Usage Counting

How executions are counted against your monthly limit.

What counts as an execution

An execution is counted per attempt, not per cue fire. If a webhook fails and is retried 3 times, that counts as 4 executions (1 original + 3 retries).

When executions are counted

  • Webhook transport: Counted when the webhook delivery is attempted (regardless of success)
  • Worker transport: Counted when the worker claims the execution

Monthly reset

Usage resets on the 1st of each month (UTC). The counter is per-calendar-month.

Checking usage

bash
curl https://api.cueapi.ai/v1/usage \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cue_sk_YOUR_KEY"

Usage warnings

At 80% of your monthly limit, CueAPI adds a warning header to every API response:

X-CueAPI-Usage-Warning: approaching_limit

Soft block at 100%

When you hit 100% of your monthly execution limit:

  1. 24-hour grace period starts — executions continue
  2. After 24 hours → new executions are blocked
  3. Existing cues stay active but won't fire until the next month or you upgrade

Blocked executions return a failure status with the reason execution_limit_exceeded.

Reducing usage

  • Minimize retry-triggering failures (return 2xx from your handlers)
  • Pause cues you don't need temporarily
  • Use longer cron intervals where possible
  • Upgrade to a higher plan if you need more capacity