How billing works
Plane uses a per-seat billing model for paid plans. You pay for the number of seats in your workspace, not the total number of users. Understanding this distinction helps you manage costs effectively while giving you the flexibility to map seats to your teams.
Why per-seat instead of per-user
Most SaaS tools charge per user. Every person who accesses the system counts toward your bill. Plane takes a different approach.
The per-seat model separates billing from user roles. You purchase seats for users who need full access—Admins and Members—while users who need limited access—Guests—are not billed at all. This reflects how teams actually work. Not everyone needs the same level of access.
For example, a typical workspace might have 20 Admins and Members and 100 Guests spanning non-participating stakeholders, clients, contractors, and other users. With per-seat pricing, you pay for 20 seats and get 5 Guest slots per paid seat for a total 100 Guest slots. Guests cost nothing extra. This model becomes more cost-effective as your Guest population grows.
WARNING
Guest allocation works differently on Enterprise Grid. Since Enterprise Grid includes Granular Access Control (GAC) where any role can have any permission, the preset system-defined roles don't apply. All users at the instance level are billable seats.
How seat-based billing works
Pro and Business plans
Billing happens per workspace. If you have multiple workspaces, each requires its own subscription. When you upgrade a workspace to a paid plan, you're charged for all seats, regardless of how those seats are distributed across projects.
Enterprise Grid
Billing happens at the instance or the tenant level. A single Enterprise Grid license covers the entire instance, including all workspaces within it. This means you can have multiple workspaces under one license.
Seat allocation and usage
Seats are resources that you assign to users. When you upgrade, you purchase a specific number of seats. Those seats form a pool that you allocate to users.
For example, you might upgrade with 50 seats, assign 45 to current Admins and Members, and keep 5 available for the future.
The initial seat count matches your current team size. When upgrading through Plane's interface, you automatically get as many seats as the number of Admins and Members currently in your workspace. On self-hosted instances upgrading through the Prime portal, you specify the seat count yourself.
Guest allocation
On Pro and Business plans, every paid seat includes 5 Guest slots. These Guest slots are pooled at the workspace level, just like seats. If you have 20 paid seats, you get 100 Guest slots total (20 × 5).
This does not apply to the Enterprise Grid. All users are billable seats at the instance level regardless of role. This is because Enterprise Grid will include Global Access Control, which lets you define custom permissions for any role. This means our preset system-defined roles no longer apply in the same way. Plus, your Enterprise Grid license isn't tied to a single workspace. You can have multiple workspaces with Enterprise features turned on.
Managing seats over time
Adding seats
You must add seats before adding new paid users. If all your seats are assigned and you want to add another Admin or Member, you first purchase additional seats from Manage seats on Workspace settings → Billing and plans or Workspace settings → Members.
New seats are charged immediately to your card on file. The charge is prorated if you're mid-cycle or at full price if you're at the start of a cycle. Plane shows you the amount before you confirm. See How proration works for more.
WARNING
If you don't have an online payment method on file or you have an offline subscription, you must contact Plane support to adjust your seat count. The system can't automatically charge for new seats without payment information.
Removing seats
Removing members doesn't reduce your bill. When you remove a user from your workspace, their seat becomes available in the pool. You can reassign it to someone else. Your seat count and billing remain unchanged.
To actually reduce your billing, you must explicitly remove seats from Manage seats on Workspace settings → Billing and plans or Workspace settings → Members. This action removes any seats that aren't currently assigned to users.
When you remove seats, your next invoice drops to the new seat count, and the unused time left on the removed seats is credited to it. Your current invoice isn't refunded or changed. See How proration works for more.
The seats-versus-members distinction
This distinction causes confusion, so it's worth emphasizing:
Seats are billing units. They represent capacity, the maximum number of paid users you can have.
Members are people. They're the actual users in your workspace.
Actions on members—adding, removing, changing roles—don't automatically affect your seat count or billing. Actions on seats—purchasing, removing—directly affect your billing.
How proration works
Proration ensures you only pay for what you use. Whenever you change your seat count mid-cycle, Plane calculates the charge or deduction based on how much of the billing cycle remains.
When you add seats mid-cycle, you're charged immediately at the prorated price for the remaining days. If you add 10 seats halfway through a monthly billing cycle, you pay for 10 seats × the remaining 15 days, roughly half the monthly price per seat. Those seats then renew at full price in the next billing cycle.
When you remove seats mid-cycle, the unused portion is deducted from your next invoice. If you remove 10 seats halfway through a monthly billing cycle, your next invoice is reduced by the value of 10 seats × the remaining 15 days.
Proration applies to both monthly and annual billing cycles, calculated proportionally based on the number of days remaining in the cycle.
Subscription lifecycle
Automatic renewals
Subscriptions renew automatically at the start of each billing cycle, monthly or annual, depending on what you selected. The renewal charge is processed through your payment method on file.
Stripe, Plane's payment processor, handles the renewal.
- An invoice is generated at the renewal date.
- The charge is attempted on your payment method.
- If successful, your subscription continues.
