Who needs a seat?
Participants are the only seat type that's billable. A participant is any user who has been added to Optimize so their workflow activity can be captured and analyzed.
System Admins and Org Optimizers have full, unlimited access to Optimize and don't consume a seat. These roles are for people managing the account and reviewing insights, not for people being mined. A Team Optimizer/Team Admin can also be a participant at the same time; in that case, they do consume a seat, since seat type is separate from the role. Promoting or demoting someone's role on its own doesn't change billing; only adding or removing them as a participant does.
Seat count calculation
Your seat usage is:
Accepted participants + open (pending, not-yet-accepted) invites
Sending an invite reserves a seat right away; it doesn't wait for the invitee to accept. If you send more invites than you have room for, only the ones that fit within your limit will go through.
Deactivating a participant frees up their seat for someone else. Counts update automatically and generally reflect within a few minutes.
A System Admin or Org Optimizer can invite and/or deactivate participants from the Optimize admin settings.
Checking your current seat usage
System Admins and Org Optimizers can see seat usage under your account's Optimize plan settings, which shows:
- Seats purchased
- Seats currently in use (active participants + pending invites)
- Seats remaining
What happens when you reach your seat limit?
You won't be able to add new participants until you either free up a seat (by deactivating an existing participant) or purchase additional seats. Admins are notified as usage approaches the limit and again once the limit is reached, so there's a heads-up before anyone is blocked.
Adjusting your total seat count
- Adding seats: You can add participant seats at any point during your contract term, at a pro-rated cost for the remainder of the term.
- Reducing seats: Your seat count generally can't be decreased mid-contract; changes take effect at renewal.
To add seats or ask questions about your specific contract terms, reach out to your account team or CSM.