## Background The current billable seat logic causes a confusing and negative experience for both customers and GitLab. **For Customers:** - **Role elevation can make compliance hard** - "Our reporters can easily become developers and that violates our corporate compliance workflows and who is allowed to do what." - **Role promotion can have billable implications** - "Our Ultimate guests can easily become non-guests which ends up costing us more money." - **EAP users can change roles** - "Our EAP users no longer occupy Plan roles. Why is that and how do we know how many EAP users we have?" **For GitLab:** - **New role creation adds more billable logic** -- every time a new role or custom role is created, we need to establish "new role" joint checklist process to understand the downstream billable implications. - **Code is duplicative** **and not performant at scale** - billable logic is duplicative across GitLab.com and SM resulting in more maintenance. Traversing every group/sub-group/project that can exist in top-level group's hierarchy in order to understand every user's memberships & if they are billable is non-trivial and [ultimately impacting customers](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/458794#4-technology-code-is-not-performant-at-scale), too. [_Further details_](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/458794) ## Overview * To address these issues, we are introducing a replacement to our [billable logic](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/424221) called the **Seat Assignment Model (SAM)**. * With **SAM**, group owners/admins can assign members to a `Seat Type`, which in turn determines what roles members can have when being added to groups or projects. * Since `Seat Types` are aligned to seat costs (eg an EAP `Plan Seat` is $15/u/m), it means costs are determined upstream of role selection. ## Rollout Plan Current [Roadmap for FY26](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/fulfillment/meta/-/issues/2379) for group Seat Management. The iteration plan is subject to change, depending on results of customer research due in Q3 and other dependencies. <!-- triage-serverless v3 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION --> > [!important] > This page may contain information related to upcoming products, features and functionality. > It is important to note that the information presented is for informational purposes only, so please do not rely on the information for purchasing or planning purposes. > Just like with all projects, the items mentioned on the page are subject to change or delay, and the development, release, and timing of any products, features, or functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab Inc. <!-- triage-serverless v3 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION -->