Restricted Access blocks already-billable users from creating namespaces

Summary

When "Restricted Access" (Block Seat Overages) is enabled on a GitLab Self-Managed instance at or over the license seat limit, already-billable users (including admins) are incorrectly blocked from creating personal projects and top-level groups.

This seems to be related to changes introduced in version 18.6 via #576380 (closed).

Steps to reproduce

  1. Install GitLab 18.6.x Self-Managed with Premium or Ultimate license
  2. Ensure billable user count is at or exceeds license seat limit (e.g., 10/10 seats used)
  3. Enable "Restricted Access": Admin Area → Settings → General → Sign-up restrictions → Seat control → Select "Restricted access"
  4. Log in as an already-billable user (e.g. root)
  5. Try to create a personal project or top-level group

Example Project

What is the current bug behavior?

  • The (+) "New" menu only shows "New snippet" option
  • "New group" and "New project" options are hidden
  • Attempting to create a project by accessing /projects/new directly shows error: "You've reached your limit of 100000 projects created. Contact your GitLab administrator."
  • Affects all users, including admins and users who are already billable

What is the expected correct behavior?

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Output of checks

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info 

(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
`sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info`)

(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
`sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production`)

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check 
(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true)


(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production SANITIZE=true)


(we will only investigate if the tests are passing)

Possible fixes

Patch release information for backports

If the bug fix needs to be backported in a patch release to a version under the maintenance policy, please follow the steps on the patch release runbook for GitLab engineers.

Refer to the internal "Release Information" dashboard for information about the next patch release, including the targeted versions, expected release date, and current status.

High-severity bug remediation

To remediate high-severity issues requiring an internal release for single-tenant SaaS instances, refer to the internal release process for engineers.

Edited by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