---
title: "Protect free tiers from automated abuse · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits/free-tier-abuse
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Protect free tiers from automated abuse

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Abuse and limits](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits)
- Rule: Limit what one person can take from a free plan or trial, so scripts cannot create endless accounts to get free use.
- How: Tie trials to a confirmed email or phone, and watch for many accounts from one source. Put a hard cap on costly work such as AI calls, exports and emails per account. Alert when total use jumps. See also [guard text sending against SMS pumping](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/text-messages/sms-pumping).
- Check: Create three test accounts from one address in a few minutes. The third is blocked or held for review, and each account stops at its cap.

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers security testing playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits/free-tier-abuse`.

- Previous: [Stop spam and fake sign-ups](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits/form-spam)
- Next: [Confirm payments on the server](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits/confirm-payment-server-side)
- [Abuse and limits](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/adversarial-testing/abuse-and-limits)