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GitLab.com subscription

DETAILS: Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com

NOTE: The GitLab SaaS subscription is being renamed to GitLab.com. During this transition, you might see references to GitLab SaaS and GitLab.com in the UI and documentation.

GitLab.com is the GitLab multi-tenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. You don't need to install anything to use GitLab.com, you only need to sign up. When you sign up, you choose:

The subscription determines which features are available for your private projects. Organizations with public open source projects can actively apply to our GitLab for Open Source Program.

Qualifying open source projects also get 50,000 compute minutes and free access to the Ultimate tier through the GitLab for Open Source program.

Obtain a GitLab.com subscription

A GitLab.com subscription applies to a top-level group. Members of every subgroup and project in the group:

  • Can use the features of the subscription.
  • Consume seats in the subscription.

To subscribe to GitLab.com:

  1. View the GitLab.com feature comparison and decide which tier you want.
  2. Create a user account for yourself by using the sign up page.
  3. Create a group. Your subscription tier applies to the top-level group, its subgroups, and projects.
  4. Create additional users and add them to the group. The users in this group, its subgroups, and projects can use the features of your subscription tier, and they consume a seat in your subscription.
  5. On the left sidebar, select Settings > Billing and choose a tier. You are taken to the Customers Portal.
  6. Fill out the form to complete your purchase.

View your GitLab.com subscription

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role for the group.

To see the status of your GitLab.com subscription:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Billing.

The following information is displayed:

Field Description
Seats in subscription If this is a paid plan, represents the number of seats you've bought for this group.
Seats currently in use Number of seats in use. Select See usage to see a list of the users using these seats.
Maximum seats used Highest number of seats you've used.
Seats owed Max seats used minus Seats in subscription.
Subscription start date Date your subscription started.
Subscription end date Date your current subscription ends.

How seat usage is determined

A GitLab.com subscription uses a concurrent (seat) model. You pay for a subscription according to the maximum number of users assigned to the top-level group or its children during the billing period. You can add and remove users during the subscription period without incurring additional charges, as long as the total users at any given time doesn't exceed the subscription count. If the total users exceeds your subscription count, you will incur an overage which must be paid at your next reconciliation.

A top-level group can be changed like any other group.

Billable users

Billable users count toward the number of subscription seats purchased in your subscription.

A user is not counted as a billable user if:

Seat usage is reviewed quarterly or annually.

If a user goes to a different top-level group (one they have created themselves, for example) and that group does not have a paid subscription, they would not see any of the paid features.

It is also possible for users to belong to two different top-level groups with different subscriptions. In this case, they would see only the features available to that subscription.

View seat usage

To view a list of seats being used:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. On the Seats tab, view usage information.

For each user, a list shows groups and projects where the user is a direct member.

The data in seat usage listing, Seats in use, and Seats in subscription are updated live. The counts for Max seats used and Seats owed are updated once per day.

To view your subscription information and a summary of seat counts:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Billing.
  • The usage statistics are updated once per day, which may cause a difference between the information in the Usage Quotas page and the Billing page.
  • The Last login field is updated when a user signs in after they have signed out. If there is an active session when a user re-authenticates (for example, after a 24 hour SAML session timeout), this field is not updated.

Search seat usage

To search billable users:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. On the Seats tab, enter a string in the search field. A minimum of 3 characters are required.

The search returns those users whose first name, last name, or username contain the search string.

For example:

First name Search string Match ?
Amir ami Yes
Amir amr No

Export seat usage

To export seat usage data as a CSV file:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Billing.
  3. Under Seats currently in use, select See usage.
  4. Select Export list.

The generated list contains all seats being used, and is not affected by the current search.

Seats owed

If the number of billable users exceeds the number of seats in subscription, known as the number of seats owed, you must pay for the excess number of users.

For example, if you purchase a subscription for 10 users:

Event Billable members Maximum users
Ten users occupy all 10 seats. 10 10
Two new users join. 12 12
Three users leave and their accounts are removed. 9 12

Seats owed = 12 - 10 (Maximum users - users in subscription)

Free Guest users

DETAILS: Tier: Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated

In the Ultimate tier, users who are assigned the Guest role do not consume a seat. The user must not be assigned any other role, anywhere in the instance or in the namespace for GitLab.com.

