diff --git a/backend/app/routes/channels.py b/backend/app/routes/channels.py
index dca498e3..7919e9a8 100644
--- a/backend/app/routes/channels.py
+++ b/backend/app/routes/channels.py
@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ def discover_channels(
     # (fresh subscriber counts/thumbnails carry through without a re-query). Only the title can
     # change, which affects the tie-break order → re-sort in Python instead of re-hitting the DB.
     need = [ch.id for ch, _, _ in rows if ch.details_synced_at is None][:DISCOVERY_ENRICH_CAP]
-    if need:
+    # Skip the quota-spending enrich for the demo account (it just sees the stub metadata).
+    if need and not user.is_demo:
         try:
             with quota.attribute(user.id, quota.QuotaAction.CHANNELS_DISCOVER), YouTubeClient(db, user) as yt:
                 apply_channel_details(db, yt.get_channels(need))
@@ -402,7 +403,14 @@ def update_channel(
     # Opting a channel into full history should give an immediate feed: if we haven't even
     # fetched its recent uploads yet, do that one channel now (cheap) instead of waiting for
     # the scheduler. Deep paging still follows on the scheduler's next run (recent-then-deep).
-    if deep_turned_on and channel is not None and channel.recent_synced_at is None:
+    # Not for the demo account: it must not be able to trigger an immediate quota-burning backfill
+    # (the scheduler's deep paths are already human-only). Same guard as channel_detail's enrichment.
+    if (
+        deep_turned_on
+        and channel is not None
+        and channel.recent_synced_at is None
+        and not user.is_demo
+    ):
         with quota.attribute(user.id, quota.QuotaAction.VIDEOS_BACKFILL_RECENT):
             run_recent_backfill(db, [channel], max_channels=1)
 
diff --git a/backend/app/routes/feed.py b/backend/app/routes/feed.py
index e5d29525..443ee19b 100644
--- a/backend/app/routes/feed.py
+++ b/backend/app/routes/feed.py
@@ -737,6 +737,11 @@ def get_video_detail(
             "duration_seconds": v.duration_seconds,
         }
 
+    # The DB path above is free; the off-catalog YouTube lookup below spends a quota unit, so the
+    # demo account can't reach it — it just sees "unknown" for a video we don't already store.
+    if user.is_demo:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Unknown video")
+
     try:
         with quota.attribute(user.id, quota.QuotaAction.VIDEOS_LOOKUP), YouTubeClient(db, user) as yt:
             items = yt.get_videos([video_id])