Limits & Policies

section-index · Reviewed 2026-07-31 GA

Rescale imposes no platform-wide storage or transfer limits. Everything here is opt-in: admins set caps for visibility and cost control. If an upload was refused, someone in your organization configured a limit.

The three levers

Policy	Caps	Page
Storage limit	Total GiB stored	Storage limits
Transfer limit	GiB uploaded and downloaded	Transfer limits
Retention policy	How long trashed files survive	Retention policy

Soft versus hard

Every limit has an Enforce toggle, and it changes the behavior completely:

	Enforce OFF (soft)	Enforce ON (hard)
Effect	Email notification only	The platform acts
Uploads and downloads	Continue	Blocked, or reversed

Start soft. A hard storage limit deletes files, and a hard transfer limit blocks work, neither is a good surprise. Run soft for a billing cycle to see where usage actually sits.

How a limit is configured

Workspace Admin → Policies → Storage / Transfer Limit. Each of the two limit types gets a row with a Limit, a First Alert and Second Alert threshold, and a Severity.

Limits at the top, per-member usage below. Note the separate Current and Average Monthly storage figures.

Below the limits, a User-level Restrictions choice decides whether people can set their own:

Option	Effect
Users can override workspace admin limits	Individuals set their own storage and transfer limits
Users can not override	Workspace limits apply to everyone immediately

The same page carries the per-member usage table, so you can set a limit and see who it will affect without navigating away.

Two different storage numbers

The usage table shows Current Storage and Average Monthly Storage side by side. Limits are measured against current volume; billing uses the monthly average: see billing reports.

Why you can exceed a limit that's enforced

Both limits reconcile on a delay, so usage can sit above the cap for a while. This is worth understanding because it can cost you money. You may be billed at a higher tier for an overage that enforcement was supposed to prevent.

	Reconciliation delay
Storage deletion sweep	Every hour
Storage notifications	Every 10 minutes
Transfer total	1-hour buffer after upload completes

The details differ between the two, and each page covers its own.

Where to look when something is blocked

1. Check the configured limits and current usage first. A refused upload is more often policy than bug.
2. Rule out the browser, large transfers through a browser are the most common failure. Browser upload issues · Download issues
3. Check your own connection, throughput is capped by your link. Understanding internet speed
4. Use the CLI or Transfer Manager for bulk moves: both resume on interruption.

Admin procedures

• How to set storage and data transfer limits
• How to let users override org limits
• How to delete all files via hard storage limit

Related

• Storage limits · Transfer limits · Retention policy
• Monitoring usage — the usage table and CSV export
• The file lifecycle — what states cost money
• Billing reports — how storage is actually charged