Understand plans, storage, and limits

See which account or project owns a limit, what happens when it is reached, and how to recover safely.

CorTeX applies some limits to the account, some to each project, and some to the project owner's plan. Open Settings → Plan and billing to compare the current limits, and check any limit notice above the project file tree before a large import, upload, assistant task, or plan change; release notes are not the current source of truth.

Distinguish account and project storage#

File content across all projects owned by an account and counted personal Library PDFs share its account storage allowance: 1 GB on Free, 2 GB on Standard, and 5 GB on Pro as displayed in the interface. Each project also has a file-count and stored-size limit:

Some accounts created before paid plans retain a grandfathered floor of 100 files and 100 MB per project. Use the plan comparison and project limit shown in your own interface because that account-specific result is authoritative.

Project limits follow the project owner's entitlement. A collaborator's higher personal plan does not enlarge someone else's project. There is no plan-based limit on the number of projects, but their files still consume the owner's account storage.

Account for Library PDFs#

A Library PDF can be at most 100 MB and uses its account’s allowance rather than a project’s per-file count or size limit. An uploaded PDF normally counts even if you link it to a DOI. A copy fetched through CorTeX’s qualifying open-access route, or an exact upload match with that recorded evidence, is exempt. Different PDF editions can count separately; attaching the same exact PDF to several references in one Library counts once.

Moving a paper to Trash does not free its PDF storage. Keep any needed copy before permanently deleting it, and recheck account usage after cleanup finishes. A downgrade does not delete your Library: reading, downloading, and cleanup remain available, while counted storage growth can be refused. See Build your research library for import and recovery steps.

Recover from an exceeded project limit#

An over-limit project remains editable. Deleting, renaming, and moving remain available because they do not add files or increase storage. A replacement is allowed only when it does not worsen exceeded project or account storage limits; keeping the file count unchanged is not enough if the replacement is larger. For example, replacing a large unused figure with a smaller file can help, while uploading another figure cannot. Other growth operations, including adding and uploading, remain unavailable until the project is within its limits. This lets you reduce an over-limit project without permitting it to grow further.

Before deleting material, export a ZIP or save a named version if the relevant history action is available. Remove unused generated assets or move genuinely separate work into another project; do not delete manuscript dependencies only to satisfy the counter. Recheck the file count and size before retrying the upload.

Understand Orca usage#

Runs using CorTeX's provided model key have daily and monthly weighted-token allowances anchored to the account's own signup cycle, not a shared midnight. Output tokens count more heavily than input tokens. In a collaborative project, that usage is charged to the project owner because the owner's plan provides the allowance. Runs using a personal OpenAI key do not consume CorTeX weighted-token quota and are billed by OpenAI; a separate personal-key request limit still applies. Connected-agent runs also consume no CorTeX model-token allowance.

The workspace shows when a cycle is exhausted and when it resets. A denial prevents the provider call; it does not consume a hidden extra allowance. Use a focused selected-text request when it fits, and review broad project requests before sending them.

Check before changing plans#

Open Settings → Plan and billing to compare the live plan catalogue and your current plan. Before moving to a lower limit, review every owned project and export important work. A project can remain over its new limit and editable, but it cannot grow until brought back within the applicable boundary.

Before retrying a blocked operation, confirm whose allowance applies, check its current value in CorTeX, and keep a recovery copy before reducing data. For payment lifecycle questions, continue with Account and subscription.