Active automation limits by plan, and what a downgrade does
Email Digit limits how many automations can be switched on at once: Lite 1, Starter 10, Pro 50 and Business 200, with 50 on the Scale developer plan and 200 on Growth. Drafts do not count. If you move to a smaller plan, every automation already running keeps running; you only cannot switch on another until you are under the new limit.
The limits, plan by plan
| Plan | Track | Active automations |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | Marketing | 1 |
| Starter | Marketing | 10 |
| Pro | Marketing | 50 |
| Business | Marketing | 200 |
| Scale | Developer | 50 |
| Growth | Developer | 200 |
| Enterprise | Either | Set per contract |
Prices and the rest of each plan are on the pricing page. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial, card required.
What “active” means
The limit counts automations that are switched on and able to take new people. It does not count:
- Drafts. Build as many as you like, test them, and switch on the ones you need.
- Paused automations. They stay saved and can be switched on again.
- Older sequences being wound down. A sequence you have replaced with a new flow, and which only finishes the people already in it, is not counted. An older sequence that is still active does count.
The Automations page shows how many you are using, for example “7 of 10 active”, and you get a notice at 80%, 90% and 100% of the limit, so reaching it is never a surprise.
Because the count only includes live automations, the number to plan around is how many journeys you want running at the same time, not how many ideas you have built. At the limit, switching another one on is refused with a plain message: your plan allows this many, you already have this many running, pause one or upgrade for more. Nothing already running is affected.
What happens when you downgrade
In Email Digit, plan limits on automations only block adding more. They are checked at the moment you switch one on, never against what is already running.
So a workspace that moves from Pro to Starter with 30 automations running keeps all 30 running. Contacts partway through a welcome series carry on to the next step. A renewal reminder flow keeps running. What changes is that a 31st, or any new one, cannot be switched on until fewer than 10 are active.
The same rule covers the other limits that shape a smaller plan: a workspace that downgrades keeps its existing sending domains and team members, and cannot add more until it is under the new limit.
Why it is built that way
A live automation is rarely an experiment. It has people in it. Switching off a welcome flow halfway strands everyone who signed up this week: they got email one, and email two never comes. Switching off a renewal reminder can cost a renewal. Deciding which of 30 automations to keep is a real decision, and a billing change is the wrong moment for software to make it for you.
If you are comparing email tools, it is worth asking each one directly what happens to running automations on a downgrade. The answer tells you whether the plan limit is a ceiling on growth or a switch on your customers’ experience.
Before you change plan: an automation audit
Whether you are downgrading or only tidying up, it helps to know what each automation is doing. Go through the list and sort every active one into three groups:
- Carrying people. Welcome series, onboarding, renewal reminders, anything with contacts partway through it. These are the ones a forced switch-off would hurt, and the ones to keep.
- Waiting for a trigger that rarely fires. A flow built for one event last spring, or for a tag nobody applies any more. It costs nothing to keep, but it holds a slot you may want for something new.
- Duplicates. Two flows started from the same idea by different people, or an old version left on after a new one replaced it. Contacts may be getting both.
The second and third groups are where slots come from. Pausing them on purpose, rather than having a plan change do it for you, means you choose what stops, and nobody already partway through a journey is left waiting for an email that never comes.
The catch, and how to plan around it
- Pausing counts as giving up the slot. If you are over your new limit and pause an automation, switching it back on is a new activation, and it is refused until you are under the limit. Pause only what you mean to retire.
- Sending still has its own allowance. Email sent by automations counts toward the plan’s monthly email volume, the same as campaigns. Keeping 30 automations running on a smaller plan keeps their sending inside that plan’s allowance.
- Consolidate before you add. Two automations that differ by one email can often be one automation with a branch, which frees a slot without stopping anything.
A plan change should limit what you add, never break what already runs. See what Email Digit does for marketers, or compare plans on the pricing page.