Guide · Updated 16 October 2026
Lead caps explained: limit buyers without losing leads
Short answer
A cap is a limit on how much a buyer or publisher can take in a set time, such as 100 leads a day or a weekly spend. When a cap is full, the lead should move to the next buyer instead of being lost.
What you can cap
Buyers usually agree volumes up front, so caps keep you inside the deal. Common limits are leads, accepted leads, sales or conversions, spend and clicks, counted by the hour, day, week or month.
What happens when a cap is full
A buyer cap normally sends the lead on to the next buyer in the cascade. A click cap can let the click through but stop counting and paying for it. Choose the action deliberately, because it decides whether volume is rerouted, paused or ignored.
Daily, rolling and warm-up caps
- Daily and monthly caps reset at a set time, which suits buyer contracts.
- Rolling-hour caps look back over the last few hours, which smooths out sudden bursts.
- A warm-up delay lets a new cap wait until some traffic has arrived before it starts counting.
Caps in pingtype
pingtype caps can count leads, accepted leads, conversions, spend or clicks, by the hour, day, week, month or rolling hours. Each cap shows how much is used and left, and you choose what happens at the limit. A Cap pressure report shows how often caps were full and what that cost.
Questions
What is an overcap action?
What the system does once a cap is full: route the lead on, let it through without counting it, or pause. In pingtype you choose it per cap.
Can a cap start later?
Yes. In pingtype a cap can wait until a number of clicks have arrived before it starts counting.
How do caps affect publisher payouts?
Capped traffic can be held back, so you do not pay for volume that was not accepted. See the payouts page for held payouts.