The Free tier gives you everything you need to protect a real project. 10,000 rate-limit checks a day, 5 rules, 3 namespaces. Every algorithm and every capability is included — overrides, quotas, blocklists, analytics, the TypeScript SDK. The difference between Free and Business is scale, not capability.
There is no time limit. Your account does not expire. Your checks do not get throttled to a "trial" tier after 30 days. The free tier is a permanent tier, not a teaser.
What you can build on Free
The Free tier is sized for prototypes, side projects, internal tools, and pre-launch validation. Common patterns that fit comfortably:
- Login and signup rate limiting for a small app (credential-stuffing defense)
- Per-user API limits for an internal tool
- A contact form or webhook endpoint protected against spam
- Evaluation: run Brume next to your current solution and compare verdicts
What's included
All four algorithms, per-identifier overrides (up to the tier cap), long-window quotas, block & allow lists, per-identifier analytics, multi-rule evaluation is excluded on Free, and the full TypeScript SDK. There is no feature gating by tier beyond the caps below.
The main differences from paid tiers are:
- Checks/day: 10,000 (vs 250,000 / 1,000,000 / 5,000,000)
- Rate-limit rules: 5 (vs 25 / 100 / unlimited)
- Namespaces: 3 (vs 10 / 50 / unlimited)
- Overrides per rule: 0 (vs 10 / 50 / unlimited)
- Quotas: 1 (vs 5 / 25 / unlimited)
- Blocklist entries: 10 (vs 100 / 1,000 / unlimited)
- Multi-rule evaluation: not included (vs included)
- Projects per workspace: 1 (vs 3 / 10 / unlimited)
- Team seats: 1 (vs 3 / 10 / unlimited)
- Webhook destinations: 1 (vs 5 / 25 / unlimited)
- Audit log retention: 7 days (vs 30 / 90 / 365)
- Support: Community Discord (vs email, priority email, or Slack channel)
No credit card required
You can sign up, mint an API key, and make your first check in under two minutes. There is no credit card form, no trial countdown, no auto-conversion to a paid plan.
When your project outgrows the free tier, upgrading is a single click. Your caps increase immediately, your existing rules keep working, and the upgrade is pro-rated to the day.
When to use the free tier indefinitely
Some applications never need more than 10,000 checks a day. A developer tool used by a small team. A personal project with 20 users. An internal endpoint that sees a few hundred requests an hour. For these applications, the free tier is the right answer. There is no "real" tier you should be on. The free tier is real.