How do you identify and optimize unused Jira licenses in a growing organization?

Question

Hi everyone,

As organizations grow, managing Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management licenses can become challenging. Some users may become inactive, teams may change their requirements, and organizations may continue paying for subscriptions or features they no longer need.

I'm interested in learning how other Atlassian administrators handle license optimization.

* How do you identify inactive users and unused licenses?
* Do you conduct regular license audits before renewals?
* What strategies do you use to choose between Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans?
* Have you used license co-terming to simplify renewals and budget planning?

I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences, best practices, and any tools or reports you recommend for keeping Atlassian licensing cost-effective as your organization scales.

Nikola Perisic · Accepted Answer

Hello @Subhrajit Giri

* Tracking organization overview - this report gives an exact number I am looking for in terms of licenses
* Last seen column - this tells me exactly which users are active and which are not where I suspended the ones with the status of Invited
* Using billing section - I also track of how many users have filled the current tier level

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Accepted Answer

Hello @Subhrajit Giri

It’s key to look at which groups give product access, not just the Last Seen date.

With Entra ID/SCIM, users can hang onto their licenses through different groups. A quarterly check is a smart move: Look for users who haven’t been active for about 60–90 days, chat with their teams, and remove any access that isn’t needed instead of deleting their accounts.

https://support.atlassian.com/user-management/docs/remove-product-access-for-users/

Also JSM licenses. Not everyone needs an agent license when free customer access is sufficient.

And before renewals, review which Premium features are actually being used.

Best,

Arek🤠🧙‍♂️

Mihai_LeanZero · Accepted Answer

Adding to Nikola and Arek, since it bites at renewal time.

Monthly plans bill the peak user count in the period. So removals go before you add anyone new, because removing people after an onboarding wave doesn't get you a credit for the peak.

Last seen is per app, too. The export from Directory > Users with App access ticked gives a "Last seen in" date for each app, and plenty of people barely open Jira but spend all day in Confluence. Check the row per app before pulling access.

Jonas Nilsson | Unitlane · Accepted Answer

Nice rundown from Nikola, Arek and Mihai. One more thing worth knowing: Last seen only means someone opened Jira, not that they did anything in it.

Before you keep a seat for someone who looks active, try issuekey in updatedBy("<account ID>", "-90d") in work item search. If nothing comes back, they haven't created or changed a thing in 90 days, which makes it an easy seat to question.

Full disclosure, I make Seatwise, which lines up each person's last real Jira work with the group that gives them their seat, in case you'd like that as one report: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/417237412/seatwise-inactive-users-licenses-leavers-for-jira