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 your workspace uses a custom contract, ALLO may route 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.

Some plans sync seat quantity from the active member count. In that case, adding or removing billable members can trigger a subscription quantity update instead of a separate manual seat field. ALLO still protects the workspace from setting paid quantity below the active billable member count.

Removing or deactivating members can lower future seat needs on eligible flexible-seat plans, but it is not automatically a refund.

If the billing provider applies a prorated credit after a seat reduction:

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

See Fair billing and proration for the full billing model.

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.

Seat changes on custom contracts

If Billing shows Contact Sales, use that path for seat changes. Workspaces on custom contracts may have custom terms, discounts, billing intervals, or seat commitments that cannot be changed safely from a normal checkout flow.

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 the workspace uses a custom contract and urgent access is blocked. Include the workspace name, current member count, desired seat count, and screenshot of the warning.