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Launched your app on Clerk development keys? The 100-user cap

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Source checked 10 Oct 2026 · Published 23 Oct 2026 · Last reviewed 23 Oct 2026 · By Ctrl+Z Therapy (how we test)

The short answer

If your Clerk keys start with pk_test_ and sk_test_, your live app is on a Development instance. Clerk's docs: "Development instances are capped at 100 users", and "user data can not be transferred between instances". Development instances also have a more relaxed security posture and are not suitable for production workloads.

What to do

  1. Create a Production instance and add your own OAuth credentials, for example for Google. The shared OAuth credentials Clerk gives you in development are not secure in production.
  2. Connect a domain you own. Clerk's Vercel guide says "you cannot use a *.vercel.app domain for production".
  3. Put the production instance's keys in your hosting provider's environment variables and redeploy. Clerk says forgetting to switch keys is a common mistake.
  4. Ask your AI tool: "Check whether this app uses Clerk development keys (pk_test_). List what I need to switch to a Clerk production instance: keys, domain, OAuth credentials."

Good to know

  • Clerk's docs don't say what happens at user 101. They only say development instances are capped at 100 users.
  • DNS records can take up to 48 hours to propagate.

Source

Checked on 10 Oct 2026. Prices, limits and settings change, so check the source before you rely on them.