If you’re using PostHog like we do for analytics and testing, you’ve probably seen that at some point it starts charging you for the data you collect.

In this guide, I’ll quickly explain how PostHog billing works and more importantly share some easy things you can do right now to avoid unnecessary costs.

How PostHog Billing Works

First things first: PostHog gives you free monthly limits on its main products:

• Product Analytics – 1 million events per month free.
• Session Replay – 15,000 recordings per month free.
• Feature flags & Experiments – 1 million requests per month free.

These limits are actually pretty generous. You might think “I’ll never hit those!” And yeah, they’re big. But if you don’t pay attention to what you’re capturing, you can easily blow through them without even realizing it.

So let’s talk about how to make sure that doesn’t happen.

1. Adjust PostHog’s Default Settings

When you first set up PostHog on your site or app, it has a bunch of default settings that just work. That’s great for getting started, but it also means it might collect a lot more data than you really need.

If you tweak those settings a bit, you can massively cut down on data (and costs) without losing anything important.

2. Reduce Unnecessary Session Replay Recordings

Session replays are super helpful but also the fastest way to burn through your free tier. By default, PostHog might record way too many sessions and lots of them are completely useless.

Here’s what we do to fix that:

Set a Minimum Session Duration

We tell PostHog not to bother recording sessions shorter than, say, 10 seconds.
Most of those super short visits are just bounces or accidental clicks. No one’s watching those recordings anyway.

Use Sampling

You don’t need to record every single session. You can tell PostHog to only sample a portion of traffic (like 10% or 20%).
This gives you plenty of data to learn from, without burning through your quota.

Filter by Feature Flags or Pages

This one’s really handy.
We tell PostHog: “Only record sessions on these specific pages” or “Only if this feature flag is active.”
For example, you might only want replays for your checkout page or when you’re testing a new feature.

3. Control Your Event Tracking

Events are the other big way costs sneak up. By default, PostHog starts capturing:

• Autocapture (pretty much all interactions)
• Pageviews
• Page leaves

These can pile up fast.

Turn Off “Page Leave” Events (If You Don’t Need Them)

Page leave events track when users exit a page. If you don’t really care about measuring exact time-on-page, you can just switch this off.
You’ll save a bunch of events with almost no downside.

Tame Autocapture

Autocapture is super powerful, it records nearly every user interaction automatically. But it can go overboard fast. What we do:

• Turn it off by default if we don’t need that level of detail.
• Turn it on only when we’re specifically studying user behavior in detail.

You can still manually track the events that matter most.

4. Check Your Billing Dashboard Often

This one’s easy but important: keep an eye on your billing dashboard in PostHog.
It shows you exactly how much of your free quota you’ve used for events, session replays, and more.
By checking in regularly, you’ll know exactly when something is starting to get out of control.

Set Billing Limits

One of the best features PostHog offers is billing limits.
You can literally set a hard cap like 1 million events. Once you hit that, PostHog stops recording new events until next month.
That way you’ll never get surprise bills. by the way, you can edit it anytime you want.

5. Make This a Habit

Don’t set it and forget it. Make a habit of checking your usage, especially as your site traffic grows. It only takes a few minutes and can save you a lot of money over time. By reviewing your dashboard regularly, you can spot usage spikes early, identify which product is driving costs, and adjust your settings as needed.

Need More Details?

If you want to know exactly how to change these settings in PostHog, check their doc which I mentioned here.

With just a little effort, you can keep PostHog free (or at least cheap) while still getting all the insights you need.

If you’re here, I bet you’ve got that never-ending curiosity. Go ahead and check out this link to learn more.