Seat Cap

This article explains what a seat cap is, how it is set, and how it helps admins manage user access and licensing to keep intranet usage predictable and cost-controlled.

License management with seat capping

Managing licenses effectively is an important part of user management in your intranet. The Seat Cap feature gives admins control over how many users can be assigned seats, keeping license use transparent and preventing unexpected costs as your intranet scales.

What is a seat?

A seat is a license that determines whether a user can log in to your intranet and access its features. Your environment has a set number of seats, some already assigned and others still available.

💡 In Happeo, the terms seat and license are used interchangeably.

What is a seat cap?

A seat cap is the maximum number of users that can be assigned seats in your environment. Once the cap is reached, no additional users can be given access until more seats are purchased.

The cap serves two purposes:

• It prevents admins from unintentionally exceeding their purchased license count.
• It provides a clear record of how many seats have been contracted, assigned, and remain available.

This keeps seat management predictable — an important safeguard when multiple admins are managing user access across a large environment.

How is a seat cap set?

Seat caps are determined by:

• Your contract: The number of seats agreed in your Happeo subscription.
• Your last invoice: If you’ve already purchased more seats than your original contract, the invoiced number becomes your new cap.

For example: if your contract states 100 seats but you’ve added and been invoiced for 120, your cap is set at 120.

This ensures the cap always reflects your real usage while staying consistent with financial records.

Default settings

A seat cap helps control costs by preventing automatic seat assignments that could increase your expenses without your approval.

• Contract-based environments: The seat cap defaults to the number in your agreement.
• Credit card customers: A default cap of 5 seats is applied.
• Flexibility: If your current usage is already higher when the cap feature is enabled, Happeo sets the cap at that higher number to prevent disruption.

Why use a seat cap?

Seat caps give admins confidence that license usage won’t spiral automatically when new users are synced from identity providers like Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, or Okta. Instead, every increase requires a deliberate decision.

This makes it easier to:

• Keep license costs aligned with budgets.
• Avoid seat spikes during large group syncs or bulk invitations.
• Maintain control over onboarding and provisioning at scale.

Seat cap vs. auto-increase

The opposite of a seat cap is Auto-Increase Seats, found in User Management.

• Seat Cap: A fixed ceiling that requires admin action to increase.
• Auto-Increase: Automatically expands seat count as new users are added, with invoices issued accordingly.

Which option you use depends on how tightly you want to control licensing. Many organizations use a seat cap for cost certainty and switch to auto-increase only when rapid scaling is expected.

💡 Learn more about Auto-Increase Seats.

Need help?

If you’re unsure what your current seat cap is, or you’d like to adjust it, contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) for guidance. They can confirm your contracted amount, review invoices, and help align your cap with organizational needs.

Troubleshooting

I reached my seat cap and can’t add new users.

• Check the Seats Overview to confirm if all seats are assigned or reserved.
• If the cap has been reached, you’ll need to either:
  • Purchase more seats, or
  • Free up seats by unseating users who no longer need access.
• If you’re unsure about your maximum cap, contact your CSM to confirm your contract or invoiced limit.

(Google) Does unchecking “Auto-seat turned on” unseat users?

No. Disabling the Auto-seat turned on option for an Organizational Unit (OU) does not automatically unseat users already in that OU. Instead:

1. Disable the auto-seat option for the OU.
2. Manually unseat users individually in User Management.

🔎  See User Management for step-by-step guidance.

The number of seats in my environment doesn’t match my contract.

• Remember that the cap can be based on either your contracted number or your last invoiced number (if higher).
• If you recently purchased additional seats, your cap may already have increased automatically.
• Cross-check your latest invoice in the Billing section or contact your CSM to confirm.

I tried to invite users, but the invite failed due to no available seats.

• Invitations reserve seats in advance, so you may see “no seats available” even if not all are actively used.
• To resolve this:
  • Cancel any pending invites that are no longer valid to free up reserved seats.
  • Or add more seats before re-inviting.

I enabled Auto-Increase Seats, but it’s not working.

• Verify that Auto-Increase Seats is toggled on in User Management.
• Refresh the Seats Overview page — sometimes it takes a moment for totals to update.

Check if your current contractual cap is lower than the number of seated users. If so, auto-increase will be disabled automatically to prevent contract breaches.