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What happens when I switch from the usage-based plan to a fixed plan?

The legacy usage-based plan meters words, modifications and downloads without a cap. It is no longer available for new subscriptions, but projects already on it keep it until you switch. You switch on your organization page: Projects tab, pick the project, then choose a plan on its plan card. The card lists the plans your project fits. Where your usage needs word packs or download overage on top of a plan's price, it shows the estimated monthly cost for a typical month. An organization admin or accountant can make the change.

Short answer: it is a billing change. No translation is modified, moved or deleted, your CDN stays the same, and the change applies immediately. Your app keeps working without downtime, as long as your downloads fit the new plan (see Downloads).

What does not change

  • Your content. Translations, namespaces, versions, languages and API keys stay as they are, also when the project holds more words than the new plan includes (see below).
  • Your CDN. A project on the Pro CDN stays on the Pro CDN, a project on the Standard CDN stays on the Standard CDN. Your apps keep loading from the same URLs.
  • Your integrations. i18next-locize-backend, the CLI, the GitHub Actions and the MCP server need no change.

Above the plan's limits

  • Words. From Growth upward, words above the included amount do not stop the switch. At the moment you switch, the word packs your current content needs (10,000 words each) are booked automatically. Starter and Starter Plus sell no word packs, so there the content has to fit the plan.
  • Branches and tenants above the plan's allowance are booked the same way, in packs of 5: up to 10 extra on Growth, Professional and Professional Plus, without a cap on Enterprise. Starter and Starter Plus include no branches or tenants.
  • Turn on auto-adapt right after the switch. It only exists on fixed plans, so it cannot be turned on before. You find it on the same project, in the words card of the Overages section. Without it, adding new keys or translations is refused once the booked packs are used up. Your published translations keep being delivered, but your team's work, saveMissing and CLI or CI syncs would stop. With auto-adapt on, the missing packs are added as you need them and appear on your next invoice.
  • Packs stay on your invoice every month until you remove them under Overages, which is possible once your content no longer needs them. Prices are on the pricing page.

Downloads

  • Pro CDN. Every plan from Growth upward includes a monthly amount of pro downloads. Downloads above it are billed in blocks on your next invoice. They are never blocked. The Starter plans include no pro downloads, so a Pro CDN project needs Growth or above.
  • Standard CDN. Every plan includes a monthly amount of standard downloads, and here it is a limit. You get an email as you approach it, and a project that goes clearly beyond it is blocked until you upgrade or the next invoice is paid (on Enterprise you can buy additional blocks instead). On the usage-based plan these downloads were simply metered, so compare your monthly standard downloads (tenants included) with the plan's included amount before you switch. The downloads of the current billing period already count.
  • Private downloads (namespaces loaded with an API key, for example unpublished ones): Growth and above include a monthly amount and bill above it in blocks. Free, Starter and Starter Plus include none, so those requests are refused there.

More on the emails and on how projects and tenants count: What happens when my project goes over its included downloads?

What else to know

  • There is no way back. The usage-based plan is no longer sold, so once a project is on a fixed plan it cannot return to it. Changing between fixed plans stays possible at any time.
  • Plans that do not fit are not offered. A plan is missing on the card when the project has more languages, namespaces, versions, users or API keys than it allows, or uses a feature it does not include (for example the review workflow or the glossary on the Starter plans).
  • The Free plan is offered too when a small project on the Standard CDN fits it (it sells no packs). One difference: going beyond its standard downloads does not block the project, it unpublishes the translations, so your app no longer gets them from the CDN.
  • The audit log of your organization comes with the usage-based plan and with Enterprise. If this is the organization's last project on either, the audit log is no longer available after the switch.
  • Modifications are included. Adding, updating, deleting and importing keys is not billed on fixed plans.
  • AI and machine translation credits are included with every paid plan, see Are the AI translations included in my subscription?
  • Tenant projects billed together with the parent switch along with it and use the parent's plan. Their words and downloads count toward the parent's limits, and each tenant counts toward the plan's tenant allowance.

Suggested order

  1. On the plan card, compare the plans offered and their estimates. On the Standard CDN, check your monthly standard downloads against the plan.
  2. Switch the plan.
  3. Turn on auto-adapt for words.
  4. Check that the words card shows the booked word packs.

More on the plans and how overages work: Why is the pricing so complicated? and the pricing page.