User licenses

Kimai uses a per-seat licensing model, where each active user account consumes one license. However, the system is designed with fairness in mind, so deactivated accounts do not consume licenses.

Here’s a breakdown of how the licensing works:

Licensing Rules

• Active users: Each active user consumes one license.
• Deactivated users: Do not consume a license. This allows the license to be reassigned to another user.

Managing User Accounts

• When a user leaves the company, you can deactivate their account, freeing up the license for another user.
• If a deactivated user is reactivated, they will once again consume a license. Reactivation is only possible if there are available licenses.
• New user accounts can only be created if there are free licenses available.

Before Subscription Purchase

• When registering for a plan, the system displays the minimum number of licenses you need to purchase based on your current number of active users.
• If you see more licenses than necessary, you can deactivate any extra accounts and reload the page to adjust the displayed license count.

Purchasing Additional Licenses

• If you lack sufficient licenses to activate an existing account or create a new one, you can purchase additional licenses through the My Cloud portal.

Deprecated Metered Plans

For users still on the deprecated metered plans (Plus and Premium), which are no longer available to new customers, billing is based on usage:

• Active users incur charges.
• Deactivated users incur charges if they were active within the last month. This includes:
  • Users who registered within the last month.
  • Users who logged in within the last month.
  • Users who made time bookings within the last month (or later).

This system ensures flexibility in managing user accounts while maintaining fairness in licensing costs.