Email received: 3 days left on education plan

Hi there. I got an email with a notification with the following:

You have 3 days left on the Education plan
The teams you own will become view-only for all members, and you’ll lose edit access to other teams once your plan expires.

  • If you graduated: Continue below to upgrade your team(s) to the Professional plan, or create a new Professional team.
  • If you’re still in education: Verify your status to keep collaborating with your team(s).
  • To save your work: Duplicate or move files to your personal drafts to save them for later, and consider transferring ownership of your team(s).

Whatever happens next, best of luck! Whenever you’re ready to start your next creative adventure, let us know.

I am pretty confused about how the plans work. I have a free plan with design files I cannot lose. I was on an education plan - but as i understood that was also just the free plan. There is a side bar which notes ‘my team’ but no one else is in it. My design files which I cannot lose do seem to be in it.

So do i have to upgrade to professional to keep these files? I don’t need the team but I do need the files. I am not sure if that is the same thing or different things.

I must say I love Figma but I do find the whole ‘Figma plan’ ‘teams’ thing to ber very confusing overall.

Could you help clarify? Would appreciated that! Just have 2 days to upgrade if necessary, after this 3 day notices. Thanks!

You won’t lose anything in any case, so don’t worry.

The team can be on Education or Starter plan. If you have multiple teams they can be on different plans. If the team is on the Education plan, you will see this banner at the bottom of the main team page:

Having an Education-verified account means that you can upgrade Starter teams to Education. Education plan gives you unlimited projects (folders) and files in the teams you upgrade, however they can only be edited by other Education verified users.

If you don’t collaborate with anyone, there is pretty much no reason to use teams in the first place, so you can basically move everything to the Drafts folder and keep using your files. Even if your Education plan expires you won’t lose any files, you simply won’t be able to edit files in your Education team (that will be downgraded to Starter). You can move them to Drafts to be able to edit them again or upgrade the team to Pro plan by paying. But again if you don’t collab with others and don’t need some paid features like dev mode there is no reason to upgrade.

Hi Gleb.

You and the Figma team are always so fantastically quick at responding to community questions. Much appreciated.

Then I would have a few short follow up questions please:

Most importantly: 2 of those files I have - have prototypes linked out to a portfolio site, showcasing some of my interactive app designs. Will that remain possible if they are moved to the drafts folder?

Can I have unlimited files in drafts and export images / designs as usual?

Will I also be able to use FigJam if I do not upgrade?

I did already upgrade in the fear of losing my files - but based on your advice and the fact that I see people who live in the EU have the right to cancel and get a refund within 14 days - I would then go back to a starter plan if there’s no other significant reason I shouldn’t.

I don’t collaborate with anyone currently on that account. So if I would like unlimited files for myself and to keep my current ones with active prototype links out to an external site - as I understand you I can stay on the starter plan and have the above?

Many thanks !

Yeah. The only issue is gonna be videos if you use them, since I think there are some limits in the free plan. You can check what’s available in the free plan in the docs somewhere. However the existing prototypes won’t break, only if you would want to change them in the future you may encounter issues with such paid feature limitations.

Yes.

Yes

Yes you’ll be fine, you don’t need to upgrade.

Hi there,

Similar situation here: Education plan expires in 4 days

We have paid seats, and I also see our professional plan renewal date on the Billing tab. Can we ignore the education plan ‘error’ message ?

Thank you,
Ádám

Yes you are fine

Great, Thanks!

Hi, I need help. I received the email so I re-verified my education status. All seemed correct and I didn’t come back during easter holidays.
Now, I find that I don’t have education plan and all my projects and boards have disappeared.
If I pay or if I re-verify, they will come back?
I had tons of work in here. Thanks!

They shouldn’t disappear no matter what plan you are on or your education verification status. Make sure you log in the correct Figma account. If that doesn’t help contact Figma support.

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