Account limits & courtesy accounts

Every organisation has account limits. A new organisation starts with these:

Limit	A new organisation
Servers	5
Databases	1
Domains	5
Services	5
Log sources	2
Log ingestion	5 GB per billing period
Users	50
Custom metrics	5
Servers waiting at once	20

WatchTower15 can set yours differently, and the Account Limits card on Organisation → Settings shows your own.

Account limits cap how many servers, databases, domains, services, log sources, users and custom metrics an organisation can have, and how many GB of logs it can send in a billing period.
A courtesy account has its usage covered by WatchTower15 — for a trial, a partnership or a demonstration, for example. Nothing is charged.

The two are independent: a courtesy account can have limits, and a paying account can too. Both are set by WatchTower15. Everyone in your organisation can see them, but no one in it can change them; to change them, contact us.

What can be limited

Limit	What counts	What doesn’t count
Servers	Every approved server that is not archived, whether its monitoring is on or paused.	Archived servers, servers waiting in Pending, servers whose access was revoked, and deleted servers.
Databases	Every database that is set up, whether monitoring is on or paused.	Drafts (Connection not configured) and deleted databases.
Domains	Every domain, active or paused.	Deleted domains.
Services	Every service, active or paused.	Deleted services.
Log sources	Every log source, active or paused.	Deleted log sources.
Users	Active members, invited members who have not yet accepted, and suspended members.	Members who have been removed.
Log ingestion	GB of log content received this billing period, from your servers and your log sources together.	Earlier billing periods.
Custom metrics	Every custom metric — active, switched off, or awaiting approval.	Deleted custom metrics.

Limits count everything you have, whether monitoring is on or paused. Delete one to free a slot. Pausing a domain, switching off a server’s monitoring or suspending a user keeps it counted, so it can’t be used to make room for another one. For servers, archiving a server or revoking its access frees its slot too, and reactivating an archived server takes one again.

Log ingestion is measured the way logs are billed: the size of the log content, where 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Your billing period runs from one invoice date to the next, in UTC days, so the log allowance starts again at 00:00 UTC on each invoice date.

Custom metrics always have a limit — 5 for a new organisation, unless WatchTower15 has set yours differently. See custom metrics.

One more limit applies to each database rather than to the organisation: WatchTower15 reads the storage sizes, and keeps the schema-change history, of a database with up to 2,048 tables by default. The Account Limits card does not show it; see The table limit and schema-change history’s limits.

Without a payment method

An organisation that is not a courtesy account needs a payment method on file, and no overdue invoice, before anything new can start being billed. An organisation you register yourself starts here: it has no payment method until you add one under Organisation → Billing. Until then:

Adding a domain, service, log source, custom metric or metric source is blocked (see on the page where you add things).
New servers wait. An agent you install still enrolls, but the server waits in Pending, tagged Waiting — payment required (or Waiting — invoice overdue). It is not monitored and not billed. Its own page says it is installed but not monitored, and its Audit tab gives the enrollment type as Held until a payment method is added.
Approving a server is blocked. Once a payment method is added (or the invoice is paid), the waiting servers are ordinary pending servers: nothing is approved automatically, so open each one’s page and choose Approve from its ⋯ menu.
Switching monitoring back on is blocked, for a domain, service, server, log source or custom metric that is off. Its Active switch (on a server, Enable Monitoring in its page’s ⋯ menu) is disabled, with a line saying why. Switching something off, and editing anything else about it, always works.
Reactivating an archived server is blocked, whether you reactivate it or its agent reports again after it was archived for silence: it stays archived until a payment method is added, or the overdue invoice is paid. Archiving a server always works.
Approving a custom metric is blocked, because approving starts its charge. A new metric key that one of your sources pushes in the meantime waits for approval, whatever your declaration setting, and stays pending after a payment method is added, until someone approves it — like servers. Until then its publisher is told metric_awaiting_approval for that key.
Trigger a scan now on a domain is blocked: a scan bills the hour it runs in.

Everything already running keeps running, and keeps being billed — including what it collects: a server profile’s log files and a domain’s scan types are not affected. Add a payment method, or settle the overdue invoice, to lift every block at once.

A refused action answers 422 with data.code = payment_required or invoice_overdue, and the reason in errors.payment_method; the page shows that reason inline.

