Someone tries to fill in your Jotform and gets a page that says 'Form over quota', or 'This Form Has Exceeded Its Allocated Quota'. Or the form simply closes with a message you don't remember writing. Either way, new entries have stopped.
Two very different things cause this. Most of the time the account that owns the form has used up one of its plan limits, and Jotform has disabled every form in that account until the limit resets or the plan changes. Less often, the form itself was set to close after a certain number of entries. The fix depends on which one you are looking at, so start there.
Read the message first
- 'Form over quota' or 'This Form Has Exceeded Its Allocated Quota': an account limit was reached. Jotform calls this a standard system message. See the sections on what counts and what you can do.
- A custom message you or a colleague wrote, such as 'Registration is full': the form's own 'Disable at Submission Limit' rule. See the section on Form Status.
- You are the person filling in the form, not the owner: nothing on your side will fix it. Jotform's help suggests contacting the form owner directly, or reporting the error through the Jotform Help Center with the form's URL.
Which limit did you hit? Check the Usage page
Jotform's limits are counted per account, across all your forms together, not per form. A busy form can use up the allowance and take a quiet form down with it. Jotform emails the account owner when a limit is reached, and you may also see a warning when you log in. Its usage guide says reaching upload space or any monthly limit disables your forms on the scheduled date given in that email.
Jotform's help on the 'Form Over Quota' error lists the limits that trigger it: monthly regular submissions (submissions without payments), monthly payment submissions to forms connected to a gateway such as PayPal or Stripe, monthly completed signing documents, monthly form views across all your forms, and upload space, the fixed total disk space for files sent through File Upload fields. To see which one you hit:
- On your My Workspace page, click your profile picture or avatar in the top right.
- Click 'Settings' to open your Account Settings page.
- Click 'Usage' on the left.
- Each limit shows how much you have used. Your monthly limit reset date is shown under 'Monthly Usage'.
What counts toward the monthly submission limit
Jotform's definition is that a submission is counted when an entry is successfully created from your form. A few things people don't expect are included:
- Entries created with Import Data count as submissions, according to Jotform's usage guide.
- Your own test entries are entries like any other. If you tested a form heavily before launch, those tests used part of the month's allowance.
- Payment forms have their own, separate monthly count. On the Starter plan Jotform's pricing page lists 10 payment submissions per month, far fewer than the 100 regular submissions, so a donation or order form can go over quota while the main submission count still looks low.
- Form views are counted too. A form that is viewed a lot but rarely submitted can hit the views limit first.
- Deleting entries does not give any back. Jotform says deleting and purging monthly submissions, signed documents or payment submissions will not free up their usage count.
When it resets, and the limits that don't
Jotform's usage guide says the monthly submission limit resets on the first day of your monthly usage cycle, and its help on the quota error describes the reset as happening on the same day each month. That day is not necessarily the 1st of the calendar month, so check the date under 'Monthly Usage' on your Usage page rather than guessing.
Not everything resets. Jotform separates monthly limits, which reset each cycle, from total limits that you have to manage yourself: active forms, fields per form, upload space and submission storage. If upload space is what disabled your forms, waiting will not bring them back.
One total limit does not disable your form at all, and it can cost you data. Submission Storage is the maximum number of entries you can keep in the account across all forms; at the time of writing, Jotform's pricing page lists it at 500 on the Starter plan. Jotform's guide says that exceeding this limit deletes the oldest form entry to make room for the new submission. So on a free account that has been collecting for a while, old entries can quietly disappear. If you rely on past responses, download your submissions regularly, which is what Jotform's own guide recommends to avoid losing data.
Your options right now
- Wait for the reset. If it is a monthly limit and the date on your Usage page is close, this costs nothing.
- Use Increase Limits. Jotform's help says that if you hit the monthly submission limit, you can increase it for free by completing tasks in its Increase Limits program: on your Account Settings page, click 'Increase Limits' on the left. Jotform says this applies to the regular submission limit only, not payments, views or storage.
- Free up upload space. If upload space is the problem, delete and then purge entries that have file uploads. Download anything you need to keep first.
- Upgrade. Jotform's help points to the Bronze, Silver or Gold plans. At the time of writing, its pricing page lists 1,000, 2,500 and 10,000 monthly submissions respectively, with higher limits for payments, views and upload space. Plans can be changed at any time, according to the usage guide.
- Ask about discounts. Jotform's pricing FAQ says eligible education and nonprofit organizations get 50% off Bronze, Silver and Gold.
If the form closed itself: Form Status
A form can also be set to stop accepting entries on its own, regardless of your plan. Jotform's help on time and response limits describes the 'Form Status' options. To check and change it:
- In Form Builder, click 'Settings' in the orange navigation bar at the top.
- Under 'Form Status', click 'Enabled' (or whatever status is shown) to open the options.
- 'Disable at Submission Limit' closes the form once the number in 'Submission Limit' is reached. 'Disable on Specific Date or at Submission Limit' closes it at whichever comes first.
- The 'Warning Message' field holds the text visitors see once it closes, which is why the message may be one you don't recognise.
- To reopen, raise the 'Submission Limit' number or set the status back to 'Enabled'.
Prevent it next time
- Check the Usage page before a launch, a deadline or a campaign, not after.
- Keep test entries to a minimum on a live account, since they count.
- When you estimate your monthly need, count payment forms and high-traffic forms separately: they draw on the payment and form view limits as well.
- Download your submissions regularly so storage limits can't take old entries with them.
- If a form should close at a number, use 'Disable at Submission Limit' with a clear 'Warning Message' so respondents know it is full, not broken.
Another option for simple forms
If you need a straightforward form while you sort out your Jotform account, OneSol forms are free to start, respondents fill them in without an account, and responses land in your OneSol dashboard and inbox, with CSV export and file uploads up to 5 MB per file.