🔍 What Is This Error?
When you try to add a site in Site Explorer (found at Left sidebar → Site Metrics), you may see a message like:
- "You have hit the limit by adding 0 projects. Please upgrade your plan to create more."
This error can appear even when you believe you have available project slots. It is a known quota synchronisation issue that can occur after a plan downgrade or, in some cases, after plan changes of any kind. The good news: your data is safe and this is fixable.
⚙️ Why Does This Happen?
When your account moves to a lower-tier plan, the system sometimes fails to correctly reassign your Site Explorer project quota. As a result, your quota counter displays 0 available slots even though your current plan should allow more. This is a backend synchronisation issue — it does not reflect your actual entitlement under your plan.
✅ Steps to Resolve the Error
- Confirm your current plan. Go to your account billing or subscription settings and verify which plan is active. Make note of how many Site Explorer projects your plan is supposed to include.
- Check your existing saved projects. Navigate to Left sidebar → Site Metrics and review any projects already listed. If the count shown is lower than your plan limit, the quota is out of sync.
- Refresh your session. Log out of Search Atlas completely, then log back in. Occasionally a fresh session triggers a quota re-check.
- Wait a short time and retry. Quota updates can take a few minutes to propagate after a plan change. Wait 5–10 minutes, then try adding your site again.
- Contact support if the error persists. If you have completed the steps above and still see the zero-quota error, this requires a manual quota correction on our end. See the section below for how to reach us.
📋 Information to Have Ready for Support
To help our team resolve your issue as quickly as possible, please have the following details available before opening a chat:
- Your account email address
- The plan name you are currently on (e.g. Starter, Pro, Agency)
- The date your plan was changed or downgraded
- A screenshot of the error message, if possible
- The number of Site Explorer projects currently showing in your account
🚫 What Not to Do
- Do not upgrade your plan solely to bypass this error — the issue is a quota sync problem, not a genuine plan limitation.
- Do not delete existing projects hoping to free up space. Because the quota counter is already showing 0, removing projects will not resolve the underlying sync issue.
💡 Additional Notes
This issue has been identified and resolved in our engineering systems for most affected account types. However, accounts that were downgraded during a specific window may still experience the incorrect quota display until a manual correction is applied. Our support team can apply this fix in minutes once they locate your account.
🙋 Still Need Help?
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.