  • If your project is private or internal, a user with the Guest role has a set of permissions.
  • If your project is public, all users, including those with the Guest role can access your project.

Add seats to your subscription

Your subscription cost is based on the maximum number of seats you use during the billing period. Even if you reach the number of seats in your subscription, you can continue to add users. GitLab bills you for the overage.

To add seats to a subscription:

  1. Sign in to the Customers Portal.
  2. Go to the Subscriptions & purchases page.
  3. Select Add seats on the relevant subscription card.
  4. Enter the number of additional users.
  5. Review the Purchase summary section. The system lists the total price for all users on the system and a credit for what you've already paid. You are only charged for the net change.
  6. Enter your payment information.
  7. Check the I accept the Privacy Statement and Terms of Service checkbox.
  8. Select Purchase seats.

The following is emailed to you:

  • A payment receipt. You can also access this information in the Customers Portal under Invoices.

Remove users from your subscription

To remove a billable user from your subscription:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Billing.
  3. In the Seats currently in use section, select See usage.
  4. In the row for the user you want to remove, on the right side, select Remove user.
  5. Re-type the username and select Remove user.

If you add a member to a group by using the share a group with another group feature, you can't remove the member by using this method. Instead, you can either:

  • Remove the member from the shared group. You must be a group owner to do this.
  • From the group's membership page, remove access from the entire shared group.

Seat usage alerts

If you have the Owner role of the top-level group, an alert notifies you of your total seat usage.

The alert displays on group, subgroup, and project pages, and only for top-level groups linked to subscriptions enrolled in quarterly subscription reconciliations. After you dismiss the alert, it doesn't display until another seat is used.

The alert displays based on the following seat usage. You cannot configure the amounts at which the alert displays.

Seats in subscription Alert displays when
0-15 One seat remains.
16-25 Two seats remain.
26-99 10% of seats remain.
100-999 8% of seats remain.
1000+ 5% of seats remain.

Change the linked group

To change the group linked to a GitLab.com subscription:

  1. Sign in to the Customers Portal with a linked GitLab.com account.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • If the subscription is not linked to a group, select Link subscription to a group.
    • If the subscription is already linked to a group, select Subscription actions ({ellipsis_v}) > Change linked group.

  3. Select the desired group from the New Namespace dropdown list. For a group to appear here, you must have the Owner role for that group.

  4. If the total number of users in your group exceeds the number of seats in your subscription, you are prompted to pay for the additional users. Subscription charges are calculated based on the total number of users in a group, including its subgroups and nested projects.

    If you purchased your subscription through an authorized reseller, you are unable to pay for additional users. You can either:

    • Remove additional users, so that no overage is detected.
    • Contact the partner to purchase additional seats now or at the end of your subscription term.

  5. Select Confirm changes.

Only one namespace can be linked to a subscription.

For a demo, see Linking GitLab Subscription to the Namespace.

Transfer restrictions

Changing the linked namespace is not supported for all subscription types.

You cannot transfer:

  • An expired or trial subscription.
  • A subscription with compute minutes which is already linked to a namespace.
  • A subscription with a Premium or Ultimate plan to a namespace which already has a Premium or Ultimate plan.
  • A subscription with a GitLab Duo add-on to a namespace which already has a subscriptions with a GitLab Duo add-on.

Upgrade your GitLab.com subscription tier

To upgrade your GitLab tier:

  1. Sign in to the Customers Portal.
  2. Select Upgrade on the relevant subscription card.
  3. Select the desired upgrade.
  4. Confirm the active form of payment, or add a new form of payment.
  5. Check the I accept the Privacy Statement and Terms of Service checkbox.
  6. Select Confirm purchase.

When the purchase has been processed, you receive confirmation of your new subscription tier.

Subscription expiry

When your subscription expires, you can continue to use paid features of GitLab for 14 days. On the 15th day, paid features are no longer available. You can continue to use free features.

For example, if a subscription has a start date of January 1, 2024 and an end date of January 1, 2025:

  • It expires at 11:59:59 PM UTC December 31, 2024.
  • It is considered expired from 12:00:00 AM UTC January 1, 2025.
  • The grace period of 14 days starts at 12:00:00 AM UTC January 1, 2025 and ends at 11:59:59 PM UTC January 14, 2025.
  • Paid features are no longer available as of 12:00:00 AM UTC January 15, 2025.

To resume paid feature functionality, purchase a new subscription.

