# Parallel Instances

On paid service plans, you can configure Agents to scale to multiple instances. Scaling can happen in two ways.

For HTTP and Event Agents, you can scale based on Compute. If compute hits a given threshold (e.g. - 80%), Contextual will automatically scale up another Agent instance.

For Event Agents, you can also scale based on message lag. Based on the number of messages a given agent is required to process it can dynamically scale up to handle the increased message volume.

<figure><img src="/files/KJriTvdlTLEeoaouVrql" alt=""><figcaption><p>Compute-Based Agent Scaling</p></figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="/files/PRqh1X6yLfDGiAgPs0VU" alt=""><figcaption><p>Message Lag-Based Agent Scaling</p></figcaption></figure>


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.contextual.io/documentation-and-resources/components-and-data/agents/scale-and-performance/parallel-instances.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.