# Quotas and plans

> 3,000 free emails per month, no credit card. Three paid plans bill by volume sent, not by the number of subscribers. Prices, limits and what each plan unlocks.

## The free plan

The free plan includes **3,000 emails per month**, with **unlimited** subscribers and no credit card required. With Mailcheer, you pay for the volume you send — not the size of your list.

## The pricing grid

Monthly prices, in euros:

| Plan | Price | Emails/month | Domains | Members | AI budget/month |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Découverte | €0 | 3,000 | 1 | 1 | €0.20 |
| Essentiel | €19 | 40,000 | 10 | 10 | €2 |
| Pro | €49 | 150,000 | 25 | 25 | €10 |
| Agence | €129 | 500,000 | 50 | 50 | €40 |

Any price change is announced at least **30 days** before it takes effect, and you remain free to cancel before then. Up-to-date details are on the [Pricing page](https://mailcheer.com/pricing).

## The AI assistant budget

Each plan includes a monthly AI budget in euros of real model cost. The AI assistant uses this allowance to draft email content, suggest subject lines and rephrase copy. When the budget is exhausted, you write your emails manually — the product continues to work in full. Only the AI assistance pauses, nothing else.

## How monthly counters work

Email and AI counters reset on the **1st of each month at midnight UTC**. If you upgrade during the month, the new limits apply immediately; counters already accumulated are not reset. A downgrade or a cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for.

## What the quota refuses, and when

Every email that goes out comes off this month's quota: campaigns, automations, A/B tests, test emails and API sends alike. A transactional email counts as a campaign email, because it is the same send and the same bill.

What is waiting **in the queue** already counts: a launched campaign reserves all its recipients the moment it starts, even if the messages then go out over the hour. Two campaigns launched back to back therefore cannot, together, exceed your plan.

When what's left isn't enough, the send is **refused before anything leaves**, never cut off halfway: you get the number of emails remaining, your plan's quota, what is waiting in the queue, what the send asked for and the reset date. Nothing goes out partially. Through the API, the refusal is a `402 quota_exceeded` with those numbers in `details`. From there you have two roads: change plan, or wait for the 1st.

## Knowing where you stand

- **Before sending**: a campaign's checklist says how many emails will go out, how many will remain, and blocks the send if it does not fit.
- **On every screen** of the app, usage is always in view: "2,800 sent of 3,000", what is left (queue deducted) and the reset day — in the menu card on a computer, in the strip under the header on a phone or tablet, which leads to Billing. Orange from 80% of the quota, red from 95%.
- **The dashboard** warns you from 90% of the quota, and the Billing page shows what is queued and when the counter resets.
- **By email**: at most three messages a month, at **50%, 80% and 95%** of the quota, once each, to the workspace owner and administrators (those who can change plan), in the workspace's language. The 95% one warns that sending stops at 100%, says until when and how to unblock it. There is no email at 100%: the block shows in the app and in the API response. If a single send crosses several thresholds, one email goes out, for the highest.
- **Through the API**: `GET /api/v1/me` returns `emails_sent`, `emails_in_flight`, `emails_remaining` (queue deducted), `resets_at`, the billing status and the other limits. And **every authenticated response** from the API and the MCP server carries four headers: `Mailcheer-Quota-Limit`, `Mailcheer-Quota-Used` (sent + queued), `Mailcheer-Quota-Remaining` and `Mailcheer-Quota-Reset`. Software connected to Mailcheer can warn its users before a refusal.
- **By webhook**: the `quota.threshold_reached` event fires at 50, 80, 95 and 100% of the quota, once a month per threshold, with the same numbers (`threshold`, `quota`, `sent`, `in_flight`, `remaining`, `resets_at`). The details are in the [API documentation](https://mailcheer.com/docs/api).

Plan changes, card and invoices are all managed under **Account → Billing**, by the workspace owner or an administrator. Other members see the plan and the usage there.

## Free plan: one domain, one workspace per month

The free plan's 3,000 emails are tied to the **sending domain**, not to the account. For a (UTC) month, a registered domain — `acme.com`, subdomains included, such as `news.acme.com` — serves the free plan to **a single workspace**: the first one that sends with it that month.

Another free workspace sending from that domain, or from one of its subdomains, in the same month has its send refused before anything leaves, with this message: "The free plan is per sending domain, not per account: this domain (news.acme.com, part of acme.com) has already used it this month in another workspace. Upgrade to a paid plan to send from several workspaces, or wait until October 1 at 00:00 UTC." Through the API, it is a `402` with code `free_plan_domain_used`, and `details` gives the `domain`, its `root_domain`, the `period` and `resets_at`.

Paid plans are not affected: upgrading to Essential lifts the refusal immediately. The next month, the domain's counter starts again, like the email counter.

Creating several accounts therefore does not multiply the free plan: without a verified domain you cannot send, and verifying a domain means owning it and configuring its DNS.

## Which plan to choose?

The 3,000-email free tier is a commitment. If you are choosing between plans, start free: you can upgrade when your volume calls for it.