Renew your GitLab.com subscription

To renew your subscription:

  1. Prepare for renewal by reviewing your account.
  2. Renew your GitLab.com subscription.

Prepare for renewal by reviewing your account

Before you renew your subscription:

  1. Sign in to the Customers Portal.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Billing account settings.
  3. Under Payment methods, verify or update the credit card on file.
  4. Scroll down to the Company information section to verify or update the invoice contact details.
  5. In GitLab, review your list of user accounts and remove inactive or unwanted users.

Renew or change a GitLab.com subscription

Starting 30 days before a subscription expires, GitLab notifies group owners of the date of expiry with a banner in the GitLab user interface. You can only renew your subscription 15 days before it is due to expire. To renew your subscription:

  1. Sign in to the Customers Portal and beneath your existing subscription, select Renew. The Renew button displays only 15 days before a subscription expires. If there are more than 15 days before the subscription expires, select Subscription actions ({ellipsis_v}), then select Renew subscription to view the date when you can renew.
  2. Review your renewal details and complete the payment process.
  3. Select Confirm purchase.

Your updated subscription is applied to your namespace. The renewal period start date is displayed on the group Billing page under Next subscription term start date.

An invoice is generated for the renewal and available for viewing or download on the Invoices page. If you have difficulty during the renewal process, contact the Support team for assistance.

For details on upgrading your subscription tier, see Upgrade your GitLab.com subscription tier.

Automatic subscription renewal

When a subscription is set to auto-renew, it renews automatically on the expiration date without a gap in available service. Subscriptions purchased through the Customers Portal or GitLab.com are set to auto-renew by default.

The number of seats is adjusted to fit the number of billable users in your group at the time of renewal, if that number is higher than the current subscription quantity.

You can view and download your renewal invoice on the Customers Portal Invoices page. If your account has a saved credit card, the card is charged for the invoice amount. If we are unable to process a payment, or the auto-renewal fails for any other reason, you have 14 days to renew your subscription, after which your access is downgraded.

Email notifications

15 days before a subscription automatically renews, an email is sent with information about the renewal.

  • If your credit card is expired, the email tells you how to update it.
  • If you have any outstanding overages, the email tells you to contact our Sales team.
  • If there are no issues, the email specifies the names and quantity of the products being renewed. The email also includes the total amount you owe. If your usage increases before renewal, this amount will change.

Enable or disable automatic subscription renewal

To view or change automatic subscription renewal (at the same tier as the previous period), sign in to the Customers Portal, and:

  • If the subscription card displays Expires on DATE, your subscription is not set to automatically renew. To enable automatic renewal, in Subscription actions ({ellipsis_v}), select Turn on auto-renew.
  • If the subscription card displays Autorenews on DATE, your subscription is set to automatically renew at the end of the subscription period. To cancel automatic renewal, in Subscription actions ({ellipsis_v}), select Cancel subscription.

If you have difficulty during the renewal process, contact the Support team for assistance.

Renew for fewer seats

There are two options to renew a subscription for fewer seats, as long as the seat total is equal to or greater than the billable user quantity at the time of renewal:

  • Manually renew within 15 days of subscription renewal date, and specify the desired seat quantity on the renewal page. To reduce billable user quantity, remove users from your group.
  • Work with the Sales team to renew your subscription. To avoid auto-renewing at a higher seat quantity while you work with Sales, cancel your subscription.

Add or change the contacts for your subscription

Contacts can renew a subscription, cancel a subscription, or transfer the subscription to a different namespace.

For information about how to transfer ownership of the Customers Portal account to another person, see Change profile owner information.

To add a secondary contact for your subscription:

  1. Ensure an account exists in the Customers Portal for the user you want to add.
  2. Create a ticket with the Support team. Include any relevant material in your request.

Compute

Compute is the resource consumed when running pipelines on GitLab instance runners.

Refer to Compute usage for more information.

Purchase additional compute minutes

You can purchase additional compute minutes for your personal or group namespace. Compute minutes are a one-time purchase, so they do not renew.

Add-on subscription for additional Storage

Projects have a free storage quota of 10 GiB. To exceed this quota you must first purchase one or more storage subscription units. Each unit provides 10 GiB of additional storage per namespace. A storage subscription is renewed annually. For more details, see Storage.

