---
title: 'Project lifecycle'
description: 'Distinguish read-only restrictions, paused service, and deletion.'
---

# Project lifecycle

Inspect the project banner before attempting recovery. A read-only project and a paused project have different behavior.

| State                      | Effect                                               | Recovery location                           |
| -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| Free read-only restriction | Queries continue; mutations are blocked.             | Settings → Plan; review the upgrade action. |
| Manual pause               | GraphQL, automations, and Chat are stopped.          | Settings → General; Unpause project.        |
| Spending pause             | Service stopped after the configured usage boundary. | Settings → Spending; review mode and limit. |



## Pause deliberately

Use General settings when you intend to pause a project. Communicate the impact to users and dependent integrations first. A pause affects backend work, even when the separately hosted Studio application still loads.

## Delete deliberately

Before using Delete, verify the team and project ID, understand the confirmation's consequences, and preserve any data you need through supported [export tools](/docs/guides/import-export). A dataset export is not a promise of full project restoration. Recreating application code does not recover deleted project data or configuration.

## Verify restoration

After resolving the stated cause, reopen Studio and perform a small read. Then verify an intended write in development data where appropriate. If the same restriction remains, capture the project ID and message for [support](/docs/support).

See also [project paused errors](/docs/errors/project-paused).


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