VPN data limit reached: which limit stopped you

ForestVPN's app can stop you with at least five different "limit" messages, and they count different things. Two count bytes, one counts connections, one counts devices and one counts requests. They do not even end the same way: a spent session allowance closes a tunnel that was already running, a device limit touches no tunnel at all, and a request-rate pause is silent on most screens. What really differs from row to row is whether waiting fixes it.

This post maps the wording you see in the app to the code, to what it counts and to the next step.

Which limit stopped your VPN?

The title "Data limit reached" is shared by two codes, and the line under it tells them apart: "This session used its whole allowance" is session.quota_exceeded, while a free allowance for the day, week or month with a reset time is cp.data_cap_reached.

Find the app's wording in the first column; everything else in the row follows from it. The wording, codes and actions come from ForestVPN's app strings and its troubleshooting guide, plus the help pages named in the last column, as they stood on the date in the method box below.

Everything below explains one row.

What does it mean when the session used its whole allowance?

The data allowance for that one connection is spent, so the session ended. On the Free plan each connection has its own allowance, and the code is session.quota_exceeded (the help page).

It is a stop, not a slowdown. The app does not drop you to a lower speed; the session closes. Connecting again gives the next connection its own allowance, provided your plan lets you start another one, and that depends on the connections limit further down.

What does Data limit reached mean, and when does it reset?

The free data allowance for a day, a week or a month is spent, and the app tells you which, and when it resets. The code is cp.data_cap_reached. Of all five, this is the only one that is a byte allowance spread over a window (the help page).

Because the window rolls, there is no fixed midnight to wait for; the reset time on screen is the one to believe. Another server does not help, because the allowance belongs to the plan and not to an exit. Your data allowance explains the windows and, through the plan components, what the numbers are.

One more detail catches people out. While a connection is open, the allowance it may still use is held against the day's allowance, so the app can say the allowance is used up a little before every byte has moved. That is the reason a message can arrive earlier than your own count suggests.

Is "Daily connection limit reached" a data limit?

No. It counts connections, and the app's wording names the connections on purpose so nobody mistakes it for a byte cap. The code is cp.quota_exceeded (the help page).

On the Free plan each connect uses one of the day's connections, and they come back one at a time through the day. The app shows the wait; when it cannot work the wait out, it says they come back one at a time. On Premium the same code reads "Too many connections" and means you connected many times in a short period, with a wait of a few minutes.

This is the one where reconnecting makes things worse. Each reconnect on the Free plan spends a connection, so opening and closing the app to refresh a spent session is exactly how the day's connections run out.

What about Too many requests and the device limit?

Neither counts data. cp.rate_limited means your device or network sent too many requests in a short time; wait a minute and try again (the help page). cp.seat_limit means the account is at its device limit, and another device cannot be added until you sign one out. The signed-out device keeps working on Free (the help page).

A device is identified by a key generated on it the first time the app runs, so the device limit counts those keys rather than installs (devices and linking).

Does reconnecting or switching server help?

Only for one of the five. A spent session allowance is renewed by connecting again, if your plan lets you. A spent window allowance is not cured by a different server, and a connection wait is not either, though those connections come back one at a time. A device limit needs a device signed out, and a request-rate pause needs about a minute.

Check the code first. Changing location while connected is an ordinary new connect with a fresh connection ticket, so on Free each switch spends one of the day's connections. Switching servers over and over is how people turn one limit into two.

How do other VPNs describe their limits?

Each description below stays with the vendor that wrote it. Nym's support page describes a monthly data limit in which each connection ticket carries an allowance that is counted as spent when used, so many devices or frequent server changes use the allowance faster. NordVPN's support page covers a Session Limit Reached error, which is that vendor's session or device limit. Kaspersky's page on VPN limitations says the standard version of Kaspersky Secure Connection has a daily secure-traffic limit, that the app says the VPN is unavailable once it is exceeded, and that the VPN can take several minutes after that notice to switch off.

None of that describes ForestVPN. It is here only because the same words, "limit reached", cover different mechanisms from one vendor to the next.

How do I remove the limit?

The plan sets the limit. On all three clients the cp.data_cap_reached line says it plainly: "Premium has no data cap." A subscription removes the per-connection allowance, the day, week and month data allowance and the daily connection count. It does not change the device count, which is the same on either plan (data allowance).

Two caveats keep that from overreaching. Premium still pauses after many connects in a short period; that is the "Too many connections" wording above. And the backup route, used only when the direct road is blocked, has its own monthly allowance on every plan. The app says "Backup route used up" when it is spent, the direct connection keeps working, and it is a separate meter from the five codes in the table.

Nothing in the app lifts a limit on its own, and no setting changes how much a window holds. The table below comes from the site's plan data; the plans page is the one place to compare.

How this catalog was read