Usage Limits

How Usage Limits Work

Scholara uses per-tier daily and hourly limits to protect the platform from abuse while giving paid users generous headroom for real research workflows. Each operation (abstract screening, full-text screening, PDF extraction, etc.) has its own cap, and limits reset on a rolling time window — not at midnight or on a calendar boundary.

What Counts Toward a Limit

Operations gated by usage limits:

  • Abstract screening (per article screened by AI)
  • Full-text screening (per PDF analysed)
  • PDF extraction (per PDF processed for structured data)
  • Structured extraction (per column pass)
  • Re-screen jobs (per re-screen run after a protocol edit)
  • Database searches (per executed query)
  • Review creation (per new review session)

Manual screening, protocol configuration, viewing PDFs, browsing data tables, and exporting do not count toward usage limits.

Daily Hard Caps by Tier

Hard caps are the point where Scholara will return a 'limit reached' message and ask you to wait until the window rolls over (or upgrade). The values below are 24-hour caps; smaller 1-hour burst caps also apply for short-window operations.

  • Abstract screening — Starter: 1,000 / Pro: 3,000 / Team: 5,000 per day
  • Full-text screening — Starter: 100 / Pro+: 500 per day
  • PDF extraction — Starter: 200 / Pro+: 1,000 per day
  • Structured extraction — Starter: 100 / Pro+: 500 per day
  • Re-screen jobs — Starter: 10 / Pro+: 20 per day
  • Database searches — Starter: 75 / Pro+: 200 per day
  • Review creation — Starter: 25 / Pro+: 50 per day

What Happens When You Hit a Limit

When you cross a hard cap, Scholara returns a 'limit reached' message with the time remaining until the window resets. Your in-flight work is saved — you can resume from where you left off once the window rolls over. Upgrading your plan grants the higher tier's caps immediately.

Approximate Plan Coverage

How much review work each plan can handle in a typical day:

  • 7-day Pro trial — evaluate the full workflow before choosing a plan
  • Starter — One small-to-medium review at a time (~750 abstracts/day, 10,000/month; ~15 full-texts/day; ~15 data extractions/day)
  • Pro — Power-user workflows (~2,500 abstracts/day, ~40 full-texts/day, ~40 data extractions/day)
  • Team — Per-seat scaling (~2,500 abstracts / 60 full-texts / 60 data extractions per seat per day), plus shared workspaces and data privacy
  • Enterprise — Custom limits negotiated per institution

Limits are 'anti-abuse' — they're sized so that 99% of legitimate research workflows never reach them. If you regularly hit a limit on a paid plan, contact support@scholara.ai and we'll work with you to raise the ceiling.