What happens at a limit

Adding a domain, service, log source or custom metric

Once a limit is reached, new ones of that kind can’t be added. Everything you already have keeps running.

The Add button on the list page is disabled, with a message saying why.
If a form is saved anyway — say the page was opened before the limit was reached — nothing is created, and the form shows the reason at the top.
A custom metric that a push would create automatically is rejected with over_metric_cap. Points for metrics that already exist are still accepted. See the metrics ingest API.

To add one, delete one you no longer need, or ask us to raise the limit.

Users

The Invite Users dialog shows how many seats are left. An invitation that would take you past the limit is refused before any email is sent, and the dialog says how many more there is room for.
Restore on a removed member is disabled while the limit is reached; hovering it says why.
Someone accepting an invitation when there are no seats left is refused, and asked to contact the organisation’s Admin. Someone whose access was removed after they were invited is told so, and can’t use the invitation.
Unsuspending a member is always allowed, because suspended members already count.

Removing a member frees their seat. Removing a member also cancels any invitation of theirs still waiting to be accepted, so a removed member can’t use an older invitation to rejoin.

Servers: held, not refused

An agent installed beyond your server limit still enrolls, but the server is held: it waits in Pending with the tag Waiting — server limit reached.

A held server is not monitored. It has no charts, alarms or logs, and it isn’t billed. Its agent keeps running and keeps contacting WatchTower15, but what it sends is discarded.
It is not released automatically — WatchTower15 can’t tell whether the host behind a waiting server still exists. To start monitoring it, free a slot (archive, delete or revoke another server), then open the held server’s page and choose Approve from its ⋯ menu. Approving needs servers.edit. While the limit is reached, Approve is disabled and the menu explains why.
The held server’s own page says it is installed but not monitored, with a link to the Account Limits card for members who can view the organisation’s settings (settings.view). Its header reads Waiting — server limit reached, and its Audit tab gives the enrollment type as Held at the server limit.
Held servers don’t count toward the limit. Approved, they do.
An agent installed again on a server you already monitor continues that server (see Lifecycle at a glance): it takes no new slot and is never held. On an archived server it takes the slot back, as Reactivate does; at the limit, or without a payment method, it enrols a new server instead, which waits as above.
Reactivating an archived server needs a free slot. Reactivate asks for a payment method, then a free slot, as Approve does; while the limit is reached it is disabled, and the server’s page says why. A server archived for silence whose agent reports again is reactivated by itself only while a slot is free and a payment method is set. Until then it waits, archived, and is tried again every hour. See archived servers.
Only a limited number of servers can wait at once — 20 for a new organisation; the Add Server drawer shows yours. It counts servers held at the limit and servers waiting for a payment method together. Beyond that, enrollment is refused, and the agent keeps retrying every few minutes until there is room.

The Add Server drawer says whether your server limit is reached, that agents installed beyond it wait in Pending, and how many can wait at once, so you know before installing whether a new one will be held. The Servers page never shows how many servers are in use: the Account Limits card does.

If your organisation also has Require approval for new servers turned on (Organisation → Settings), servers within your limit still wait for approval as before. Only servers beyond the limit carry the Waiting — server limit reached tag.

Without a payment method, every waiting server reads Waiting — payment required instead, whatever it first waited for: none can be approved until a payment method is added. See without a payment method.

Log ingestion: stopped

When your logs reach the period’s limit, log ingestion stops until the next billing period starts.

Logs sent while ingestion is stopped are discarded, not queued. They won’t appear later, and they can’t be recovered.
Ingestion restarts automatically at the start of the next billing period. The notice shows the date. If WatchTower15 raises your limit, it restarts straight away.
The notice bar says so on every page, and so does a banner over the logs — on each server’s Logs tab and on each log source’s page — with how much was used and the period’s dates.
Usage is checked about once an hour, so a little more than the limit can arrive before ingestion stops.
Logs already received stay searchable for the usual retention window.

Your servers need nothing done. Their agents carry on as normal and move past the lines that are discarded.

Your log sources are answered 429 Too Many Requests, with a Retry-After header of at most an hour, rather than silently losing lines. The response’s data.code is log_volume_limit_reached, and data.resumes_at says when ingestion restarts, in epoch milliseconds (how the API sends times). See the log ingest API.

The word is stopped: a paused log source is one you switched off yourself.

