When using the free tier, you might encounter a message like this if the abuse system has detected any unusual activity.
- Unusual activity detected
Free tier usage disabled.
The system has flagged your account for unusual activity. This usually means that it has detected more than one free account on the same IP address.
The only way to avoid triggering the system when something like this happens is to buy a paid subscription, as paying users are never flagged for unusual activity. This is a limitation we have had to impose on the free accounts to avoid abuse. You can read more about it in the help center.
This is regrettably a limitation we've needed to impose on the free tier to avoid people creating multiple accounts. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have multiple accounts. It could also mean that you are using a VPN and have shared the same IP as someone else who has an account.
It could also mean that someone in your household, school, or office has also created a free account, or that you might be using a mobile network where each device is assigned a temporary IP address from a pool of available addresses which can cause these types of issues. But regardless, something has happened that has alerted the systems and flagged it as unusual.
There are two ways that you can avoid this message:
- Buy a subscription: All paid subscriptions are immune to this error as it is only triggered on free tiers. The Starter tier is only $5, providing you with additional features compared to the free tier.
- Use a unique IP: You can still use a unique IP that has not been flagged by the abuse system, which will again circumvent this issue.
We are sorry about the inconvenience but there is nothing we can do once the account has been flagged.