Fix · Site paused by your host with no code change: how to fix it

Site paused for exceeding free plan limits, crawler traffic

Your site or API stops responding, and the host says a free-plan usage limit was exceeded. The cause is often automated traffic, not real users. AI crawlers and other bots can use up included requests, transfer or database egress before the usage period resets.

2 matching casesUpdated 3 Nov 2026 Part of: Site paused by your host with no code change: how to fix itLaunch check

Likely causes, most common first

Cause 1 · in 1 of 2 matching cases

AI crawlers used up the Hobby plan's included usage

Vercel's Hobby plan has limits and quotas, and sustained usage past them can lead to a paused deployment. The AI Bots managed ruleset is inactive by default, so crawler traffic is not evaluated and reaches your application. The Hobby plan page says that in most cases, once you exceed a usage limit, you have to wait 30 days before you can use that feature again.

How to tell: Usage for requests, function invocations or data transfer is past the plan's limit, and the Firewall log shows requests from known AI crawlers.

Cause 2 · in 1 of 2 matching cases

Crawled pages and API routes ran up Supabase egress

Egress is counted across Database, Auth, Storage, Edge Functions and Realtime, and the Free plan has its own quota. When an organization exceeds plan limits, it gets a grace period before the fair use policy applies. Restrictions can include a 402 status code on every API request.

How to tell: The Total Egress chart is at or over the quota and API requests return 402.

Cause 3

The restriction spread to every project in the organization

Supabase generally applies the fair use policy to all projects of the restricted organization. A project with little traffic can therefore be restricted alongside a busy one.

How to tell: Projects that get little traffic are restricted too, for example returning 402 on their API.

Check and fix it, step by step

  1. Compare Vercel usage with the plan limits

    Compare your usage against the Fair Use Guidelines and the limits and quotas for your plan, and note which resource went over. Vercel's guide says that if usage is close to a limit, upgrading your plan or reducing consumption resolves the pause.

    Docs: vercel.com →

  2. Read Supabase egress by service

    On the organization's usage page, check Total Egress for the period and hover over a date to see the breakdown by service. If a spike in Database or Storage egress lines up with the pause, crawled pages or API routes are the likely source.

    Docs: supabase.com →

  3. Log AI bot traffic before blocking it

    In the project's Firewall, open Rules, then Configure in the Bot Management section, and set AI Crawlers and AI Assistants to Log. Publish the change to apply it to the production deployment.

    Docs: vercel.com →

  4. Deny AI crawlers at the edge

    Once the log shows which bots are involved, set the AI Crawlers category to Deny and publish. The CLI makes the same change.

    vercel firewall rules edit ai-bots --category ai-crawlers --action deny --yes
vercel firewall publish --yes

    Docs: vercel.com →

  5. Cut what each Supabase request returns

    Select fewer fields and rows in queries, and cache repeated calls so a crawler hit does not trigger a fresh database read. Then check the egress chart again to confirm egress is falling.

    Docs: supabase.com →

  6. Lift the Supabase restriction

    Restrictions lift when the quota refills at the start of the next billing cycle. On the Free plan, upgrading to Pro lifts them immediately.

    Docs: supabase.com →

Quick check: Check Vercel usage against the Hobby limits and Supabase Total Egress. API calls returning 402 point to a Supabase fair use restriction.

How often this shows up in our data

2 of the 937 verified cases from the last 12 months in our data match this symptom (0.2%). The most common cause was “AI crawlers used up the Hobby plan's included usage” (1 of 2). How we collect and verify cases.

With Gemmein

On Gemmein, downloads are fair use on every plan, with no download allowance or limit; Gemmein meters them per app for your own information only. Past fair use, Gemmein reaches out, and nothing is refused or charged automatically.

Read the docs: docs.gemmein.com/console →Pooled Edge function runs are shared across every live app on the account, and past the monthly ceiling every Live function call pauses until the next period starts or the account moves to a bigger plan.

Questions

When does a Supabase egress restriction lift?

Supabase says restrictions due to usage limits are lifted once the quota refills at the start of the next billing cycle. On the Free plan, upgrading to Pro lifts them immediately.

Can I block training crawlers but still allow AI assistants?

Yes. Vercel's AI Bots managed ruleset lets you set an action for AI Crawlers and AI Assistants independently, using Log, Deny or the default Allow.

Can I run a public beta on the Hobby plan?

Check Vercel's fair use guidelines first. They state that the Hobby plan restricts users to non-commercial, personal use only, so a commercial launch needs a different plan.

Sources

Every cause and step above was checked against these pages on 3 Nov 2026.

The broader pattern

This is one symptom of a wider failure pattern: Site paused by your host with no code change: how to fix it. The guide covers every cause we see for it, on any stack.

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