When a limit is lowered below what you have

Nothing is deleted, switched off or unenrolled. The Account Limits card shows, for example, 12 / 10 with Over limit, and new additions stay blocked until you are back under the limit.

Courtesy accounts

Courtesy accounts are by arrangement. An organisation you register yourself is not one: it pays for what it uses, and starts monitoring once you add a payment method under Organisation → Billing. For a trial or a demonstration, contact us.

While your organisation is a courtesy account, WatchTower15 covers its usage:

No payment method is needed to add resources. Adding one is still allowed — useful before the courtesy period ends — and it isn’t charged for covered usage.
Usage is still measured, and invoices are still produced on your usual invoice date, for your records.
Each invoice covering courtesy usage is marked Courtesy voided (courtesy voided in the invoice list). It shows the full itemised value of the usage it covers as Value of usage, the same amount as Covered by WatchTower15, and an Amount due of zero — for example GBP 0.00, in your billing currency. Nothing is charged, no invoice email is sent, and there is no payment page or PDF to open.
The current period on Billing shows GBP 0.00 due (in your currency), with the value covered by WatchTower15 beneath it.

When a courtesy period ends

A courtesy period can have an end date. From 7 days before it, the end date shows in the notice bar, and your Admins and billing email addresses are emailed. They are emailed again when it ends.

From the end:

usage is billed from that hour on;
adding resources, approving servers and metrics, switching monitoring back on and triggering a scan by hand need a payment method again, and new servers wait for one (see without a payment method);
everything you already have keeps running.

Usage is covered or billed by when it happened, not by when the invoice is made. Usage is counted by the hour, and an hour the courtesy period covered for any part of it is covered. So the billing period in which a courtesy period ends produces two invoices on the same date: a Courtesy voided one for the hours that were covered, and a normal one for the rest. Until then, the current period on Billing shows both: the amount due at next invoice, and the amount covered by WatchTower15. Log volume is counted per day, so a day’s logs are covered if the courtesy period covered the start of that day (any part of the first hour after midnight UTC).

Account limits don’t end with the courtesy period. They stay until WatchTower15 changes them. If you are moving from a trial to a paid account, add a payment method and contact us to have your limits changed.

Where to see your limits

Account Limits

The Account Limits card on Organisation → Settings, beside Server Monitoring, lists every limit, two to a line, with:

a bar and used / limit for each limit — 6 / 5 GB for log ingestion — or Unlimited;
Approaching (80% or more), Limit reached or Over limit;
for log ingestion, the current billing period’s dates, and stopped while ingestion is stopped;
for servers, how many are waiting (not counted).

Need more? Contact us sends you to contact@watchtower15.com. The card, like the rest of Organisation → Settings, needs the settings.view permission; members without it don’t see it.

On Organisation → Billing, a courtesy account shows a Courtesy account card, with its end date if it has one, in place of the “no card” warning. Billing — the menu item and its pages — needs the billing.view permission.

The notice bar

A bar at the top of every page tells every member of the organisation about account-wide situations that need attention, most urgent first:

Notice	Can be dismissed
WatchTower15 is not receiving data from most agents	No
An invoice is overdue	No
Log ingestion stopped	No
Servers cannot reach WatchTower15	In this tab
Servers are installed but not monitored: a payment method is needed	In this tab
Servers are installed but not monitored (held)	In this tab
WatchTower15 was not receiving or checking data from most agents (ended)	In this tab
The courtesy period ends within 7 days	In this tab

At most two are shown at a time; +N more shows the rest. While servers wait for a payment method, the notice about held servers is not shown: the payment one comes first. A notice dismissed in a tab comes back if it changes — another server is held, waiting or unreachable, or the end date moves. Each notice links to where to act: View billing, Account Limits, View servers, Set up payment, Add payment method or Status page. Billing links show only to members with billing.view; for the overdue invoice and the courtesy end, everyone else reads Ask an Admin with billing access. Account Limits opens Organisation → Settings and shows only to members with settings.view.

