Should I upgrade to Heap Free Plan Session Cap and Retention Limits now?
Teams comparing product analytics vendors need an updated answer on Heap’s free-tier session cap, retention window, and upgrade triggers, since old pre-packaging guidance is often wrong for current cost planning.
Blockers
- requires_version: capability/monthly-sessions-10000 → package/heap-free-plan
- requires_version: capability/data-history-6-months → package/heap-free-plan
- requires_version: capability/data-history-12-months → package/heap-growth-plan
- Lock-in via capability/view-data-after-overage
Who this is for
- cost-sensitive
- small-team
Candidates
Stay on Heap Free
As of 2026-03-18, Heap’s Free plan includes up to 10,000 monthly sessions and 6 months of data history. Heap documents session usage on a rolling 30-day basis across all projects in the account. Heap’s pricing page says Free includes core analytics charts, unlimited enrichment sources, guides integrations, and SSO. If usage exceeds the plan limit, Heap says it does not drop or throttle data, but it requires an upgrade before the team can view data again.
When to choose
Use this when the team is cost-sensitive, early-stage, and can reliably stay under 10,000 monthly sessions. The decisive factor is whether 6 months of history is enough for planning and whether a hard view-block after overage is acceptable.
Tradeoffs
Lowest entry cost and enough for initial product analytics, but the session ceiling and short retention window make it weak for seasonal analysis or fast growth. The overage policy is softer than data loss, but it still creates an operational stop because data access is gated until upgrade.
Cautions
Do not plan around old Heap trial-era guidance. Check actual session consumption in Account > Manage > Plan Usage because the metric is rolling 30 days and account-wide, not a simple calendar-month estimate.
Upgrade to Heap Growth or above
As of 2026-03-18, Heap’s Growth plan raises data history to 12 months, while Pro and Premier use custom session pricing and can extend data history beyond the base plan with an add-on. Heap’s pricing page does not publish a standard self-serve Growth price; it instructs users to install the snippet to get an estimate. Heap’s help center says Pro and Premier can purchase up to 36 months of data history, with an extra month effectively available to preserve full calendar-month analysis. This path is the current answer once Free plan limits block visibility or retention needs exceed 6 months.
When to choose
Use this when the team expects to cross 10,000 monthly sessions, needs at least 12 months of trend data, or wants to avoid a visibility interruption after overage. The decisive factor is whether retention depth and predictable continued access matter more than keeping the analytics bill at zero.
Tradeoffs
More usable for real planning, budgeting, and year-over-year analysis, but pricing is less transparent and may require sales or usage-based estimation. Pro and Premier add flexibility, though extended history is not included by default.
Cautions
Do not assume Growth has a public list price or that Pro includes 36 months automatically. Check official docs and current quote details before budgeting, especially if extended history or session replay is part of the requirement.
Try with your AI agent
$ npm install -g pocketlantern $ pocketlantern init # Restart Claude Code, Cursor, or your MCP client, then ask: # "Should I upgrade to Heap Free Plan Session Cap and Retention Limits now?"