Over the past year, we've continued to improve visibility and control across APS. From developer hubs to token usage and Pay-as-you-Go reporting, and more recently API usage reporting at the team, hub, and application levels, we've given customers better insight into how APS is being consumed across their organizations.
Today we're adding the next piece: proactive APS quota notifications that alert administrators when their team is nearing or has reached its API quota — so they can take action before apps are affected.
Until now, customers often discovered quota issues only after applications began failing. Developers would see errors, but hub admins and team admins had limited visibility into the underlying cause until service was already affected. APS quota notifications are designed to solve that problem by providing proactive visibility to the right people at the right time.
Types of notifications
We've introduced two types of notifications for paid APS APIs:
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Nearing quota (low balance) —Sent when your team is projected to reach its API quota based on historical usage patterns — an early warning so you can act before apps are affected.
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Quota reached (no balance) — Sent when your team has reached its quota for a specific API and apps may be affected.
How API quota works
API quota is managed at the team level and tracked separately for each paid APS API.
A team's quota for a specific API is drawn from a shared capacity pool that may include units from subscriptions, Flex, and other entitlements. Notifications are triggered based on aggregate remaining quota for each API across the team.
The team hierarchy is:
Team → Hub → App
One team can have up to five hubs.
What are the mechanics for notifications
To ensure the right people are informed, notifications are delivered across both the Autodesk Accounts Portal and the APS Developer Portal.
Team admins: Can only configure nearing quota alerts, choose which APIs to monitor, and manage notification recipients. Emails are sent via the accounts portal 5 or 10 days before the estimated date quota will be reached.
Hub admins and application owners: Receive notifications directly in the APS developer portal for both nearing quota and quota reached scenarios. Hub admins can opt in or out in portal settings. Notifications are sent through banners and emails when APIs are nearing their quota or have reached it
Important Disclaimers:
- Nearing quota notifications use predictive forecasting based on historical consumption trends to estimate when a team may reach its quota. All forecasts are estimates and should be used alongside your most recent usage data.
- You'll receive at most one email per portal every 24 hours. If you have set alerts from both the Autodesk Account portal and the APS Developer Portal, expect one email from each.
FAQ
What is "quota" in APS?
Your quota is how much usage is available for a specific APS API before it's used up.
Every APS API has its own quota — for example, your Model Derivative API quota is separate from your Design Automation API quota. You can have plenty of quota for one API and be running low on another. APS notifications are tied to a specific API, not to your account as a whole.
I got a low-quota notification — but I still have Flex tokens. Is the email wrong?
The email isn't wrong, but we understand why it feels that way. Here's what's actually happening.
Your quota for any one API isn't the same number as your Flex token balance. APS calculates your quota by combining everything that gives you usage on that API — Flex tokens, Free Tier, capacity included with other Autodesk products you own, and so on. Each of these is translated into the API's own unit (processing hours, API calls, MB, etc.) and added together. That combined number is your quota for that API, and that's what the notification is based on.
So you can have Flex tokens left and still be running low on a specific API's quota, especially if that API is your highest-volume one or has a high conversion rate from tokens to its native unit.
Where can I see my quota?
Today, APS shows you the underlying balances — your Flex token total, your Free Tier remaining, and so on. We don't yet show the combined per-API quota number as a single field. This is something we're actively working to improve. Until that's ready, the notifications are your primary signal that a specific API is running low.
In the meantime, if you'd like to understand your situation better, you can review your Flex token balance, your Free Tier allocation, and any other APS-related entitlements your team has — and reach out to your account team if you'd like help interpreting them against the notification.
Why am I getting a notification if I haven't run out yet?
APS notifications are predictive. We don't wait until your quota hits zero to tell you — by then it's too late and your apps may already be affected.
Instead, APS looks at your historical usage, your current consumption rate, and your remaining capacity, and forecasts when you might run out. When that forecast date gets close enough — based on a setting your team admin controls — we send the notification. That gives you time to plan, top up capacity, or adjust usage before an API actually stops working for you.
A typical configuration is: notify the team 10 days before the API is predicted to run out. If that's the setting, you'll get an email the moment APS predicts a 10-day-or-less runway for that API.
Who decides when notifications are sent?
Your team admin and hub admin control when notifications fire. Read more above.
If notifications feel too frequent or too infrequent, talk to your team and hub admin. We strongly recommend keeping notifications enabled, though, since they're currently the clearest signal that a specific API is heading toward exhaustion.
How are quota and Flex tokens related?
Flex tokens are a flexible currency you can apply to any APS API. Each API has its own conversion rate between tokens and that API's unit. For example:
- For some APIs, 1 Flex token might give you several processing hours.
- For others, 1 Flex token might give you hundreds or thousands of API calls.
Because Flex tokens are a shared pool, using them heavily on one API will reduce what's available for every other API your team uses. So a high-volume workflow on one API can shorten the runway for another, even if you haven't directly used the second one as much.
Your quota for any specific API is your Flex tokens (translated into that API's unit) plus any Free Tier and other entitlements you have for the same API.
What should I do when I get a notification?
1. Note the API named in the email. The notification is about that specific API, not your account overall.
2. Plan to act. You typically have a few days to almost a couple of weeks.
3. Top up or adjust. Options usually include purchasing more Flex tokens, enabling Pay-as-you-go on the relevant subscription, or reducing usage of the affected API.
4. Loop in your team admin. If you don't control purchasing, your team admin does — share the notification with them so they can take action.
Can I turn notifications off?
Yes — your team and hub admin can. We don't recommend it: because the combined per-API quota isn't currently shown as a single field in the portal, notifications are today's clearest warning that a specific API is heading toward exhaustion. Turning them off means you'll find out only when an API stops working.
What's changing here?
We know the current experience asks customers to mentally combine multiple balances themselves, and we hear the feedback. Making your combined per-API quota visible in one place is something we're actively working on. When that's ready, we'll update this post.