# 403: the 20-serverless-index project cap

## The error

`This project already contains 20 serverless indexes, the maximum per project. Delete any unused indexes and try again, or create a new project for more serverless indexes.` HTTP 403.

## Cause

The project hit its quota. Pinecone caps each project at 20 serverless indexes. The usual way agents get here: one index per experiment, per branch, per tenant, none ever deleted.

## Fix

1. List indexes and delete the experiments: `pc.list_indexes()`, then `pc.delete_index(name)` for the dead ones. Deletion is permanent; export anything you need first.
2. For multitenancy, stop creating indexes per tenant. One index with one namespace per tenant is the documented pattern, and it also speeds up queries.
3. If you genuinely need more than 20, create a new project.

## Trap

Treating this as a bug in the create call and retrying. It is a quota; retries change nothing. The other trap is "temporarily" moving to a second project and now having indexes in two places with no record of which is canonical.