What happens to a free website when it gets too much traffic? Limits compared

You posted a link to a game, a quiz, or a small tool you made with ChatGPT or Claude, and people started sharing it. Now the question is the host. Will the page stay up? Will it slow down? Will a bill show up?

It depends on the host, and most free plans answer it on a page you never read. This comparison puts 8 free plans side by side: what each one counts, how much it includes, and what happens when you pass it. Every vendor fact comes from the host's own pricing page or docs, read on October 21, 2026. Where those pages don't say, the table says "Not stated." The second half walks through what Convika does when a game reaches its limit, and how to keep the game up while it's spreading.

Four ways a free host handles a spike

A free plan that runs out of room does one of four things.

• It stops the site at once. Netlify Free pauses every project on the account and shows "Site not available" until the next billing cycle. One popular game takes your other pages down with it.
• It keeps the site up for a while, then stops it. Convika Free keeps every page up for 7 days after the limit. If you don't pay by then, every page in the workspace stops until the month ends.
• It limits the site. GitHub Pages may answer with HTTP 429 errors past its soft limits. Vercel Hobby pauses a feature you used up, in most cases for 30 days.
• It keeps running. Cloudflare Pages serves static files with no request limit.

Netlify says outright that its Free plan is never charged. Paid plans with metered usage are where overage shows up on an invoice; on Convika, that's Pro, the 1-year pass included, and MAX.

Free traffic limits compared

How to estimate what your page uses

Hosts count one of two things: bandwidth (the data sent) or visits and views (how many times the page opens). The same spike costs very different amounts depending on which.

On a bandwidth host, the math is file size × times opened. A 1 MB game opened 10,000 times sends about 10 GB. On Netlify Free, that's 200 of the month's 300 credits for bandwidth alone, before deploys and requests. On Tiiny Host Free, a 1 MB project reaches the 5 GB cap at 5,000 visits, and Tiiny Host notes that a 20 MB project gets there in 250.

On a host that counts views, the file size doesn't matter. Convika counts page views and accepts one HTML file up to 2 MB, so a heavier file doesn't use the allowance any faster.

Two ways to make the file lighter on a bandwidth host:

• Draw with shapes and text instead of embedded images. Most AI-made games and quizzes already do.
• Load images from an https:// address instead of pasting them into the file as data.

What Convika does when your game reaches its limit

Convika counts page views per workspace, across all your pages, in each calendar month (UTC). Preview links don't count. When a Free workspace reaches 10,000 views in a month, this is what happens. It applies from sign-up to a workspace created on or after October 23, 2026 (Japan time), and from November 1, 2026 (UTC) to an older one.

1. At 80% of the limit: Convika emails you, and the dashboard shows this month's count.
2. At the limit: your side of Convika locks. You can't edit or publish pages, make new ones, use templates or AI, see analytics, or read form entries. Players keep playing, with the Convika bar at the bottom, and forms keep taking entries for you. Every dashboard screen shows a countdown to the stop with the buttons to pay, and an email tells you the hour the pages stop.
3. During the 7 days: another email on day 3, and a last one 24 hours before the stop.
4. If you haven't paid by then: every page in the workspace stops, at its Convika address and on your own domain. Players see a page headed "This page is paused for now." It says the account used up this month's views, and that the page comes back about a minute after the account subscribes to Pro or MAX, or on its own when the count starts again. Forms take no entries. Convika emails you that the pages stopped.
5. Coming back: pay for Pro monthly, the 1-year Pro pass, or MAX, and everything works again within a minute. Or wait: the count starts again on the 1st (UTC), and the pages come back.

If your game's spike lasts a few days, it stays playable through all of it, and you get a fixed date to decide by. A limit reached in the last 7 days of a month (counted in UTC) never stops the pages: the count starts again first.

The exact rules are in section 4 of the terms.

How to keep a viral game up

Pro and MAX, monthly or yearly, never stop for traffic, and they have no cap. Past the views they include, each 10,000 more go on your next invoice.

The 1-year Pro pass never stops for traffic either. One payment of $29 gives you Pro for 365 days. Your game keeps running however many times it's played, and your dashboard stays open. Views past 100,000 in a month cost $0.10 per 10,000, charged early the next month to the card you paid for the pass with. The month you buy the pass in and the month it ends in aren't charged. Only if that charge stays unpaid do the limits above apply to the pass, until it's paid. You can buy the pass if your workspace has never had a paid subscription (a Pro monthly trial you canceled counts), isn't in a Pro trial that started without a card, and doesn't have Pro included with a page made for you. Otherwise, a Pro monthly subscription never stops.

• Pro monthly, $12 a month. Includes 100,000 page views a month, then $0.10 per 10,000. A month of 500,000 views adds $4. Views past the included amount in the month you subscribe aren't billed. Plans & Billing shows the month's estimated overage, Convika emails you when it passes set amounts, and you can cancel there any time.
• 1-year Pro pass, $29 once. Pro for 365 days, with no renewal. Includes 100,000 page views a month, then $0.10 per 10,000, as on Pro monthly, charged to the card you paid with. Bought after Free's limit, it brings everything back.
• MAX monthly, $49 a month. Includes 1,000,000 views a month, at Pro's price per 10,000 past that.