Purchase more storage

Prerequisites:

  • You must have the Owner role.

You can purchase a storage subscription for your personal or group namespace.

NOTE: Storage subscriptions renew automatically each year. You can cancel the subscription to disable the automatic renewal.

For your personal namespace

  1. Sign in to GitLab.com.
  2. From either your personal homepage or the group's page, go to Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. Select Storage tab.
  4. For each read-only project, total by how much its Usage exceeds the free quota and purchased storage. You must purchase the storage increment that exceeds this total.
  5. Select Buy storage. You are taken to the Customers Portal.
  6. In the Subscription details section, select the name of the user from the dropdown list.
  7. Enter the desired quantity of storage packs.
  8. In the Customer information section, verify your address.
  9. In the Billing information section, select the payment method from the dropdown list.
  10. Select the Privacy Statement and Terms of Service checkboxes.
  11. Select Buy storage.

The Purchased storage available total is incremented by the amount purchased. The read-only state for all projects is removed, and their excess usage is deducted from the additional storage.

For your group namespace

If you're using GitLab.com, you can purchase additional storage so your pipelines aren't blocked after you have used all your storage from your main quota. You can find pricing for additional storage on the GitLab Pricing page.

To purchase additional storage for your group on GitLab.com:

  1. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your group.
  2. Select Settings > Usage Quotas.
  3. Select Storage tab.
  4. Select Buy storage. You are taken to the Customers Portal.
  5. In the Subscription details section, enter the desired quantity of storage packs.
  6. In the Customer information section, verify your address.
  7. In the Billing information section, select a payment method from the dropdown list.
  8. Select the Privacy Statement and Terms of Service checkboxes.
  9. Select Buy storage.

After your payment is processed, the extra storage is available for your group namespace.

To confirm the available storage, go to your group, and then select Settings > Usage Quotas and select the Storage tab.

The Purchased storage available total is incremented by the amount purchased. All locked projects are unlocked and their excess usage is deducted from the additional storage.

Enterprise Agile Planning

GitLab Enterprise Agile Planning is an add-on that helps bring non-technical users into the same DevSecOps platform where engineers build, test, secure, and deploy code. The add-on enables cross-team collaboration between developers and non-developers without having to purchase full GitLab licenses for non-engineering team members. With Enterprise Agile Planning seats, non-engineering team members can participate in planning workflows, measure software delivery velocity and impact with Value Stream Analytics, and use executive dashboards to drive organizational visibility.

Purchase additional Enterprise Agile Planning seats

Contact your GitLab sales representative for more information.

Contact Support

Learn more about:

We also encourage you to search our project trackers for known issues and existing feature requests in the GitLab project.

These issues are the best avenue for getting updates on specific product plans and for communicating directly with the relevant GitLab team members.

Troubleshooting

Credit card declined

If your credit card is declined when purchasing a GitLab subscription, possible reasons include:

  • The credit card details provided are incorrect. The most common cause for this is an incomplete or fake address.
  • The credit card account has insufficient funds.
  • You are using a virtual credit card and it has insufficient funds, or has expired.
  • The transaction exceeds the credit limit.
  • The transaction exceeds the credit card's maximum transaction amount.

Check with your financial institution to confirm if any of these reasons apply. If they don't apply, contact GitLab Support.

Error: Attempt_Exceed_Limitation - Attempt exceed the limitation, refresh page to try again

You might get the error Attempt_Exceed_Limitation - Attempt exceed the limitation, refresh page to try again. when purchasing a GitLab subscription.

This issue occurs when the credit card form is re-submitted too quickly within a specific time frame (three submissions within one minute or six submissions within one hour).

To resolve this issue, wait a few minutes and try the purchase process again.

Unable to link subscription to namespace

If you cannot link a subscription to your namespace, ensure that you have the Owner role for that namespace and review the transfer restrictions.

No purchases listed in the Customers Portal account

To view purchases in the Customers Portal, in the Subscriptions & purchases page, you must be a contact in your organization for the subscription.

To be added as a contact, create a ticket with the GitLab Support team.

Error: Subscription not allowed to add ...

You might get the error Subscription not allowed to add ... when purchasing subscription add-ons, such as additional seats, compute minutes, storage, or GitLab Duo Pro.

This issue occurs when you have an active subscription that:

To resolve this issue, contact your GitLab sales representative to assist you with the purchase.