Fair-use limits
Generous limits, transparent math.
Fenfair Core at $37/month includes generous limits for ordinary handmade businesses. The numbers below sit roughly 5–15x above typical seller usage so most shops never see them. Limits exist to protect the platform from runaway-cost edge cases, not to meter your work. When a real business hits a limit, we talk to you — we don't surprise-charge you.
Design principles
How we set these numbers.
Limits sit above the 95th percentile of typical use. Ordinary handmade sellers should never hit one. Limits exist only to protect Fenfair from runaway-cost edge cases — not to nickel-and-dime your business.
Transactional emails are never metered. Order-state emails are load-bearing for your business; capping them would harm your customers.
When you approach a limit, we soft-warn at 80%, hard-cap at 100%. No silent degradation. You see a clear message at 80% with the path to a higher plan.
At-cap response is "talk to us," not "auto-charge." Sellers who consistently hit limits are real businesses that deserve a real conversation, not a surprise invoice.
AI usage
AI text, image, and campaign drafts.
AI is the largest variable cost per seller. The headroom covers Etsy migrants drafting 100+ products in a batch, and sellers regenerating brand variants. Power users who batch-regenerate entire catalogs every month are who the cap exists for.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI text drafts (product copy, descriptions, marketing) | 150 / month | ~20 / month | 7.5x |
| AI image generation (mockups, brand kit, variants) | 100 / month | ~15 / month | 6.7x |
| AI campaign drafts (email, newsletter, social caption) | 50 / month | ~5 / month | 10x |
| AI training-mode tutoring requests | unlimited | — | — |
Shop content
Products, photos, storage, domains.
Most handmade sellers run 50–200 products. The cap covers extreme cases like vintage resellers or photographers with deep catalogs.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published products in shop | 1,000 | 50–200 | 5x typical max |
| Draft products | 2,000 | varies | — |
| Product photos uploaded | 10,000 total | ~600 (3 photos × 200 products) | 16x |
| Media storage | 15 GB | ~1 GB | 15x |
| Custom domains | 1 (Core), up to 3 by request | 1 | — |
| Storefronts under one Core subscription | 1 | 1 | Separate Core subscription per shop |
Orders + commerce
Orders, quotes, proofs, messages.
500 orders/month is roughly $30K MRR — well above the seller for whom $37/month is a meaningful expense. Sellers at that revenue should be on a higher plan.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders processed | 500 / month | ~30 / month | 16x |
| Quote requests received | 200 / month | ~10 / month | 20x |
| Proof generations | 150 / month | ~20 / month | 7.5x |
| Proof revisions per quote | 5 | 1–2 | 3x |
| Buyer messages sent | 1,000 / month | ~30 / month | 33x |
Email + outreach
Newsletters, transactional sends, follow-up sequences.
Transactional and post-purchase emails are your business; cap would harm buyers. Newsletter cap protects against using Fenfair as a free Mailchimp replacement.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional emails (order, shipping, proof) | unlimited | varies | — |
| Newsletter sends | 20 campaigns / month | 1–4 / month | 5–20x |
| Subscriber list size for newsletters | 10,000 | 200–2,000 | 5–50x |
| Post-purchase follow-up sequence emails | unlimited | tracks order count | — |
| Buyer auto-replies (out-of-office, holiday) | unlimited | — | — |
Staff + access
Staff accounts and concurrent sessions.
Most handmade sellers are solo or 1–2 people. 5 staff accounts covers small-team shops without enabling agency-level abuse.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff accounts | 5 | 1–2 | — |
| Concurrent sessions per account | 3 | 1 | — |
Subscriber import
One-time and ongoing imports.
Anti-spam protection. Larger imports require founder review.
| Resource | Limit | Typical seller | Headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time list import from CSV | 10,000 emails | 200–2,000 | — |
| Imports per month | 3 | 1 at signup | — |
Never metered
What we will never cap.
These items are explicitly not metered to protect the seller's business.
- Buyer-facing transactional emails (order, shipping, proof, balance, delivered)
- Stripe payment processing (Stripe applies their own limits)
- Shop visitor traffic
- Domain hosting
- Storefront page views
- API calls from the seller’s own integrations
- Login attempts (rate-limited for security, never per-cycle metered)
- Buyer message receipt (unlimited inbound)
At-cap behavior
What happens when you approach a limit.
Soft warn at 80%.In-product message: "You're at 80% of your monthly resource limit. At 100% we'll pause new generation until next month's reset. If your shop regularly hits this limit, we should talk about your plan." Email at 80% says the same with a "Reply to talk about a higher plan" CTA.
Hard cap at 100%.In-product message: "You've reached this month's limit for this resource. New generation resumes on the first of next month. Reply to brian@fenfair.com if you need higher limits now." We do not auto-upgrade. We do not auto-charge. The seller talks to a real person about the right plan.
Repeated cap hits. If a seller hits the same cap two months in a row, Fenfair proactively emails about a higher-tier plan or custom pricing for serious volume sellers.
The promise
No silent degradation. No surprise invoice.
These numbers will change as we learn what real handmade sellers actually use. Changes are announced at least 30 days in advance via email to active sellers. When a limit changes, existing sellers stay at the version they signed up under if the change is restrictive.
If a number feels wrong for your shop, email brian@fenfair.com. We adjust when the math says we should.