The quotas & limits feature: control how much your users can print

Quotas and limits let you set boundaries on how much each user or user group can print. You can cap the number of prints, material usage, cost, print time, and more - with automatic periodic resets so users get a fresh allowance each week, month, or on a custom schedule.

Table of contents

• What you can limit
• How quota policies work
• Setting up quotas for a user group
• Periodic quotas
• Fixed limits and per-job limits
• Rollover
• Cancelled and failed prints
• Requesting more quota
• Per-user overrides
• What users see

What you can limit

There are two categories of limits: periodic quotas that reset on a schedule, and fixed limits that apply at all times.

Periodic quotas

These reset automatically after each period (daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom number of days):

Material quotas can optionally be scoped to a specific material type. For example, you could give users 200g of PLA per week and 100g of PETG per week as separate quotas.

Fixed limits

These aren't periodic - they apply as hard caps at any given moment:

How quota policies work

Quotas are configured through quota policies, which are attached to user groups. Every user in a group inherits that group's quota policy. This means you can set different limits for different groups - for example, "Students" get 5 prints per week while "Staff" get unlimited.

The inheritance works like this:

1. Group policy - The base configuration set on the user group
2. Per-user override - Optional overrides for individual users that selectively replace specific fields from the group policy
3. Organization-wide defaults - Balance-related settings from the organization settings fill in any gaps

If a group has no quota policy, users in that group have no limits.

Setting up quotas for a user group

1. Go to Settings > Organization > User groups.
2. Click on the group you want to configure.
3. Find the Quotas & limits section and enable it.
4. Add the periodic quotas and fixed limits you need.
5. Configure the reset period and other behavior options.
6. Save the group.

Here's what the quota policy editor looks like for a user group with four periodic quota rules configured:

Each rule has a type, limit, period, and anchor. Click + Add rule to add more.

Periodic quotas

Each periodic quota has these settings:

Type and limit

Pick the quota type (prints, material, cost, slices, or print time) and set the numeric limit. For material quotas, you can optionally pick a specific material type to scope the quota.

You can add multiple quotas of the same type with different material scopes. For example:

• Material (PLA): 500g per month
• Material (ABS): 200g per month

Reset period

Choose how often the quota resets:

• Daily - Resets every day
• Weekly - Resets every week
• Monthly - Resets every month
• Custom - Resets every N days (1-365)

Period anchor

The anchor controls when the period starts counting:

For most setups, Calendar is the simplest - everyone's quotas reset at the same time.

Fixed limits and per-job limits

Below the periodic quotas, you'll find fixed limits and per-job limits:

Fixed limits

• Printers at the same time - How many printers a user can occupy at once (1-100).
• Queue items - How many items a user can have in the print queue at once (1-1000).

Per-job limits

These set hard caps on individual print jobs:

• Max print duration - The maximum estimated print time for a single job. Users can't queue or print jobs that exceed this duration.
• Max print size - Maximum model dimensions (X, Y, Z in mm) for a single job.

Per-job limits can also be overridden per printer model using the "Override per printer model" option. For example, you could allow longer prints on your larger printers while keeping a tighter limit on smaller ones.

Rollover

When rollover is enabled for a periodic quota, any unused allowance carries over into the next period. For example, if a user has a 10-print weekly quota and only uses 7 prints this week, 3 prints roll over - giving them 13 prints next week.

You can optionally set a rollover cap to prevent excessive accumulation. With a cap of 5 and a 10-print quota, the user could never start a period with more than 15 total prints (10 base + 5 rolled over).

Cancelled and failed prints

You can configure how cancelled and failed prints affect quotas. For each case, you decide:

• Count as a used print - Whether it counts toward the print count quota
• Count toward cost quota - Whether the proportional cost is deducted from the cost quota
• Charge balance - Whether the proportional cost is deducted from the user's balance (if using the balance feature)

Grace period for cancelled prints

Cancelled prints also support a grace period. If a user cancels a print early enough, none of the above apply:

• Grace period (min) - If the print is cancelled within this many minutes of starting, it's fully refunded
• Grace period (%) - If the print is cancelled before reaching this percentage of progress, it's fully refunded

Requesting more quota

When the "Allow users to request more" option is enabled, users who hit their limit see a "Request More" button. This lets them submit a request to their admin or teacher for additional quota.

How it works for users

1. The user hits their limit and sees the Request More button in the quota status dropdown.
2. They pick which quota type they need more of, enter a desired amount, and optionally write a message explaining why.
3. The request is submitted and appears in the admin panel.

How it works for admins

1. Pending requests show up in Settings > Organization, in the Quotas section.
2. Each request shows the user's current usage (with a progress bar), how much they're asking for, their message, and how many prior requests they've made.
3. You can grant a different amount than what was requested, write a reply, and approve or deny the request.
4. If approved, the extra quota is added to the user's current period immediately.

Notifications for new requests

You can configure who gets notified when a new quota request comes in:

• Don't notify anyone - Admins check manually
• Notify all teachers - All users with the teacher role get an email
• Notify specific users - Pick specific users to receive email notifications

Per-user overrides

Sometimes a specific user needs different limits than the rest of their group. Instead of creating a whole new group, you can set per-user overrides.

Per-user overrides selectively replace fields from the group policy. For example, you could give one user a higher print count quota while keeping everything else the same as their group.

Admins can adjust a user's quota directly:

• Add extra quota - Increase the user's available quota for the current period (via the "adjust" action)
• Reset quota - Reset the user's consumption to zero for a specific quota type

What users see

Topbar indicator

Users with active quotas see a quota icon in the top bar. Clicking it opens a dropdown showing all their quota progress bars, balance, limits, and a "Request More" button at a glance.

The icon changes color based on status:

• Default - Everything is within limits
• Yellow - One or more quotas are 75% or more consumed
• Red - One or more quotas are exceeded, or balance is empty

Quota details page

Under Account > Quota & balance, users see a full breakdown of:

• Progress bars for each active quota (showing consumed vs. total, with "resets in X days")
• Fixed limits (queue items used vs. max, simultaneous printers)
• Current balance (if the balance system is enabled)
• A "Request More" button if allowed by their policy

Queue warnings

In the print queue, items from users who are over quota or have insufficient balance show a warning icon. Admins can see which users are affected and why.

AutoPrint behavior

When configured, AutoPrint can automatically skip queue items from users who are over quota or have insufficient balance, picking the next eligible job instead. This keeps the printers running without requiring admin intervention.

Updated on: 20/02/2026