- If unsuccessful, Stripe retries the payment 3-5 times over 14 days. A Payment failed notice on Billing and plans asks you to update your payment method.
- If every retry fails, the subscription is paused and the workspace moves to the Free plan. See Paused subscriptions.
You receive email alerts before each billing attempt and after failed payments.
Mid-cycle changes
Plan changes and billing frequency changes both happen in Workspace settings → Billing and plans → All plans, and both take effect the moment you confirm. Your seats carry over.
Plan changes. Click Upgrade to Business or Downgrade to Pro on the plan you want. Before anything changes, Plane shows what you'll be charged or credited today, your new total, and your seat count.
Billing frequency changes. Switch the Monthly / Yearly toggle above the plans, then click Switch to yearly billing (or Switch to monthly billing) on your current plan.
In both cases you're charged or credited today for the difference over the rest of the billing period, and the new plan or frequency applies from your next renewal. If the card is declined, nothing changes.
Enterprise isn't available from this screen. Click Talk to sales instead.
Price stability
Your subscription price doesn't change mid-cycle unless you add or remove seats. Monthly subscriptions renew at the same price each month. Annual subscriptions remain constant for the full year.
The exception
Limited-period discounts that some workspaces get during promotional periods expire according to their specific terms.
If your workspace has a negotiated or promotional rate, note that the Stripe portal may show the standard list price rather than your discounted rate. The correct rate is applied at charge time and reflected on your invoice.
Downgrade your plan
You can downgrade from a higher plan to a lower one or cancel your subscription entirely to return to the Free plan.
If your workspace is still on the 14-day Business trial, see Cancel your trial early instead. There's no subscription to cancel yet, so the steps below don't apply.
Downgrade to a lower paid plan
- Go to Workspace settings → Billing and plans.
- Under All plans, click Downgrade to Pro.
- Check the credit shown for today and click Downgrade plan.
The downgrade takes effect immediately. The unused part of your current plan is credited for the rest of the billing period, and the lower price applies from your next renewal.
Cancel and return to the Free plan
Go to Workspace settings → Billing and plans.
Click ⋯ on your plan and select Cancel subscription.
Select at least one reason for cancelling and click Continue.
Plane may offer a discount on your plan instead. Click Apply discount to stay at the lower price, or Continue cancellation.
Review the date your plan ends and click Cancel plan.
Your workspace keeps all paid features until the end of the current billing cycle, then moves to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted.
Until then, Billing and plans shows Subscription scheduled for cancellation, and seats can't be added or removed.
Change your mind before the plan ends
Click Renew subscription in the cancellation notice, or in the ⋯ menu on your plan. Your plan continues and billing carries on as normal. Switching to another plan before the end date also renews the subscription.
If your workspace exceeds the Free plan's seat limit when your subscription ends, the workspace enters a locked state. Only Billing and plans and Members are available. Workspace Admins can either remove users to get under the limit or start a paid subscription again to regain full access.
Paused subscriptions
A subscription is paused, not cancelled, when:
- A trial ends without a payment method. The notice reads Trial ended.
- Every retry of a renewal payment fails. The notice reads Payment failed • Subscription paused.
While a subscription is paused, the workspace is on the Free plan. Your projects, work items, pages, and members stay where they are, and your plan is kept so you can pick up where you left off.
Restart a paused subscription
- Go to Workspace settings → Billing and plans.
- Click Restart subscription in the notice.
To restart on a different plan, click Restart on Pro or Restart on Business under All plans, then confirm.
Restarting charges the card on file today. If you don't have a card on file, you'll add one on the payment page and come back to Plane. If the card is declined, the subscription stays paused.
- After a trial ended, a new billing period starts today.
- After a failed payment, the overdue invoice is paid first. Your renewal date stays the same if that payment still covers today. Otherwise a new billing period starts today.
INFO
Subscriptions started before [RELEASE DATE] aren't paused. If every retry fails, they're cancelled, and you start a new subscription from All plans.
Manage your subscription
You manage your plan, seats, and cancellation in Workspace settings → Billing and plans. The page shows your current plan, your seats, the subscription's status and next invoice, your payment methods, and your invoices.
Click Billing portal (or Manage next to Payment methods) to open the Stripe billing portal in a new tab. Use it to:
- Add or update your payment method
- Update billing information (name, email, address, tax ID)
INFO
If your workspace has a negotiated or promotional rate, the portal may display the standard list price. Your actual charge will reflect the discounted rate. Confirm this on your invoice after billing.
Free plan and trial access
Free trial for new workspaces
When you create a new Plane workspace on our Cloud, you automatically start a 14-day free trial of the Business plan. This gives you full access to premium features without requiring payment information.
The trial includes all Business plan features, full seat capacity for your team, and the Business plan's Plane AI usage. No payment method is required.
While the trial runs, a banner on Workspace settings → Billing and plans and on the Get started page shows how many days are left.
During the trial you can:
- Start your subscription now. Click Start subscription on the plan. This ends the trial today and starts billing for the plan. See Start a subscription during your trial.
- Switch to the Pro trial. Click Switch to Pro trial under All plans. It's free and keeps your trial end date, but you can't switch back to the Business trial.
