Seats, viewers & guests

What counts as a seat

A seat is an organization member whose role is anything other than viewer — owner, admin or member. All of the organization's spaces share one plan, so a person is one seat no matter how many spaces they work in.

Roles are set at the Bookbag account, so that is where a seat is added or removed. See Roles and permissions.

If a person belongs to two organizations, each organization's own plan covers them separately — a seat in one never counts against the other.

What never counts

Viewers and guests never count as seats, on any plan. Someone whose organization role is viewer is always free — whether you're on Free, Pro, or Business, and no matter how many you invite. So is a guest, who is narrower still: read-only access to named rooms.

This means you can share work widely without thinking about billing:

• Invite stakeholders as viewers to follow along at no cost.
• Bring in guests without adding to the bill.
• Keep paying only for the people who actually create and edit.

When in doubt: pay for editors, never for readers.

Exact-seat billing

Openbook bills for exactly the seats you use. There are no 5-seat increments and no minimum bundles — 7 editors is 7 seats, 23 editors is 23 seats. At checkout, the price shown is for your actual seat count.

Proration

Seat changes prorate to the day. When you add a member with edit access mid-cycle, you're charged only for the days they actually have a seat; the same daily precision applies when seats change in the other direction. You never pay a full month for someone who joined on the 28th.

This works the same whether you bill monthly or annually — see Trials & upgrading for the difference between the two billing periods.

The member cap on Free

The Free plan allows up to 10 organization members whose role is not viewer. When you try to add an 11th, the invitation is refused and you'll see an upgrade prompt naming the limit and the count.

Two things to know about the cap:

• Inviting viewers still works. The cap applies only to non-viewer roles. You can keep adding viewers and guests on Free without limit — they never count.
• Existing members above the cap stay. If your organization lands on Free with more than 10 editors — for example after a trial ends — nobody is removed. Everyone above the cap keeps their access; you just can't add more members with edit access until you upgrade. See Downgrades & the Free plan.

Pro and Business have no member cap: unlimited members and unlimited spaces on both.

If you hit the cap but can't upgrade

Upgrading happens at Organization → Settings → Billing, but not everyone can manage billing. If you hit the cap (or any other gate) and can't upgrade yourself, use the "Ask owner to upgrade" button — the owner receives an email telling them which feature you hit and why, so they can decide with full context.