Overview
Your OTTO project quota tracks how many active OTTO projects you can run under your current subscription plan. Occasionally, customers notice their quota appears to exceed the plan limit — for example, showing 2/1 — even when all projects are frozen or no projects appear active. This article explains why that happens and what to expect.
Why Your Quota May Show Over-Limit
When you freeze an OTTO project, it does not immediately release its slot in your quota. Search Atlas applies a 14-day holding period before that slot is freed and returned to your available quota.
This means:
- A recently frozen project may continue to count against your quota for up to 14 days after freezing.
- If your subscription renews during that 14-day window, the frozen project's slot may not be automatically released on renewal day.
- Your quota display may show more used slots than your plan allows until the 14-day holding period fully elapses for each frozen project.
How the Freeze Reset Period Works
The freeze reset period is a 14-day built-in buffer before a frozen project's quota slot is reclaimed. Once the 14 days have elapsed, the slot is released and your available quota updates automatically — you do not need to take any action.
Why Subscription Renewal Does Not Immediately Fix the Display
Renewing your subscription resets your billing cycle and restores any plan-level entitlements, but it does not bypass or shorten the 14-day freeze reset period for existing frozen projects. The two processes operate independently:
- Subscription renewal — restores your plan quota limit (e.g., 1 active project allowed).
- Freeze reset period — separately counts down 14 days from the moment each project was frozen.
As a result, if you froze a project shortly before your renewal date, your quota counter will still reflect that frozen slot until its own 14-day countdown completes, even though your plan has renewed.
What To Do If Your Quota Appears Over-Limit
In most cases, no action is needed — the quota will correct itself automatically once each frozen project's 14-day holding period elapses. If the over-limit display persists beyond 14 days, or if you are unsure about the status of a specific project, please reach out to our support team with your project name and the date you froze it so we can investigate further.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.