Usage & Monitoring

The Lift portal gives you visibility into how your OpenBoxes instance is performing and how much of your plan's resources you are using. You can view usage metrics from the Dashboard and the Usage page in the portal sidebar.

Usage Dashboard#

The usage dashboard shows three key metrics at a glance, each displayed as a progress bar against your plan's limit.

Storage#

Tracks how much database storage your OpenBoxes instance is consuming. This includes all your supply chain data — products, shipments, orders, inventory records, and transaction history.

Plan Included storage
Shared 10 GB (+25 GB or +100 GB with a storage add-on, one band at a time — up to 110 GB)
Dedicated 100 GB (+100 GB per storage add-on band, up to 3 bands — up to 400 GB)
Enterprise 250 GB included (+$150/mo per 100 GB)

The Usage page reads your database's actual size each time it loads. On Shared the storage figure is an included quota with fair use, not a hard cap; on Dedicated it is an included quota, and the database disk grows with each add-on band — see Approaching Your Limits. A storage add-on raises the included quota; it does not add an enforcement that was not there before.

Active Users#

Shows how many users currently have access to your Lift account compared to your plan's user limit.

Plan User Limit
Shared 10 (+5 per add-on pack, up to 20)
Dedicated 50 (+25 per add-on pack, up to 100)
Enterprise 100 included (+$100/mo per 25)

This count includes every portal user regardless of role — the Owner plus Admins, Managers, Users, and Viewers. Pending invitations also count toward your limit.

API Calls#

Tracks the number of authenticated API requests (calls that carry your X-API-Key) made against your instance in the current hour, versus your plan's hourly limit. Normal browser usage of the OpenBoxes web application is not counted and is never rate-limited.

Plan Hourly API Limit
Shared 1,000 (2,000 or 5,000 with an API add-on)
Dedicated 25,000 (50,000 with an API add-on)
Enterprise 50,000 (100,000 or 200,000 as contract line items)

API limits are hourly, not monthly, and are applied per account — shared across all of your API keys. The allowance refills continuously as the hour passes rather than resetting at a fixed moment. When you exceed the limit, the API returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests; see API Rate Limits for the response format, headers, and retry guidance.

Usage Details#

For a deeper view, go to Usage in the portal sidebar (under Operations). The page shows:

  • Three usage cards — Users, Storage, and API calls, each with the current figure against your plan's limit, a progress bar, and a status line (how many user slots are left, how much of your included storage is left, how many API calls remain this hour); from 80% the status line carries a warning
  • API calls — last 7 days — A chart of daily API call volume, with the peak day's count, so you can spot integrations that are approaching the hourly limit
  • Approaching your plan limits — The notice described below, shown only when a metric reaches 80%

Approaching Your Limits#

The Usage page flags your storage and user figures as they approach your plan's limit so you can act before reaching it. (API limits work differently — they are enforced per hour and return a 429 response in real time rather than triggering these percentage warnings; see the API calls section above.)

Warning Thresholds#

Usage Level What Happens
80% The Usage page flags the metric as approaching its limit and, on Shared or Dedicated, offers that plan's add-on (more storage, more users, or a higher API rate) before suggesting a plan change
100% Depends on the resource — new invitations are refused at the user limit; no write is refused because of the storage quota (see below)

What Happens at 100%#

The behavior when you hit a limit depends on the resource:

Storage at 100%:

  • Your storage figure is an included quota, not a hard cap. The Usage page shows the live figure and flags it at 80% and at 100%.
  • No write is refused because of the quota, and no email is sent today — the Usage page is where the warning appears.
  • On Shared, storage is fair use: nothing is blocked, and your OpenBoxes instance keeps working. If your usage stays well above the quota for a sustained period (more than about twice the quota for around 30 days), we get in touch to talk about the right plan for you. Your instance is never suspended for storage use, and existing data is never deleted for this reason.
  • On Dedicated, your database disk is provisioned with headroom above the included quota, and each storage add-on band grows it further — online, usually within a few minutes of the add-on going Active. Growth beyond the quota is handled with you through support. Removing a band lowers the included figure straight away; the disk itself is never shrunk, so this page can read over quota for a while.
  • A storage add-on raises the quota — on Shared, +25 GB for $25/mo ($240/yr) or +100 GB for $100/mo ($960/yr), one band at a time (up to 110 GB included); on Dedicated, +100 GB for $60/mo ($576/yr) per band, up to 3 bands, with the database disk grown to match. A larger plan raises it too. Buy a band under Billing > Add-ons once your subscription is paid (add-ons are not available during the trial).

Users at 100%:

  • Existing users continue to have full access
  • New invitations are refused until you are under the limit
  • Remove an existing user, add a user pack under Billing > Add-ons (Shared: +5 per pack, up to 2 packs; Dedicated: +25 per pack, up to 2 packs), or change your plan to add more

API calls (hourly limit reached):

  • Further API requests in that hour receive HTTP 429 Too Many Requests until the rolling hourly allowance refills
  • Your OpenBoxes web application keeps working normally — only X-API-Key API traffic is limited
  • Consistently hitting the limit usually means your integration needs a higher tier

Storage is an included quota — no write is refused because of it, and on Shared it is fair use (see above), because the goal is to keep your supply chain running. The user limit and the API limit are enforced — a new invitation is refused at the user limit, and API requests over the hourly allowance receive a 429 (that applies only to programmatic /api/v1/* traffic; existing users and the OpenBoxes web application are never affected). On Shared and Dedicated, a storage band, a user pack or an API band under Billing > Add-ons raises the figure without a plan change — a storage band raises the included quota, and the user and API bands raise limits that are enforced.

Alerts and Notifications#

Lift sends notifications through two channels:

Email Notifications#

No usage-threshold emails are sent today. At 80% the Usage page flags the metric; at 100% a new invitation is refused at the user limit, while no write is refused because of the storage quota. Suspension and billing-failure emails are separate and are always sent.

There is no scheduled weekly or monthly usage digest — the Usage page is the place to review your usage.

Portal Notifications#

The in-portal usage alert is the Usage page's approaching-limits notice, shown when a metric reaches 80% of your plan's limit; it goes away on its own once the metric is back under 80%. There are no other usage banners in the portal.

Configuring Notifications#

To adjust which notifications you receive:

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications in the portal
  2. Toggle individual notification types on or off — changes save automatically; there is no Save button

The five toggles are System alerts, Usage warnings, Backup notifications, User activity, and Product updates. The Usage warnings toggle is stored for future use — no usage-threshold emails are sent today. Suspension, billing-failure, and other account-critical emails are not governed by these toggles and cannot be disabled.

Instance Health#

Every plan gets the same two health readings, taken by the platform's own periodic health check of your instance:

  • Response time — The latest measured response time of your OpenBoxes instance, shown on the portal Dashboard instance card and on the Instance page
  • Uptime — Availability over the last 24 hours, shown on the Dashboard instance card once a day of history exists

CPU and memory figures and an uptime history timeline are not exposed in the portal. Platform-wide incidents and the weekly maintenance window are announced on the status page.

Best Practices#

  • Review usage monthly. Check the Usage page each month to anticipate when you might need to upgrade.
  • Plan storage growth. If your storage is growing steadily, project when you will approach your limit and plan an upgrade in advance.
  • Monitor API usage after adding integrations. External integrations (EDI, ERP connectors, etc.) can significantly increase API call volume.