> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.chronosphere.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Licensing and system limits

Chronosphere Observability Platform enforces two categories of limits that govern
how telemetry data flows through the system: license limits and system limits.

To stay within defined limits, [control your telemetry data](/control) to manage data
volume.

## License limits

License limits are defined in your contract and track telemetry usage against your
purchased capacity. Licensing applies across metrics, traces, logs, and change
events, and is measured by using dimensions such as persisted writes, matched writes,
and persisted cardinality. Organizations that purchase credits can spend a single
pool of capacity across any telemetry type.

Track consumption against your budgets using the
[License Overview](/administer/limits-licensing/licensing), which surfaces snapshot
and trend views per telemetry type. Refer to these pages for terminology about
licensing in Observability Platform:

* [Concepts](/administer/limits-licensing/concepts) describe licensing concepts such
  as persisted writes, matched writes, persisted cardinality, and metric license
  types.
* [Definitions](/administer/limits-licensing/definitions) provide formal definitions
  of units like active time series, credits, and resolution.

## System limits

System limits are unchangeable technical constraints that protect Observability
Platform from instability caused by abnormal traffic patterns. These limits act as
circuit breakers and can't be modified by anyone, including Chronosphere Support.

Each telemetry type has specific system limits. See [system limits](/administer/limits-licensing/limits)
for more information about limits and protections for each data type.