Three notices are about connectivity:

3 servers cannot reach WatchTower15: nothing heard from them for 5 minutes or more. (1 server cannot reach WatchTower15: nothing heard from it for 5 minutes or more.) The count includes servers WatchTower15 is rejecting for their clock once 5 minutes pass without an accepted heartbeat, or at once if none was ever accepted. View servers opens the Servers list on the unreachable and rejected ones. It is shown to members who can view servers, and hidden while the next notice shows.
WatchTower15 is not receiving data from most agents since 10:12 BST. We are looking into it. It shows to every organisation with an active agent while it lasts, and cannot be dismissed. Status page opens the WatchTower15 status page.
WatchTower15 was not receiving or checking data from most agents from 10:12 BST to 10:40 BST. Charts and alarms may have a gap in that window. When at least one of your active agents is a version that keeps data on the host, its second sentence reads Charts fill in from agents that keep data; alarms may have a gap in that window. It shows for 24 hours after such an interruption ends, only when it lasted 15 minutes or more, with the same Status page link.

Times are in your display timezone. The two interruption notices say what WatchTower15 observed, never whose side a fault was on.

On the page where you add things

No listing shows how much of a limit you have used: usage and limits are on the Account Limits card, for members who can view the organisation’s settings (settings.view). At a limit, the Add button is disabled, and the Invite Users dialog says how many seats are left. Under the page title, a message explains when adding is blocked or the limit is near (80% or more). The same message explains when a payment method is needed or an invoice is overdue, which applies to Metric sources too. Members who can’t add that kind of resource anyway see neither.

If a form is saved after the limit was reached, the reason appears at the top of the form, with a Contact us link (or, for a payment problem, Set up payment or View billing).

On Servers, Add Server stays enabled at the limit and without a payment method, because new servers are held rather than refused; the message says they will wait in Pending. Its message gives no count and appears only once your server limit is reached or exceeded, not as it nears.

On an edit page, the Active switch of something that is off is disabled without a payment method, with the reason under it; on a server, so is Enable Monitoring in its page’s ⋯ menu, and Approve there on a pending server. On a pending custom metric, Approve is disabled with the reason; on a domain, the Trigger a scan now links are too.

The dashboard and the audit trail

The Payment status dashboard widget shows one of:
- Card on file: your card’s last four digits;
- No card: adding resources is locked until a card is added;
- Overdue: an invoice whose payment retries have run out, so adding is locked until it is paid. The card shows the latest such invoice, with its currency;
- Payment retrying: a payment failed and is being retried. Nothing is locked yet, so check your card;
- Courtesy account.
Its caption names your card’s brand, such as Visa, or without a card how you pay, as Billing words it: Automatic card charge, for example. The card always matches what the Add buttons allow.
Recent invoices shows the amount due.
Changes WatchTower15 makes to your limits or courtesy status appear on the Audit page, recorded by System with a short summary such as Server limit set to 10: Account limit or exemption set, Account limit or exemption removed and Account preset applied. A held server’s Audit tab records Server held — limit reached, or Held until a payment method is added.

Emails

Email	When	Sent to
Approaching a limit	A limit reaches 80%	Admins
Limit reached	A limit reaches 100%	Admins
Servers waiting	New servers have been held — at most once a day	Admins
Log ingestion stopped	Ingestion stops for the billing period	Admins
Courtesy period ending	7 days before the end	Admins and billing email addresses
Courtesy period ended	At the end	Admins and billing email addresses
Account limits updated	Sometimes, when WatchTower15 changes your limits	Admins

Admins means the members holding the Admin role. Each email is sent once each time a limit is crossed. It is sent again only after usage has fallen back below 80% and climbed again, so deleting one domain to add another at the limit doesn’t send it every time. When WatchTower15 changes one of your limits and that change alone takes you to 80% or 100%, neither Approaching a limit nor Limit reached is sent: The Account Limits card and the notice bar show it. Log ingestion stopped is always sent. No email is sent when a limit clears or ingestion restarts — the notice simply goes — and none is sent for Courtesy voided invoices.

Changing your limits

Limits and courtesy accounts are changed by WatchTower15 only. To raise a limit, ask for a trial or another courtesy period, end a courtesy period early, or move to a paid account, email contact@watchtower15.com, or reply to any of the emails above.

Roles & permissions — billing.view, settings.view, and the edit permissions behind each Add button.
Server agent — enrollment and approval.
Retention, throttling & limits — the log pipeline’s other limits.
Custom metrics — the per-organisation metric limit and the ingest API.
Audit trail — where changes to your account are recorded.