceiling on your calls is technical: **600 requests per minute per
API key**.

The [Pricing page](/en/pricing) also lists the operations whose price is already set for
capabilities that are on the way, each marked "soon".

## Volume is counted per organization

Not per inbox, not per workspace. The organization is what carries the plan, the seats
and the included volume.

[Workspaces](espaces-de-travail) therefore have no effect on the counter:
spreading your traffic across several workspaces moves no ceiling.

## When the monthly quota is reached

The message is refused at the door, with an SMTP `5.7.x` code. It is neither stored
nor parsed, and you are charged nothing for it.

You see it in three places:

1. **In your application's logs**, as a real SMTP failure. The message does not
   vanish silently.
2. **In the API**, on the messages concerned: `status: "quota_exceeded"` and an
   `error` object, with no extracted fields. See
   [Reading from tests](lire-un-message).
3. **In the application**, on the quotas screen.

To receive again: buy a pack, see [Billing](facturation).

## Set a quota per inbox

On top of your plan's ceiling, set a **quota per inbox** and an **alert threshold**. A
runaway test suite then burns through its inbox rather than your month.

Facteur writes to you on its own at 80 % and 100 % of your volume, and warns you when
the last few days' rate empties the period before it ends. See
[Get warned before reception stops](alertes).

This is available on every plan, including the free one.

## How long a message is kept

Every message is deleted after the number of days that comes with your plan. The purge
removes the row **and the raw file**, it waits for nothing from you, and it cannot be
turned off.

Your test messages contain reset links, one-time codes and sometimes real addresses.
Keeping them indefinitely would be a risk for you, and a promise the sub-processor
register could not hold. See
[Data and sovereignty](donnees-et-souverainete).

## Buy volume without changing plan

Your subscription sells features, seats and retention. Volume is bought separately, in
prepaid packs: increasing your capacity never changes your subscription. See
[Billing](facturation).

## Known limits

- **No usage history.** The application shows the current month's volume, with no
  curve over previous months.
- **Online payment is not active yet**, so buying packs still goes through us. See
  [Billing](facturation).