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Automation Step Allowance: Do Automations Stop Before Extra Usage Billing Starts?

Neo Apps

Hello,

We have a monthly Automation allowance of 172,100 steps and may exceed it before December 3, 2026.

If we reach the allowance before December 3 and Extra Usage is not enabled, will our automation rules stop running, or will they continue until extra usage billing starts?

Should we enable Extra Usage now to avoid any interruption?

Thank you!

Accepted answers

Mihai_LeanZero

Yes, they stop. Straight from the usage docs: "If extra usage is disabled and you reach 100% of your total steps allowance, your automation flows will stop running until usage resets on your usage billing date."

The billing date part catches people out. Not the first of the month. The usage billing date. A 3 December reset, with the allowance crossed on 20 November, means roughly two weeks of no automation at all.

With extra usage enabled the docs say admins are notified at 80% and 100%, flows keep running, and the overage lands on the next invoice.

Enabling it early costs nothing until the allowance is actually crossed. It removes the cliff.

Sami Shaik

@Neo Apps ,

@Mihai_LeanZero has the first half exactly right, with the doc quote: with extra usage off, hitting 100 percent stops every flow until your usage billing date, and that date is your subscription's date, not the first of the month. Let me take the second half of your question, whether to enable extra usage now, because the useful answer is "yes, with a limit, and then make sure you never need it."

Enable it, but set a spend limit the same minute. Extra usage is on by default in Atlassian's model and billed in arrears (how usage-based pricing works); if yours shows as off, an admin disabled it or set a zero limit. Atlassian Administration, Insights, Platform usage, select the Automation steps meter, then "Get more usage" and Enable extra usage, and set a monthly limit right after. That turns the December cliff into a capped overage instead of a silent stop, and the 80 and 100 percent notifications go to org and billing admins so someone sees it coming.

Then find out what is spending 172,100 steps, because it is usually three rules. The same Platform usage page shows consumption per app, and the Automation usage view shows it per rule. A step is every component that runs: trigger, each condition, each action, each branch, and each loop iteration (how usage is calculated). Two consequences people miss:

A rule that fires and does nothing still pays. A "Work item updated" trigger with a condition that fails 95 percent of the time spends a trigger step and a condition step on every update across the space. Swap the trigger for the narrow one ("Field value changed" for the specific field) and the same rule costs a fraction.
Scheduled rules with broad JQL are the other big spender. A rule that runs every hour over 2,000 items and branches per item spends thousands of steps a day even when nothing changes. Tighten the JQL in the trigger (updated >= -1h), lengthen the interval, or move the check into an event-driven rule.

Order your conditions so the cheapest and most selective is first, because a failed first condition stops the count there. In most estates I have looked at, the top three rules by steps account for well over half the total, and each has one of those two shapes.

One thing that does not count: the Rovo agent actions inside rules are metered as Rovo credits, not steps, so if your rules use them, that is a separate meter to watch on the same page.

Mihai_LeanZero

On the published pages the steps pause is a December problem. Atlassian's own wording: "Allowance limits and billing for these meters will go into effect on December 3, 2026." The licensing page adds that the exact date varies by capability and billing cadence. Nobody has written the sentence "the steps pause is not enforced before then" though. So check it, don't assume it. Atlassian Administration, Insights, Platform usage shows the steps meter with allowance, usage and the reset date.

What could stop flows this month is the older runs cap. The automation limits KB still describes a monthly cap on successful rule runs that stops every rule in the product until the 1st. The usage calc doc says the meter has moved to steps. Two docs, two stories. The Usage tab under Automation flows shows which one you're actually on.

The "has moved to steps" line in the usage calc doc describes the metering model. Probably the source of the confusion.

All comments

Mihai_LeanZero

With extra usage enabled the docs say admins are notified at 80% and 100%, flows keep running, and the overage lands on the next invoice.

Enabling it early costs nothing until the allowance is actually crossed. It removes the cliff.

Neo Apps

Thanks. Since Atlassian says Automation allowance limits and billing go live on December 3, does the automation pause on reaching 100% also only start being enforced from December 3? We're currently in September and want to confirm whether exceeding the allowance during the setup period can already stop our flows.

Sami Shaik

@Neo Apps ,

A rule that fires and does nothing still pays. A "Work item updated" trigger with a condition that fails 95 percent of the time spends a trigger step and a condition step on every update across the space. Swap the trigger for the narrow one ("Field value changed" for the specific field) and the same rule costs a fraction.
Scheduled rules with broad JQL are the other big spender. A rule that runs every hour over 2,000 items and branches per item spends thousands of steps a day even when nothing changes. Tighten the JQL in the trigger (updated >= -1h), lengthen the interval, or move the check into an event-driven rule.

One thing that does not count: the Rovo agent actions inside rules are metered as Rovo credits, not steps, so if your rules use them, that is a separate meter to watch on the same page.

Mihai_LeanZero

The "has moved to steps" line in the usage calc doc describes the metering model. Probably the source of the confusion.

Neo Apps

Thank you!

Jesus Galindo_9yuef0

Do you know if Atlassian is planning to add a filter per rule to find out the rules with more usage?

If they are capable to tell me "You used 46.522 steps" a dashboard with the consumption of them must be available to audit instead give users rules to try to optimize.

I have 4 pages with rules, I guess is not the most efficient way to find out to analyze each one, but tell customers which one are and then, allow me to optimize it.

Mihai_LeanZero

@Jesus Galindo for runs it's already there. On a Premium site I admin: Jira settings, System, Global automation, Usage tab, section "Explore monthly usage for all spaces". Pick product and month (current plus three back). The table lists Flow name, Used, Owner, Scope, Enabled, sorted by Used descending, deleted flows still counted.

The catch. It counts flow runs, not steps, and there's no sort, no search box, no export, so a chatty 40-step rule with few runs won't stand out.

The banner on that page says what's coming: "You'll be able to monitor usage by flow and identify which ones use AI-powered steps." No date past the December 3 renewal wording. The API side is jira.atlassian.com/browse/AUTO-1699, per product not per rule, Gathering Interest at 37 votes, probably the one to vote.

Which plan are you on? Only checked this on Premium and the Usage tab may look different on Standard.

Jesus Galindo_9yuef0

I am on Premium, and yes, appears runs. Not steps, In this case, My limit is 62.000 runs, available today 61.598 (almost 99%).

However, now I have 47.900 runs and today I reach my limit.

Once metric says I pass my limit, the other one says I have available 99% yet.

When I try to see how many steps I "wasted", I cant do it.

I have one rule that is launched 230 times and other 99 times. How can I see this one spent 2500 steps and this one 14000? I cant.

Its not feasible to know it. Just hang out a bit...try to optimize, but I can spend hours to change them, and save almost nothing.

IMO, this feature is mandatory before change to the new model.

Regards

Sami Shaik

@Neo Apps , to your September question: no, nothing stops before 3 December. Atlassian's usage-based pricing page is explicit that allowances, extra usage charges and the pause-at-100-percent behaviour all take effect from 3 December 2026; what runs now is the meter only, so a September or October month over the allowance costs nothing and stops nothing. Treat these months as your baseline: read Platform usage at the start of each month, and use the number to decide, before your first usage billing date after 3 December, whether extra usage stays on with a monthly limit or off with the cliff @Mihai_LeanZero described. And thank you Mihai, the Usage tab walkthrough for @Jesus Galindo is exactly what I would have written.

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