Seat-based pricing is ideal for:
- Team subscriptions where one billing manager pays for multiple users
- Perpetual team licenses with one-time payment
- Organizational licenses with per-seat pricing
- Products with flat, graduated, or volume-discounted seat pricing
Feature Flag
How it works
With seat-based pricing, a billing manager purchases a product (subscription or one-time) with a specific number of seats. They can then:- Assign seats to team members via email or external customer ID
- Manage seats by resending invitations or revoking access
- Scale up by purchasing additional seats (or a new order for one-time products)
- Track usage by viewing which seats are claimed, pending, or available
Subscriptions vs One-Time Purchases
| Feature | Subscriptions | One-Time Purchases |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Recurring (monthly/yearly) | Single payment |
| Seat Duration | Active while subscribed | Perpetual (never expire) |
| Adding Seats | Modify subscription | Purchase new order |
| Benefits | While subscription active | Forever after claim |
Creating a seat-based product
Select seat-based pricing
Under Pricing, select:
- Product type: Subscription or One-time
- Billing cycle (subscriptions only): Monthly or Yearly
- Pricing type: Seat-based
Choose a tiering model
Under Tiering model, select how seats are priced:
Fixed price per seat is the default and the simplest option — just enter a single price per seat.For Graduated and Volume discounts, define tiers using a threshold (the seat count at which a new rate begins) and a price per seat for that range.Example with tiers at 1–10 seats: 8/seat:
| Model | Description |
|---|---|
| Fixed price per seat | Every seat costs the same flat rate. Simple and predictable. |
| Graduated | Seats are priced per tier range independently — seats in tier 1 cost one rate, seats in tier 2 cost another. Total price is the sum across all tiers. |
| Volume discounts | The per-seat price is determined by the total seats purchased, and that rate applies to all seats. Crossing a tier threshold lowers the price for everyone. |
- Graduated: 14 seats = 10 × 8 = $132 — each range is billed at its own rate
- Volume discounts: 14 seats = 14 × 112 — all seats use the lowest matching rate
Unlike standard subscriptions, seat-based products do not grant benefits to the billing manager. Benefits are only granted to team members who claim their assigned seats. The billing manager can assign a seat to themselves if they also want to receive benefits — this counts toward the purchased seat total.
Managing seats
After purchase, the billing manager can assign and manage seats from the Customer Portal or via the API.Seat statuses
- Pending: Seat assigned, invitation sent, awaiting claim
- Claimed: Seat claimed by team member, benefits granted
- Revoked: Seat revoked, benefits removed, can be reassigned
Key actions
- Assign seats by email, external customer ID, or existing Polar customer ID
- Resend invitations for pending seats if the link expired (valid for 24 hours)
- Revoke seats to remove benefits and free the seat for reassignment
- Reduce seat count to lower the number of seats on the subscription (triggers a prorated credit)
Proration and billing adjustments
When the seat count on a subscription changes mid-billing cycle, charges are prorated automatically:- Adding seats: The billing manager is charged immediately for the new seats, prorated for the remainder of the current billing period. The full per-seat price applies from the next billing cycle onward.
- Reducing seat count: A prorated credit is applied for the removed seats, covering the unused portion of the current billing period.
Limitations
- Seats must be assigned individually (no bulk import via dashboard, use API instead)
- Claim links expire after 24 hours
- Billing manager does not receive product benefits
- Maximum of 1,000 seats per subscription
- Metadata limited to 10 keys and 1KB total size per seat