Manage seat limits

Seats control how many people can belong to the workspace plan

A seat is paid capacity for a workspace member. If your workspace has more active members than the plan allows, ALLO can show an over-seat warning. Admins can recover by adding seats, changing the plan, or reducing member count.

Seat limits are workspace billing limits. They are not the same as active sessions, shared canvas permissions, dashboard permissions, or storage limits. If one person is signed in on too many devices, use Manage active sessions. If too many people belong to the workspace, use this article.

Availability

What counts as a seat

The workspace member list is the first place to check. Active members generally count toward seat usage. Removed or deactivated members should not be treated the same as active collaborators. Guests, external collaborators, and shared-link viewers can behave differently depending on how they were invited and what access they have. Use Invite guests and external collaborators when someone needs limited access instead of full workspace membership.

Use Manage members to review the actual member list, roles, invitations, and deactivated users. If someone only has access to one shared canvas and is not a full workspace member, do not assume they are the source of an over-seat warning without checking the member list.

How ALLO shows an over-seat issue

ALLO may show a workspace banner when the member count is over the paid seat limit. If there are also payment or storage issues, a different banner may appear first. Payment failure usually takes priority because an unpaid invoice can affect the whole workspace.

Admins usually get a recovery action that opens Billing or member management. Non-admins may see a message that asks them to contact an admin. That role split is intentional. Buying seats or removing members is a workspace admin decision.

Admin recovery options

Do not remove people only to clear a banner. Check whether they own critical projects, dashboards, files, or canvases first. If someone left the company, transfer ownership or confirm access before removal.

Add seats

Open Billing and choose the seat or plan action. Review the new seat count, price, billing interval, and invoice preview before confirming. If the workspace uses an enterprise or institutional agreement with pre-purchased licenses, ALLO sends you to Contact Sales instead of checkout.

For paid workspaces, adding seats can create an automatic prorated charge for the remaining part of the current billing period. Billing shows an invoice preview before you confirm so an admin can review the new seat count and any immediate amount due. If the payment method requires verification, complete the secure verification step before returning to ALLO.

Paid workspace subscriptions managed directly in Billing sync license quantity from the active billable member count. Adding or removing billable members updates the subscription quantity instead of requiring a separate manual seat field.

Removing or deactivating members lowers the paid license quantity on paid workspace subscriptions managed directly in Billing. If the current period was already paid, ALLO keeps the unused license time as billing credit rather than returning it to the card.

After a paid license reduction:

• Billing shows it as an invoice or account credit.
• It does not become AI credits.
• It automatically reduces the current or a future invoice instead of returning money to the card.

See Fair billing and proration for the full billing model, and Billing credits for when a prorated credit applies to a later invoice.

After adding seats, refresh the workspace if the banner remains. Payment confirmation and billing sync can take a few minutes. If member count still exceeds the new seat count after refresh, add more seats or reduce the member list.

Reduce member count

Open Manage members, review active members, pending invites, and roles, then remove or deactivate people who no longer need access. If a pending invite counts in your workspace's seat logic, canceling old invites may help. If it does not, the active member list is still the key place to check.

Before removing someone, review whether they own shared work. Removing a member can change how their content appears to others, and it may block them from opening workspace dashboards, projects, and canvases. If the person should still collaborate on a single canvas, consider whether external sharing is more appropriate than full workspace membership.

Non-admin recovery

If you are not an admin, send an admin the banner text and workspace name. If you know why the workspace went over the limit, include that context: for example, "three contractors were invited today" or "two former employees are still active members."

If the over-seat warning blocks your work and no admin is available, contact support. Support may still need an authorized workspace owner or billing contact before changing paid capacity.

Seat limit versus access problems

An over-seat warning can affect workspace administration, but not every access problem is a seat problem.

Pre-purchased enterprise and institutional licenses

If Billing shows Contact Sales, use that path for license changes. Enterprise and university or other institutional agreements can pre-purchase a fixed license quantity, so removing a member does not automatically reduce the purchased quantity or create billing credit.

When contacting sales or support, include current member count, desired seat count, renewal timing, and whether the over-seat warning is blocking urgent work.

Troubleshooting seat warnings

When to contact support

Contact support when the seat count in Billing does not match the member list after refresh, a seat purchase completed but the banner remains, the billing admin left the company, or a workspace with pre-purchased enterprise or institutional licenses has urgent access blocked. Include the workspace name, current member count, desired seat count, and screenshot of the warning.