Document version: 1.1

Last updated: 2026-08-10

Fair Use Policy

Paid Sarkoa plans (Community, Essential, and Pro) include unlimited tile requests with no tile overage charges for normal product, embed, and API use. This policy explains indicative usage guidelines and what happens when traffic is unusually high.

Unlimited means no tile overage billing for ordinary use of the product, embeds, and API. It does not mean unlimited capacity regardless of cost or platform risk. The vast majority of organizations remain well below the guidelines below. Sarkoa monitors usage to protect platform stability and to keep pricing sustainable.

Indicative monthly guidelines (paid plans)

These are guidelines, not advertised hard product caps. They set expectations for self-serve plans:

Plan Indicative monthly fair use (tile requests) Above this level
Community Up to 15 million / month typical Notice and outreach; see enforcement steps below
Essential Up to 45 million / month typical Same
Pro Up to 130 million / month typical Same

The Free plan has an explicit included allowance (50,000 tile requests per month). See pricing and tile requests for Free-tier overage.

What happens if you go above the guideline

When usage is far above typical levels for your tier, Sarkoa follows a graduated response. As described in our Terms and Conditions, we reserve the right to throttle, rate-limit, suspend, or otherwise restrict tile delivery or related Services when usage is excessive, abusive, or inconsistent with your plan.

  1. Notice — We may send an in-app notice and/or email, and our team may contact you. Maps remain available while we discuss options.
  2. Throttle — If high usage continues after notice, or if volume threatens platform stability, we may slow or rate-limit tile delivery for your organization (or for specific high-traffic assets) to protect the service.
  3. Suspend or disable streaming — We may suspend or disable asset streaming for abuse, scraping, denial-of-service patterns, or activity that threatens security or availability, or when sustained excess continues without a workable plan after notice.
  4. Custom arrangement — Where practicable, we offer a chance to upgrade your plan or discuss a custom arrangement for higher sustained volume before lasting restrictions apply.

On paid plans, we do not bill tile overage. Fair use is enforced through notice, throttling, and (when needed) restriction, not through surprise tile invoices.

Higher sustained volume

Sarkoa's self-serve plans do not currently include negotiated enterprise agreements (volume pricing, SLAs, custom hostnames, or similar), and we are not offering those as a standard product today. If you expect sustained traffic above these guidelines, contact support@sarkoa.com so we can review your use case before restrictions become necessary.