You can switch at two moments. Before the link goes around, pick a plan the first time you publish (the steps are below). After the limit, use the buttons on any dashboard screen, or open Plans & Billing. Past 80% of the limit, Pro starts without the trial: you pay when you subscribe.

You can see this month's views under Plans & Billing in the dashboard. Each page's stats show visits, referrers such as X, Reddit, or Discord, devices, and countries for the last 90 days, so you can tell where the spike came from. Once the limit is reached, the stats stay locked until you pay or the month ends.

What Convika doesn't do: it doesn't take a folder, a zip, or a game that needs its own server. Each page is one HTML file. A page can't call other sites with fetch, so multiplayer and a leaderboard on another server don't work. A page that saves with window.storage's shared values, as Claude artifacts do, keeps one shared list on Convika for every visitor.

Drop your HTML file in the box above, or paste the code, to see the page online for 3 minutes. Scripts don't run in that preview. Click Keep this page — free, no card and sign up, and the page moves into your account. Click Publish; the first time, pick Free under Choose how to publish your page, then publish. The 1-year pass and Pro monthly, which starts with a 7-day trial with a card, are the other two choices on that screen. A Public page is free and may show up in search results and in Convika's gallery; a Private link (Pro or pass) keeps it out of both.

Before the link goes around

Two things are hard to change once a link is spreading.

• The address. People keep sharing the first link they saw. If you want your own domain, connect it before you post. Convika Free connects 1 subdomain, such as play.yourname.com.
• Saved scores. Many AI-made games keep a best score in the player's browser with localStorage. The browser keeps that data per address, so if you move the game to a new host or domain, players' saved scores stay behind at the old address. To update the game, upload a new version to the same address. On Convika, upload the changed file under New version from a file on the page's screen, click Upload as a new version, then publish it; the URL stays the same.

A stop on Convika doesn't touch saved scores either. They stay in each player's browser, and the game reads them again when it comes back at the same address.

How to publish an HTML game made with ChatGPT compares itch.io, GitHub Pages, Netlify Drop, CodePen, and Convika for putting a game online in the first place.

Which one to pick

• The page must never go dark on a free plan, and it's static: Cloudflare Pages, whose static requests are unlimited on Free.
• You already use GitHub: GitHub Pages, if the page isn't a business or a store, and you're fine with the soft 100 GB.
• Several sites on one account: be careful with Netlify Free. One spike pauses all of them until the next billing cycle.
• A commercial page: not Vercel Hobby, which is for non-commercial personal use only.
• A single HTML game, quiz, or tool from an AI chat that might take off: Convika. It counts views instead of bytes, keeps a Free game playable for 7 days past the limit, and a Pro monthly subscription never stops.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if my free site gets too much traffic?

It depends on the host. Netlify Free pauses every site on the account and shows "Site not available" until the next billing cycle. Vercel Hobby pauses a used-up feature, in most cases for 30 days. GitHub Pages may rate-limit the site. Convika Free keeps your pages up for 7 days after 10,000 views in a month, then stops them until the month ends unless you pay. A workspace created before October 23, 2026 (Japan time) gets this from November 1, 2026.

Does GitHub Pages have a bandwidth limit?

Yes, a soft one. GitHub's docs say Pages sites have a soft bandwidth limit of 100 GB a month, may get HTTP 429 responses when rate limits apply, and may not be served if they exceed the usage quotas. GitHub may also email you suggestions, such as putting a CDN in front of the site.

Can a free host bill me for traffic?

Netlify says it never charges the Free plan. For the other hosts, read the pricing page of the plan you're on. Paid plans with metered usage are where overage shows up on an invoice. On Convika, Pro (the 1-year pass included) and MAX bill overage, at $0.10 per 10,000 views past what they include; on Free, the limit leads to the stop instead.

How many visitors can a free site handle?

As many as the plan's allowance covers. For a 1 MB page, GitHub Pages' soft 100 GB is about 100,000 opens a month, Tiiny Host Free covers 5,000 visits, and Netlify Free's 300 credits cover about 15 GB if nothing else uses them. Convika Free includes 10,000 page views a month whatever the file size.

Does a Convika game stop the moment it passes the limit?

No. A Free game keeps running for 7 days after 10,000 views in a month, with the Convika bar at the bottom, while your dashboard is locked. Subscribe to Pro monthly within those days and it never stops. If it does stop, Pro monthly brings it back within a minute.

How do I move a page to a paid plan?

Upgrade on the same host, so the address and players' saved data stay the same. On Convika, open Plans & Billing and pick Pro monthly or the 1-year pass; your pages keep their URLs. Pro and MAX subscriptions never stop for traffic, and neither does a 1-year Pro pass during its 365 days. You can buy the pass if your workspace has never had a paid subscription (a Pro monthly trial you canceled counts), isn't in a Pro trial that started without a card, and doesn't have Pro included with a page made for you. Otherwise, a Pro monthly subscription never stops.

Sources

• GitHub Pages limits (GitHub Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• How credits work (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Credit-based pricing plans (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Resume paused projects (Netlify Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Pages Functions pricing (Cloudflare Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Workers limits (Cloudflare Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Hobby Plan (Vercel Docs) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Plan limits explained (Tiiny Host Help Center) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Become a Supporter (Neocities) (checked October 21, 2026)
• Creator FAQ (itch.io) (checked October 21, 2026)