How exactly does pay-as-you-go overage work on Growth?
We are on Growth and I handle the numbers side. Big campaign launching next month that will likely push us past the included 20k MAU, so I want the overage mechanics precisely before I enable anything.
Three things I need to be certain of:
- Once enabled, does overage kick in automatically when we cross 20k, or is there a step I have to take at the time?
- If I leave it OFF and we cross the line anyway, what does the site actually do?
- Is there any cap or control on how far overage can run?
I plan for the exact behaviour, not the general idea
1 answer
Taking your three questions in order.
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Yes, automatic. Pay-as-you-go overage is part of the Growth plan, and once enabled, traffic beyond the included 20k MAU is simply billed as extra volume. Nothing to do at the moment you cross the line.
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With overage off, exceeding the quota affects NEW users only. Returning users continue to be served normally. New users get a 403 from the API, which in practice means the SDK fallbacks kick in and they see your default content until overage is enabled or the next billing cycle starts. There is a fuller walkthrough of that behavior in What happens when the MAU limit is exceeded.
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The published mechanics do not include a self-serve spend cap, so if you want a hard ceiling for the campaign month, the control is leaving overage off and accepting the new-user fallback behavior, or talking to the team about terms. For a campaign you are actively driving traffic to, enabling it is usually the right call.
One number in your favor: MAU counts unique interacting users per month, and known bots are excluded on paid plans with bot filtering enabled. Your overage exposure is human traffic only.