# Quotas

Warning

As of Nova release 28.0.0 (2023.2 Bobcat), the `nova.quota.DbQuotaDriver` has been deprecated and the default quota driver configuration will be changed to the `nova.quota.UnifiedLimitsDriver` in the 29.0.0 (2024.1 Caracal) release. See the unified limits documentation.

Nova uses a quota system for setting limits on resources such as number of instances or amount of CPU that a specific project or user can use.

Quota limits and usage can be retrieved using the command-line interface.

## Types of quota

Quota name | Description
--- | ---
cores | Number of instance cores (VCPUs) allowed per project.
instances | Number of instances allowed per project.
key_pairs | Number of key pairs allowed per user.
metadata_items | Number of metadata items allowed per instance.
ram | Megabytes of instance ram allowed per project.
server_groups | Number of server groups per project.
server_group_members | Number of servers per server group.

The following quotas were previously available but were removed in microversion 2.36 as they proxied information available from the networking service.

Quota name | Description
--- | ---
fixed_ips | Number of fixed IP addresses allowed per project. This number must be equal to or greater than the number of allowed instances.
floating_ips | Number of floating IP addresses allowed per project.
networks | Number of networks allowed per project (no longer used).
security_groups | Number of security groups per project.
security_group_rules | Number of security group rules per project.

Similarly, the following quotas were previously available but were removed in microversion 2.57 as the personality files feature was deprecated.

Quota name | Description
--- | ---
injected_files | Number of injected files allowed per project.
injected_file_content_bytes | Number of content bytes allowed per injected file.
injected_file_path_bytes | Length of injected file path.

## Usage

### Project quotas

To list all default quotas for projects, run:

    $ openstack quota show --default

Note

This lists default quotas for all services and not just nova.

For example:

    $ openstack quota show --default
    +----------------------+----------+
    | Field                | Value    |
    +----------------------+----------+
    | backup-gigabytes     | 1000     |
    | backups              | 10       |
    | cores                | 20       |
    | fixed-ips            | -1       |
    | floating-ips         | 50       |
    | gigabytes            | 1000     |
    | health_monitors      | None     |
    | injected-file-size   | 10240    |
    | injected-files       | 5        |
    | injected-path-size   | 255      |
    | instances            | 10       |
    | key-pairs            | 100      |
    | l7_policies          | None     |
    | listeners            | None     |
    | load_balancers       | None     |
    | location             | None     |
    | name                 | None     |
    | networks             | 10       |
    | per-volume-gigabytes | -1       |
    | pools                | None     |
    | ports                | 50       |
    | project              | None     |
    | project_name         | project  |
    | properties           | 128      |
    | ram                  | 51200    |
    | rbac_policies        | 10       |
    | routers              | 10       |
    | secgroup-rules       | 100      |
    | secgroups            | 10       |
    | server-group-members | 10       |
    | server-groups        | 10       |
    | snapshots            | 10       |
    | subnet_pools         | -1       |
    | subnets              | 10       |
    | volumes              | 10       |
    +----------------------+----------+

To list the currently set quota values for your project, run:

    $ openstack quota show PROJECT

where `PROJECT` is the ID or name of your project. For example:

    $ openstack quota show $OS_PROJECT_ID
    +----------------------+----------------------------------+
    | Field                | Value                            |
    +----------------------+----------------------------------+
    | backup-gigabytes     | 1000                             |
    | backups              | 10                               |
    | cores                | 32                               |
    | fixed-ips            | -1                               |
    | floating-ips         | 10                               |
    | gigabytes            | 1000                             |
    | health_monitors      | None                             |
    | injected-file-size   | 10240                            |
    | injected-files       | 5                                |
    | injected-path-size   | 255                              |
    | instances            | 10                               |
    | key-pairs            | 100                              |
    | l7_policies          | None                             |
    | listeners            | None                             |
    | load_balancers       | None                             |
    | location             | None                             |
    | name                 | None                             |
    | networks             | 20                               |
    | per-volume-gigabytes | -1                               |
    | pools                | None                             |
    | ports                | 60                               |
    | project              | c8156b55ec3b486193e73d2974196993 |
    | project_name         | project                          |
    | properties           | 128                              |
    | ram                  | 65536                            |
    | rbac_policies        | 10                               |
    | routers              | 10                               |
    | secgroup-rules       | 50                               |
    | secgroups            | 50                               |
    | server-group-members | 10                               |
    | server-groups        | 10                               |
    | snapshots            | 10                               |
    | subnet_pools         | -1                               |
    | subnets              | 20                               |
    | volumes              | 10                               |
    +----------------------+----------------------------------+

To view a list of options for the openstack quota show command, run:

    $ openstack quota show --help

### User quotas

Note

User-specific quotas are legacy and will be removed when migration to unified limits is complete. User-specific quotas were added as a way to provide two-level hierarchical quotas and this feature is already being offered in unified limits. For this reason, the below commands have not and will not be ported to openstackclient.

To list the quotas for your user, run:

    $ nova quota-show --user USER --tenant PROJECT

where `USER` is the ID or name of your user and `PROJECT` is the ID or name of your project. For example:

    $ nova quota-show --user $OS_USERNAME --tenant $OS_PROJECT_ID
    +-----------------------------+-------+
    | Quota                       | Limit |
    +-----------------------------+-------+
    | instances                   | 10    |
    | cores                       | 32    |
    | ram                         | 65536 |
    | metadata_items              | 128   |
    | injected_files              | 5     |
    | injected_file_content_bytes | 10240 |
    | injected_file_path_bytes    | 255   |
    | key_pairs                   | 100   |
    | server_groups               | 10    |
    | server_group_members        | 10    |
    +-----------------------------+-------+

To view a list of options for the nova quota-show command, run:

    $ nova help quota-show

this page last updated: 2026-04-21 19:00:00

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