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. You can also tie limits to a fixed date range, or just track usage without blocking anyone.

This works the same whether you're running a school, a print farm, a lab, or a business - any account where you want to manage how much each person or team prints. Some options (like following your semesters) are tailored to schools, but the core controls apply everywhere.

Table of contents

• What you can limit
• How quota policies work
• Setting up quotas for a user group
• Periodic quotas
• Date range and semester quotas
• Track usage without blocking
• Fixed limits and per-job limits
• Rollover
• Cancelled and failed prints
• General behavior options
• Balance per user group
• Requesting more quota
• Per-user overrides
• What users see
• Related articles

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, a custom number of days, an explicit date range, or a semester):

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.

Any quota can also be set to track only, where it records usage without ever blocking a print. See Track usage without blocking.

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, a "Students" or "Members" group gets 5 prints per week while "Staff" gets 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)
• Date range - A single fixed window with a start and end date that never resets (see Date range and semester quotas)
• Semester - Follows the semesters you define in your school settings (see Date range and semester quotas)

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.

How calendar anchor works with custom periods

When the period is set to Custom and the anchor is Calendar, the first period aligns to the 1st of the month your organization was created. From there, periods repeat in fixed N-day intervals - the same schedule for all users in the group.

For example: if your org was created in January and you set a 14-day custom period, all users in the group start their first period on January 1st, then January 15th, then January 29th, and so on.

If you use First use instead, each user's 14-day cycle starts the first time they consume quota, so different users can be at different points in their cycle.

Anchoring to a specific date

The Specific date anchor lets you pick the exact calendar date the periods align to, instead of the 1st of a month or the day a user joined. Periods then repeat from that date using whatever period length you set (daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom number of days).

For example, a weekly quota anchored to January 27th runs January 27th to February 3rd, February 3rd to February 10th, and so on. The date can be in the past or the future.

Date range and semester quotas

The standard periods reset on a repeating schedule. If you'd rather a quota cover one fixed stretch of time and then stop - a school term, a project window, a workshop week, a competition - use a date range or semester quota. Neither one resets on its own.

Date range

A date range quota covers an explicit start and end date that you set on the rule. Both dates are included, so a range of January 27th to May 16th counts the whole of May 16th.

When the range ends, the quota does not refresh. Whatever each user has left simply stays frozen - there's no new allowance the next day, week, or month. To start a fresh allowance, you change the dates on the rule, and the new window applies to everyone in the group at once.

This is ideal when you don't want printing encouraged outside a specific window - for example a summer break or a maintenance shutdown when the printers are offline for upkeep.

Semester

Rather than typing dates onto every rule, you can define your semesters once in your school settings and have quotas follow them automatically. This suits schools that run on academic terms - universities and colleges especially, but also K-12 schools.

1. Go to Settings > Organization > School settings.
2. Set your Type of school if you haven't already.
3. Find the Semesters section and add each semester with a name, first day, and last day (both days included).
4. Save.

Then, on any quota rule, set the period to Semester. The quota now follows your academic calendar:

• During a semester, that semester is the active period - users get the semester's allowance.
• Between semesters (a break, the summer), the quota freezes. Nothing refreshes, so there's no incentive to print while you're closed.
• When the next semester starts, a fresh allowance begins automatically.

You can also tick email admins about 2 weeks before the calendar runs out in the Semesters section, so you get a reminder to add next year's terms before the last one expires. The copy button on each semester duplicates it one year later in a single click, names and dates included, so setting up the next year is fast.

Track usage without blocking

Sometimes you don't want to block anyone - you just want to see how much each user is printing. Every quota rule has a Track only (don't block) toggle for exactly this.

When a rule is set to track only:

• It records usage (for example grams of filament per student) without ever blocking a print or skipping a queue item.
• The limit becomes optional. You can leave it empty, or set a soft reference number that shows in usage displays without being enforced.
• Users are never shown a "Request more" prompt for that rule, because there's nothing to run out of.

This is the simplest way to measure consumption - for example, how much filament each class goes through - without setting up balances, costs, or hard caps. Usage still shows on each user's quota display as an amount used for the period.

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. When you set a duration, you choose what happens to longer jobs: Block jobs over the limit rejects them outright, or Require approval for jobs over the limit sends them to the print queue's approval section for a teacher to review (this needs queue approval turned on under Settings, Print queue).
• 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

General behavior options

Each quota policy has a set of general behavior checkboxes that control how the system responds to quota and balance limits:

• Allow users to request more quota - when a user hits their quota limit, they see a "Request more" button. The request goes to organization admins who can approve or deny it (see below).
• Allow users to request more balance - same, but for when a user runs out of balance. The request goes to admins to top up manually.
• Require sufficient balance to print - blocks a print from starting if the user's available balance doesn't cover the estimated print cost. If turned off, users can still print even with insufficient balance (useful for tracking-only mode).
• Skip in auto-print when over quota - auto-print will skip over queue items from users who are over their quota and pick the next eligible job instead. The skipped items stay in the queue.
• Skip in auto-print when insufficient balance - same as above, but skips users who don't have enough balance to cover the estimated print cost.

Balance per user group

Each user group can override the organization-wide balance configuration. In the Balance section of the quota policy, you choose one of three modes:

• Use account default - the group inherits the account-wide starting balance and auto-refill settings. Any changes to the global balance settings automatically apply to this group.
• Exempt from balance - users in this group bypass all balance requirements. They are not charged and don't need a balance to print. This is the recommended setting for teacher, staff, or admin groups.
• Custom balance settings - override the defaults with a specific starting balance and/or auto-refill schedule just for users in this group.

For full details on the balance system, global settings, and how auto-refill works, see The user balance feature: prepaid printing credits for your organization.

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

Track-only quotas never turn the icon yellow or red - they show usage without counting toward the warning state.

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"). Date range and semester quotas show "ends on" a date instead, and track-only quotas show the amount used for the period.
• 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.

Related articles

• School classes: organize your students into cohorts <!-- TODO: link once the school-classes article is published --> - build the cohorts you then pair with quota-bearing user groups
• User groups and permissions: what each one controls - where quota policies are configured
• The user balance feature: prepaid printing credits for your organization - the prepaid credit system quotas can charge against

Updated on: 26/06/2026