# Free Traffic Quota Exhausted Alert

The Free Traffic Quota Exhausted alert indicates that the public network traffic used by an EMQX Cloud deployment is approaching or has reached its monthly free quota.

The alert is triggered when usage reaches 75%, 100%, and 200% of the free quota. It does not affect deployment operation, but traffic beyond the free quota incurs additional charges.

## Quota and Billing

Public network traffic mainly consists of traffic between devices and the EMQX Cloud deployment, including connections, heartbeats, and inbound and outbound messages, as well as data forwarded from the deployment to external public services.

### Serverless Deployments

- Each deployment includes **1 GB** of free traffic per month. This quota covers all public network traffic **into and out of** the deployment.
- Traffic beyond the free quota is billed at **CNY 1.50 per GB**.

### Dedicated Deployments

- Each deployment includes **100 GB** of free traffic per month. Only public network traffic **out of** the deployment is counted.
  - Traffic over VPC peering or PrivateLink is not counted.
  - Inbound message traffic, such as messages sent from clients to the deployment, is not counted.
  - If a NAT gateway is enabled, traffic leaving the deployment through the NAT gateway is public network traffic and is counted.
- Traffic beyond the free quota is billed at **CNY 1.50 per GB**.

## Monitoring and Statistics

1. On the deployment **Overview** page, view the current month's traffic usage, including traffic covered by the free quota.

   ![Monthly traffic usage on the deployment Overview page](./_assets/traffic_limit_overview.png)

2. Go to **Metrics** -> **Timeline** -> **Packet Traffic** to view message packet traffic over time.

   ![Packet traffic on the monitoring timeline](./_assets/traffic_limit_monitor.png)

::: tip Note

If the packet traffic calculation differs from the traffic shown on the deployment Overview page, see [Why are there differences in traffic statistics?](../../faq/normal_b.md#why-are-there-differences-in-traffic-statistics).

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