Update speed and schedules
How often each source type can update, how to pick a speed or a calendar schedule, and the free refresh that keeps widgets alive.
Each source has its own speed. Slower costs fewer credits.
Speeds
The steps are: every 15 minutes, every hour, every 3 hours, every 6 hours, twice a day, daily, every 3 days, weekly. Which ones a source offers depends on its type:
| Source | Fastest | Slowest offered |
|---|---|---|
| X | every 15 minutes (on Scale, see below) | weekly |
| YouTube | every hour | every 3 days |
| every hour | weekly | |
| Twitch, Kick | every hour | weekly |
| Google reviews | daily | weekly |
| Testimonials | no update speed: what you save shows on its own |
Fastest speed on each plan
Your plan also sets a fastest speed, for every source type:
| Plan | Fastest |
|---|---|
| Free | daily |
| Starter | every hour |
| Growth, Pro and Scale | every 15 minutes, or the source’s own fastest if that is slower |
Each update spends credits and asks the platform for new content, and a faster speed does more of both, so the plan sets how often a feed can update.
X has its own fastest on each plan
Each X update is a paid request, so faster updates are on higher plans, and an X update costs 3 credits:
| Plan | Fastest for X |
|---|---|
| Free | weekly |
| Starter | daily |
| Growth | every 6 hours |
| Pro | every hour |
| Scale | every 15 minutes |
Slower steps, down to weekly, are on every plan. An X source set faster than its plan allows moves to the plan’s fastest for X, and the bell tells you it changed.
The three zones on the slider
Every source row has a slider with all of its type’s speeds, slowest on the left, labelled in words (Weekly, 3 days, Daily, 12 h and so on up to 15 min). The label above it says the speed you chose and what it costs a month, for example “Daily · 30 credits a month”. While feeds are slowed to make credits last it leads with what actually runs and what that costs, for example “About every 3 days until Nov 1 (set to daily) · 10 credits a month”; a source slowed as far as its free refresh says “costs nothing at this pace” instead of a cost. The steps fall into three zones, and the credits card above the list explains the marks once:
- Normal. Your plan allows the speed and your credits carry it all month, with everything else you have connected.
- Dotted. Your plan allows the speed, but your credits cannot carry it. Nothing pops up on the row: the step only has a dotted underline on the scale. When none of a row’s speeds fit, the row shows no dots at all, and the credits card says it once. It still saves if you want it: your feeds simply slow down together so the credits last until the refill, as described in Plans and credits. One source updating every hour at 1 credit an update spends 720 credits a month, which is more than a small plan’s allowance. Once the sources together spend more than your allowance, one line under the credit meter above the list names the heaviest sources that can still go slower (by what each really spends at its pace, so a source already at its free refresh is never named), offers See plans (or Buy credits on the top plan), and a Show them button that scrolls to those sources and outlines them for a moment.
- With a lock. The speed is above your plan’s fastest. Choosing one says which plan has it and does not save anything.
The zones use the same projection as the credit meter above the list. The bar moves live as you drag, and the lines under it update when you let go, so nothing jumps under your pointer. The zones change when you change another source. A source paused for inactivity or set to manual only spends nothing, so none of its steps is dotted. A source that needs a reconnect has no slider until it is back. Your agent gets the same information: get_credits lists every step of every live source as ok, tight or locked, get_source_schedule and update_source describe them in words, and the REST API answers the same.
An agent asking for a locked speed gets an answer naming the plan that has it. If you move to a smaller plan, a source set faster than the new plan allows runs at the plan’s fastest straight away, and the dashboard tells you it changed.
When you connect a source, TileSet picks the fastest speed your monthly allowance can carry given the sources you already have (or the slowest one, if none fits), and you can change it on the source row. The picker shows what each speed costs per month.
Slower this month
X posts and Google reviews come from paid data services with monthly limits that TileSet shares. When this month’s share runs low, TileSet slows X and Google updates down for everyone so it lasts the month, free accounts first and paid accounts last, and the credit meter says “X updates are slower this month” (or the same for Google reviews) with the date they speed up again. If the share is used up, those updates wait until 00:00 UTC on the 1st: a new X or Google source’s first update waits (its row shows Waiting and the date its first update arrives), Update now answers with the date, and on the free plan a new X or Google source cannot be connected until then. Widgets keep showing their last posts and reviews the whole time, and the free refresh still runs. Nothing is charged for an update that waits.
Set days and a time
Instead of the speed slider you can update a source on chosen days at a set time: weekdays at 9:00, say. Press Schedule on the source row, and under Set days and a time tick the days, set the time and press Save schedule. This is on every plan. Times use the account’s time zone, which you pick under Credits. Choose Use the speed slider again to undo it.
The free refresh
If nothing has updated a source for a while, TileSet still refreshes it for free. For YouTube that is about every 5 days, so the stored images never expire and go blank. It also applies to manual-only sources and sources waiting for credits. Review sources, Pinterest get a slower free refresh, about every three weeks, since their pictures load from the platform and never expire on our side. This keeps your widget alive; it does not make a feed fresh.
A Twitch source is never shown more than 23 hours old: once its copy is that old, the next view fetches it again, free, whatever speed you chose. Kick works the same way, and a Kick card is also read again when the widget is viewed, at most every 2 minutes, free and whatever the speed.
Paused while nobody looks (free plan)
On the free plan, a source whose widgets and Link in bio page have been shown at least once and then not viewed for 14 days stops spending credits on updates. It starts again by itself the next time someone loads one of its pages, and the widget keeps showing what it has meanwhile. YouTube keep their free refresh while paused, so their images never go blank. Paid plans are never paused. Testimonials are never refreshed, since there is nothing to fetch.
Failed updates
If a platform fails during an update, the widget keeps its last good posts. A failed refresh is retried on the source’s own interval rather than on every cycle. A source that needs you says so on its row: see the per-source pages for reconnecting.