- Add a payment method. Click Add payment method in the banner. The workspace then moves to a paid Business subscription automatically when the trial ends.
When the trial ends without a payment method, the subscription is paused and the workspace moves to the Free plan. You won't be charged. Restart the subscription whenever you're ready.
Cancel your trial early
If you already know the Business plan isn't for you, you don't have to wait out the 14 days. Workspace Owners and Admins can end the trial at any point and move the workspace to the Free plan straight away.
Cancelling early doesn't save you anything—a trial is free either way, and a trial you leave alone expires to the Free plan on its own. It only changes when the workspace drops to Free.
Go to Workspace settings → Billing and plans.
Click ⋯ on your trial plan and select Cancel trial.
Click Cancel trial to confirm, or Keep trial to back out.
You can also cancel from the trial banner on the Get started page.
Cancelling a trial takes effect immediately
Your workspace moves to the Free plan the moment you confirm. You don't keep Business features for the rest of the 14 days, and a workspace only gets one free trial, so you can't restart it from the app. If you just need more time to evaluate, email sales@plane.so instead of cancelling.
Your projects, work items, pages, and members stay exactly where they are. Business features are switched off, not deleted. Upgrade to a paid plan at any time to turn them back on.
The Free plan seat limit applies again once you're back on Free. Guests and pending invitations both count toward that limit, which they don't on a paid plan, so a workspace can be over it even when the Admin and Member count looks fine. Nobody is removed from the workspace, but you can't invite anyone new. While a workspace is over the limit, everyone is locked out of everything except Billing and plans and Members until you remove enough people or start a paid subscription.
Cancel trial appears only for people who hold the Manage billing permission, Workspace Owners and Admins by default. It works whether or not a payment method has been added.
Trials are a Plane Cloud feature. Self-hosted instances never show the trial banner or trial actions.
Free plan seat limits
The Free plan supports up to 12 seats.
Grandfathered workspaces
Cloud workspaces on the Free tier before December 17th, 2024 were grandfathered at their current seat count. If you had 20 Admins and Members when the limit was introduced, your Free workspace retains 20 seats.
Grandfathered workspaces keep their higher seat count until you manually remove seats. Once you drop to 12 seats, you lose grandfathered status and cannot add seats without upgrading.
If you upgrade a grandfathered workspace to a paid plan, you're charged for all grandfathered seats. A workspace with 20 grandfathered seats would be billed for 20 seats on a paid plan.
Plane AI usage
Plane AI is included with paid plans. Each member gets their own monthly usage for the AI they use directly, and the workspace gets a shared pool that agents draw from. Both reset on the first day of each calendar month, not on your billing date, and unused usage does not carry over.
See AI Credits for the details and AI usage for the reports.
Self-hosted instances
On a self-hosted instance you use your own AI provider's keys, so your provider bills the AI. Plane still records usage in tokens, and your instance admin can set limits.
Payment and invoicing
Payment methods
Plane requires a payment method on file for all paid subscriptions created through the standard upgrade flow. Stripe, Plane's payment processor, doesn't allow removing all payment methods once a subscription is active.
Your cards are listed under Payment methods on Workspace settings → Billing and plans. Click Manage to add or update a card in the Stripe billing portal.
Download invoices
All invoices are listed under Invoices on Workspace settings → Billing and plans, with the date, amount, what changed (for example, seats or plan), and status. Click ⋯ on an invoice to view or download it.
Failed payments
When a payment fails, Stripe attempts to collect payment 3-5 times over 14 days. You receive email notifications after each failed attempt, and Billing and plans shows a Payment failed notice with Update payment method.
If all payment attempts fail, the subscription is paused and the workspace moves to the Free plan until you restart it.
Unpaid bills
If you have an active subscription with unpaid invoices, you receive a 30-day notice to clear the balance. After 30 days, your workspace enters a restricted state where all members except Workspace Admins are locked out. Workspace Admins can access Billing and plans page, but no project work is accessible until bills are paid.
Once you pay outstanding invoices, full workspace access is restored immediately.
Cloud versus self-hosted billing differences
Most billing mechanics work identically across Cloud and self-hosted instances, with a few key differences:
License activation
Self-hosted instances require license key activation. On Pro and Business, each license key unlocks one workspace on one instance. On Enterprise, the license activates at the instance level, covering all workspaces within it. Cloud workspaces activate directly through the billing portal. There is no need to activate using a license key.
Plan changes
On both Cloud and self-hosted, plan changes, billing frequency changes, cancellations, and restarts happen in Billing and plans and apply immediately. On self-hosted instances, the subscription actions are in the ⋯ menu of the License section.
License portability
On Pro and Business, license keys are tied to both a workspace and a machine. If you switch servers or workspaces, you must delink your license key from the old workspace before reactivating it elsewhere. On Enterprise Grid, license activation and delinking happens at the instance level through God mode.
Refund policy
Plane doesn't offer refunds except in exceptional circumstances. Billing happens automatically with advance email notifications before each charge.
If you believe you have an exceptional case warranting a refund, contact Plane support with details about your situation.