"Unlimited" really means 10,000 or fewer operations per month
Asked by Lori:

Saying the new Premium plan command runs per month will be "unlimited" is incorrect, because 1) every command contains one or more operations, and 2) the Premium plan has a limit of 10,000 operations per month per user. Therefore the true limit is 10,000 or fewer command runs per month, depending on how many operations a user has in their various commands. I've copied the source of this info from your help site below.

You say on yourwebsite that "you don't generally need to worry about hitting \[the operations quota\]", but I when I first started using Butler I went through 200 commands in just a few days. It's easy to do when you take advantage of Butler's features, especially the ways you promote doing so. I scaled back to hardly any use of Butler because of the previous limit. If I start using it the way I'd like, I know I'll hit 10,000 operations per month. I think you are being very misleading in calling this "unlimited". Am I misunderstanding something?

*From Trello's website page "Butler quotas and limits - Trello Help" (<https://help.trello.com/article/1181-butler-features-and-quotas>):*

In addition to the command runs quota, Butler also enforces an **operations quota** but it is set high enough so you don't generally need to worry about hitting it. Each command run may use one or more operations. For example, a command may set a label and a due date on a card, and that counts as two operations every time it runs. Most actions consume one operation, but some actions, like sorting a list, may require multiple operations.

The following are Butler quotas for different Trello plans.

|----------------------------|----------------------------------|----------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|                            | **Free**                         | **Standard**                     | **Premium**                             | **Enterprise**                       |
| **Command runs per month** | 250                              | 1,000                            | Unlimited                               | Unlimited                            |
| **Operations per month**   | 2,500                            | 20,000                           | 10,000 per paid user, capped at 250,000 | 10,000 per user                      |
| **Quota pooling**          | Pooled for all Workspace members | Pooled for all Workspace members | Pooled for all Workspace members        | Pooled across all Enterprise members |

**Note:** Quotas reset on the first day of every month at midnight GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).


Answers:
author: Alex W
body: Hi Lori,

You're right - the operations per month are not unlimited. Our [Pricing page](https://trello.com/pricing) says for both Premium and Enterprise, you receive 'Unlimited automated command runs', not unlimited operations. Each command may have one or more operations.

If you hit the operations limit in your first days of using automation, this is probably because you were testing out commands, which would of course increase the number of operations you have. I'm guessing you were also at a lower limit of operations and command runs, which would've been part of the problem.

I work for the support team, and we*very rarely* have Enterprise users tell us they hit their Operations limit, who, up until a couple of days ago, were the only users that had unlimited Command Runs. If they do go over, we do have the ability to adjust the Operations limit for that month - but we do this sparingly, and we don't do this every month for users - not that we get the same users reporting that they're using their full operations each month. On top of that, we sometimes look at your automations if it's a recurring problem, and see if there's more efficient ways to do what automations have been set as with less operations or another solution.

For context, free users, before the changes released this week, had a limit of 50 command runs and 500 operations - so yeah, it would definitely be easier to run through that limit. I can see you had Gold, which was 200 command runs and 2000 operations, not as easy to hit the limits as a Gold membership but still only 20% of the operations limit for Premium/Enterprise users. You've also mentioned you went through 200 commands, not operations.

So to summarise - yes, command runs are unlimited while operations are not, but you'd have to be trying *really hard* to be hitting that, and if you do hit that limit, you'll see that your other users have their own 10000 limit, and as long as the full workspace doesn't hit 250000 operations, you should be sweet!

comments: author: Lori
body: Thank you for replying, but I'm still not satisfied. My transfer to a Workspace and free 60-day trial of Premium happened today, and I received emails from Trello saying that with Premium I now have "Unlimited Automation", with no caveats. You are misleading customers by saying that you are offering unlimited automation.


author: Celeb Pilgrim
body: I agree with you - it's misleading.

Trello, surely you can see that your Premium users do not care whether you call it a "command run" or "an operation" when they try to see whether they should pay for a service described as unlimited, they care about what they can actually do with the product based on the perception you've created in your marketing material and feature announcements.

At the moment looking at your Pricing page there is no caveat such as the one found on the technical page linked above (which most people, like me, will only see once they've hit a snag). When I hit my 10,000 "operations" a couple of days ago, thankfully near the end of the month, I was genuinely confused to read on the technical page that there was a limitation at all, you obviously create the perception everywhere else that there is not, including when you made the announcement.

I may have a limited number of relatively superfluous rules which I've tried to tidy up since I noticed my automation wasn't running, so we will see whether I can squeeze my usage within what you've set as being reasonable. The "you were probably testing it out" explanation doesn't apply to me unfortunately since I'd tested everything back in September, not so much in October.

If there must be a limitation so be it, it's understandable, but please be more transparent about it on your Pricing page - and consider whether you should use slogans such as "unlimited automation" at all. I wouldn't actually be able to increase my number of "operations" even by paying more because I'm a sole trader with a sole account and am already on the most expensive plan available to me.

As I said I can probably do away with the least helpful rules I'd set, but to clarify I never pushed it beyond reason in October, I simply sought to make use of it in a way which renders my main board more efficient for how I work. That's why I felt strongly enough about the mismatch between promise and reality to post here, I'm a power user but I don't feel I've been particularly unreasonable in my usage. I'll probably be alright when it resets in a couple of days' time, but please try to manage expectations better with what you put out - long-time Trello aficionados like me, and newer customers, will thank you for it.


author: Andy McAfee
body: I had the same revelation. I implemented some heavy butler automation, and realized I would hit 10k operations before EOM. I think one of my processes used 1000 operations! I revised my automation to fit the constraints, and I'm content. However, it would be nice to have unlimited operations or much more than 10k