Chromatic "Failed to publish" snapshot/build limit reached in CI

Chromatic accepted the upload but the account has used its allotted snapshots or builds for the billing period, so publishing is rejected. This is a quota issue, not a config or code error.

What this error means

The chromatic step fails with "Failed to publish to Chromatic" and a message that the snapshot or build limit for the plan has been reached.

chromatic

✖ Failed to publish to Chromatic
Your account has reached its snapshot limit for this billing period.
Upgrade your plan or wait for the limit to reset.

Common causes

The plan snapshot quota is exhausted

Each visual snapshot counts against a monthly allotment; high-frequency CI runs or large story sets can exhaust it before the period resets.

Every push triggers a full snapshot run

Running Chromatic on every commit and branch multiplies snapshots, burning quota faster than expected.

How to fix it

Reduce snapshots per run

Limit Chromatic to PRs and the default branch instead of every push.
Use TurboSnap so only stories affected by changed files are snapshotted.
Re-run once usage is under the limit or the period resets.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

- uses: chromaui/action@latest
  with:
    projectToken: ${{ secrets.CHROMATIC_PROJECT_TOKEN }}
    onlyChanged: true

Skip drafts and non-UI branches

Gate the Chromatic job so it does not run on every branch, conserving snapshots for changes that need review.

How to prevent it

Enable TurboSnap (onlyChanged) to snapshot only affected stories.
Run Chromatic on PRs and main, not on every push to every branch.
Monitor snapshot usage so quota does not surprise the team mid-period.