once upon a time, i am facing same issue

Hi ​@J A Y E ,

I understand that after purchasing a Collaborator seat, you lost edit access to your file during a critical deadline. I’m here to help clarify things.

You mentioned seeing an in-app message about using variables by upgrading to any of the three paid plans.
I couldn’t reproduce that message on my end, but it most likely refers to our Professional, Organization, and Enterprise plans.

On all paid plans, each member or guest is assigned a seat type — Full, Dev, Collab, or View — and each seat type determines which Figma products they can access.

A Collab seat grants full access to FigJam and Figma Slides, but only view access to Figma Design.
You can find more information about seat types here: Manage seats in Figma and Figma pricing and feature comparison

From what I can see on our end, you’re currently an Admin on a Professional plan team, and you're assigned a Collab seat.

You mentioned wanting to use variables — could you clarify which of the following applies to you?

1. You want to create and manage variables, and also use them in prototypes or publish to team libraries → You’ll need a Full seat on a paid plan.

2. You want to create and manage variables only → You can do this on the Starter plan, as long as you have edit access to the file.

For more info, check out our guide here: Guide to variables in Figma

Once you confirm which scenario applies to you, I can submit a support ticket on your behalf to our team to assist you further if you'd like.

Alternatively, you’re welcome to contact them directly using this secure form: Submit a request

Thanks,

How to replicate the message I received, be on a free plan, and begin creating a variable, mine was both numeric and Boolean. Then attempt to apply the variable to the design through a prototype interaction. At that point, the message will pop up saying to update and list the three professional plans that allow me to perform that action, of which Collab is listed as one. 

When I tried to cancel it listed the advanced prototyping features that would be lost in the picture above if I canceled. It also said I would be removed from the plan at the end of the billing cycle, meaning I would not be able to regain access to edit my own file until the end of the year, as I would still be considered on the collab plan. I need to go back to the free account and finish my design without the variables asap, if what was suggested on the screenshot above, listing the features I would lose from 8/21/25, is not the case. 

Option 2 best applies. However, my problem is that I cannot give myself edit access back, even though I am the owner. It will not let me add my own email in the share setting, and it does not give the option to request access, either, so I can approve myself. And then clicked start editing, and clicked continue to see the price of the full seat, and instead of showing me the price, and it now charged me for colab and full, without prompting me with my full price and allowing me to confirm. I would like to be reset to the free plan as soon as possible and remove all plans. 

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve confirmed that one of our support specialists is already in touch with you directly and has taken care of the issue.

I’ve passed your feedback along to the relevant team. I’ll go ahead and close this topic for now, but feel free to open a new one if anything else comes up.

Thanks again!