> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Plan tiers

> How your plan tier is resolved and how it affects quotas, instance types, and machine lifecycle

![Your effective tier is resolved from this workspace's subscription and your account's highest workspace tier, then governs three compute policies — quotas, instance types, and machine TTL — while a BYOM cloud key bypasses resource quotas and keeps launch-concurrency and rate limits.](https://mintcdn.com/akua-1dce587a/BLvu-BJFNRbEc20N/images/heros/billing-tiers-light.svg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=BLvu-BJFNRbEc20N\&q=85\&s=7731471538a1732ef7bced4f05cf70ed)

Your plan tier determines your resource limits, available instance types, and machine lifecycle rules. Akua resolves your effective tier through a specific chain, and understanding this helps you predict what happens when you upgrade, downgrade, or work across multiple workspaces.

## Tier resolution

### Workspace tier

Each workspace has its own plan:

* **No active subscription** → Free tier
* **Pro plan active** → Pro tier (set automatically when you subscribe)

The workspace tier controls quota limits, instance type filtering, and machine TTL.

### User tier

Some operations use a user-level tier such as rate limit naming and quota info display. Your user tier is the **highest tier across all your workspaces**:

* You belong to 3 workspaces: 2 Free + 1 Pro → your user tier is **Pro**
* You belong to 2 workspaces: both Free → your user tier is **Free**

Upgrading one workspace to Pro also elevates your personal rate limits.

## What each tier controls

### Instance type filtering

When your cluster scales, the available instance types depend on the workspace tier:

| Tier | Available instance types |
| - | - |
| Free | Small, affordable types only |
| Pro | All types from the provider |
| BYOM (any tier) | All types in your cloud account |

### Quota enforcement

Resource quotas for Akua-managed machines are enforced when a machine record is created. Launch-concurrency limits apply to both Akua-managed and BYOM machines.

See the [plan comparison](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/pricing.md#plan-comparison) for machine, CPU, memory, and cluster limits. Pro's compute limits are safety ceilings; machine charges are separate. BYOM bypasses machine, CPU, and memory quotas.

Free-tier workspaces are also subject to a per-user check to prevent circumventing limits by creating multiple free workspaces. Pro workspaces skip this check.

The Free machine allowance is the account's **one-time managed-VM trial**, across every workspace and organization. Deleting the trial machine releases the occupied slot but does not grant another trial. Pro has ongoing safety limits, with machines billed separately. See [the one-time managed-VM trial](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/platform/quotas.md#the-one-time-managed-vm-trial).

### Machine TTL

| Tier | TTL | What happens |
| - | - | - |
| Free (Akua-managed) | 7 days | Paused with advance notifications; upgrade to Pro to resume; the one-time trial is not restored |
| Pro (Akua-managed) | No limit | Runs until manually deleted or suspended |
| BYOM (any tier) | No limit | You pay the provider directly |

The TTL is the trial hosting period, not a recurring reset. The account's one-time trial stays consumed when hosting pauses or the machine is deleted manually. See [trial recovery](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/compute/machines.md#free-tier-machine-lifetime) for retention and resuming on Pro.

### Auto-scaling behavior

| Tier | Auto-scaling |
| - | - |
| Free | Enabled within quota (1 machine max) |
| Pro | Enabled within quota (3 machines max) |
| Downgraded (was Pro) | Paused automatically when subscription ends |

## When tiers change

### Upgrade (Free to Pro)

Takes effect immediately:

1. All provider instance types become available (not just small types).
2. Quotas increase to the [Pro limits](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/pricing.md#plan-comparison).
3. Trial expiry is removed; suspended trial machines resume.
4. Auto-scaling limits expand.

### Downgrade (Pro to Free)

Takes effect at the end of the billing period:

1. Akua-managed machines are [suspended](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/clusters/machines#suspend-and-resume) (not deleted).
2. Auto-scaling is paused on managed clusters.
3. Quotas revert to free limits.
4. Instance type filtering returns to small types only.
5. BYOM machines are unaffected.

### BYOM (any tier)

Adding your own cloud API key bypasses resource quota enforcement. Launch-concurrency and rate limits still apply:

* No machine count limit.
* No CPU or memory limit.
* No TTL.
* All instance types available in your cloud account.

The only Akua charge is the management subscription. Cloud compute costs go directly to your provider.

## Related topics

> **[Billing overview](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/billing/overview.md)**
>
> Upgrade, manage, and cancel your subscription.

> **[Plans and pricing](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/pricing.md)**
>
> Full plan comparison with included limits.

> **[Quotas](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/platform/quotas.md)**
>
> How resource quotas are enforced across workspaces.

> **[Add workers](https://akua-1dce587a.mintlify.site/clusters/add-workers.md)**
>
> Connect your own cloud machines to bypass compute limits.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.