Figma added a monthly design seat - how do i stop that?

Hey @Michael_Nolan, thank you for reaching out!

This usually happens because there are added seats outside the original annual agreement.

You can downgrade people to a free seat at any time during your billing cycle.

1. From the file browser, click Admin.
2. Select the Members tab.
3. From the dropdown menu next to someone’s Design or FigJam seat, change the seat type to Viewer-restricted.

As a professional team admin or owner you can manage who can edit team files and manage who will be billed to the team’s subscription.

From the Members tab of your team page, set the “Design role” filter to Full to display all billed users. From there you can downgrade any Full seat to “Viewer - restricted” on Figma Design files. Repeat this step with the FigJam role filter if you want to prevent this user from editing FigJam files as well.

Restricted viewers will no longer be able to edit any files belonging to the team, and will be removed from all future invoices unless explicitly re-upgraded to a full seat role by a team admin. Note that full seats for Figma Design and FigJam are managed independently – to remove a user from the team’s subscription altogether, both roles will need to be downgraded.

For more information, check out our Help Center: Roles and permissions in teams.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks - that seems to have fixed it. Any ideas how Figma just added a monthly subscription without me asking for it? Just don’t want it to happen again…

Hey @Michael_Nolan, I do understand that this is frustrating!

To prevent people from being able to upgrade to a paid seat without asking for permission, you can change the default seat type to viewer-restricted. This way, people with a viewer-restricted seat need to ask for approval when they want to upgrade their seat in a particular product.

Here’s how to change the default seat type so all new users start with a viewer-restricted seat:

Only a team admin can change the default seat type.

1. From the file browser, click Admin.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Select default seat types for both Figma design and FigJam using the fields.
4. Select Save to apply your changes.

I’d recommend checking out this Help Center article on How do people get a paid seat?

You can keep track of who is upgrading and when, get notified every time someone upgrades to a paid seat.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

No one in our organisation did this - Figma did it themselves…how do I stop that happening?

Hey @Michael_Nolan! So this usually happens because there are added seats outside the original annual agreement.

If you add new paid seats to your team during an annual subscription, Figma will charge you a separate monthly subscription for those seats.

• When you begin or renew an annual subscription, you purchase a set number of paid seats for the year.
• When you add extra paid seats throughout your annual subscription term, we’ll charge you a monthly subscription for just those seats. This helps you manage the cost of Figma if you have a portion of users who only need to pay for Figma for a short time.

But you’ll have the option to convert those seats from monthly billing to annual billing. Please check our Help Center article for more information: Convert monthly seats to annual seats on an annual subscription

If you want to prevent people from being able to upgrade to a paid seat without asking for permission, please read my previous comment. I’ve given you the steps on how to change the default seat type.

Please let me know if this clears your question.

What an idiotic system and support response. Jesus, you support staff are as incompetent as the monthly seating default options… 🙄

This is the most ridiculous system I have ever heard of. Just found out i’ve been paying upwards of $500 a month for Figma due to the hidden design seats. 20 of the seats i’ve been paying for accidentally are for users that have been inactive on Figma for over a year - so sly from Figma to be doing this without proper communication.

No one is able to upgrade themselves - I am the only one with access…and I didn’t do it. Figma did this all by themselves…where is the setting which stops Figma adding random charges?

Hey there! I am working closely with Gayani. Sorry for any trouble, we understand why it’s annoying.
As mentioned, this usually happens because there are added seats outside the original annual agreement. If you haven’t already, please get in touch with our support team for help correcting seat numbers and charges. They can have a deeper look at your billing and investigate it. Here is the form: here Thank you!

Our organization has been facing this issue for nearly 3 years, and I only just found this thread explaining how to fix it by changing the default seat to “viewer-restricted” instead of “viewer.”

Frankly, having this default setting with no clear guidance on how to adjust it feels like a classic dark pattern. A simple fix would be to prioritize security by setting the default seat to “viewer-restricted” for organizations. It’s much more likely that organizations prefer to prevent users from self-upgrading.