Shared hosting works by dividing a server fairly. CPU limits are the fairness mechanism — here is how they work and how to stay comfortably under them.
What the limit actually is Your account gets a share of the server's processing time (Kairalmas publishes per-plan PHP CPU caps, e.g. 'up to 0.5 vCPU'). It is not storage or bandwidth — it is the thinking power your site's code consumes.
What pushing over it feels like Brief 508/503 errors during traffic spikes, slow admin dashboards, or a polite email pointing at the graph. Good hosts warn before enforcing; bad hosts surprise-suspend.
The usual suspects (in order) 1. A heavy WordPress plugin doing work on every page view (stats widgets, related-posts scanners) 2. Bots hammering wp-login or xmlrpc.php — endless failed logins burn CPU 3. Uncached traffic: every visit executing full PHP when a cache could serve pages instantly 4. Cron jobs running too often 5. A genuinely successful site that has simply outgrown the plan (the good problem)
The fixes, in order of ease - Page caching (turns CPU work into almost none) - Login protection: limit attempts, disable xmlrpc if unused - Deactivate the heaviest plugin and re-measure - Upgrade when the graph says sustained, optimised usage
Kairalmas shows your usage in the portal — the goal is that you see the ceiling approaching weeks before you touch it.