From 3 December 2026, Atlassian is changing the way organisations are charged for usage. 

For years, Atlassian pricing has largely been straightforward: you paid for the number of users you had, selected the products and plans you needed, and knew broadly what your subscription would cost.

That model is changing.

As AI, automation and cloud usage become a bigger part of how organisations work, Atlassian is moving towards a more usage-based pricing model – where the amount you use can increasingly influence what you pay.

And that means one thing for Atlassian customers:

Understanding your usage is about to become just as important as understanding your licences.

What is changing?

From 3 December 2026, Atlassian will introduce expanded usage-based pricing across several areas of its platform.

Most eligible plans will include a defined amount of usage. Once that allowance is exceeded, additional usage may incur additional charges.

The six key areas to be aware of are:

1. Seats

The familiar seat-based subscription model isn’t disappearing.

The number of users you have will continue to influence your subscription costs, so managing licences and user access remains important.

But seats are now only one part of the bigger pricing picture.

2. Automation

Automation usage will now be measured by individual automation steps.

That means organisations with heavily automated workflows will need to look beyond simply asking, “How many automation rules do we have?”

The more important question becomes:

How many automation steps are those rules actually running?

3. AI and Rovo

Atlassian’s AI capabilities through Rovo will continue to use Rovo credits, with usage counting towards your included allowance.

As organisations increasingly adopt AI for searching, summarising, generating content and supporting everyday work, understanding how much AI capacity your teams are consuming will become increasingly important.

4. Bitbucket

For development teams, usage isn’t just about the number of users.

Bitbucket usage can include areas such as build minutes and storage, meaning development activity can contribute to your overall consumption.

5. Assets / Objects

For organisations using Jira Service Management, Assets introduces another usage dimension.

Pricing will take into account the number of unique Asset/Object records stored.

That means the size and structure of your Assets environment may become an important consideration when assessing your future Atlassian costs.

6. CSM AI Resolutions

Customer Service Management introduces another new concept: AI-resolved customer enquiries will be measured by outcome.

As AI takes on more of the work traditionally handled by service agents, organisations may see significant efficiency gains – but the volume of AI-resolved enquiries will also become part of the pricing equation.

Find out more from Atlassian

Atlassian has published detailed information about its new usage-based pricing model, including how allowances, usage monitoring and additional capacity work.

Want to understand the changes directly from Atlassian?

The bigger change: from licences to consumption

This is perhaps the most important thing for Atlassian customers to understand.

The conversation around Atlassian licensing has traditionally been focused on questions like:

How many users do we have?

Which products do we need?

Which plan should we be on?

Those questions still matter.

But increasingly, organisations will also need to ask:

How much are we actually using?

That’s a fundamental shift.

Your Atlassian environment may have relatively stable user numbers while your usage continues to grow.

More automation. More AI. More builds. More Assets. More customer enquiries resolved through AI.

Your seat count might stay the same while your consumption increases.

And that’s where organisations need to start paying attention.

Why you should look at your usage now

The good news is that you don’t need to wait until December to understand what this could mean for your organisation.

Usage data is becoming visible in Atlassian Administration from 1 September 2026, although data may take up to a week to populate.

That gives organisations an opportunity to establish a baseline before usage-based billing begins.

And that baseline is valuable.

Rather than discovering after the fact that you’re exceeding an allowance, you can identify potential pressure points now and decide whether you need to change anything.

Don’t automatically assume usage-based pricing means higher costs

It’s easy to look at usage-based pricing and assume the outcome will simply be a larger bill.

It doesn’t have to be.

The introduction of usage allowances creates another opportunity: optimising how you use Atlassian.

You may find that your current plan already provides enough capacity.

You may discover that moving to a different plan or Collection gives you better overall value.

You may identify unused licences, inefficient automation rules or opportunities to manage your Assets environment more effectively.

Or you may determine that your organisation is genuinely getting significant value from increased AI and automation usage — and that paying for additional capacity makes sense.

The key is having the data to make that decision.

The question every Atlassian customer should be asking

The important question isn’t simply:

“What’s changing with Atlassian pricing?”

It’s:

“How will these changes affect our actual usage and costs?”

Every organisation will have a different answer.

A 50-user organisation with minimal automation will have a very different usage profile from a 1,000-user enterprise running thousands of automation steps, extensive Bitbucket pipelines, a large Assets environment and significant Rovo adoption.

That’s why a generic pricing calculator can’t tell the whole story.

Your Usage Profile Matters.

What should you do before 3 December?

We recommend taking four steps.

1. Understand your current usage

Start looking at the usage data available in Atlassian Administration.

You can’t manage what you can’t see.

2. Identify your potential cost drivers

Look particularly closely at automation, Rovo, Bitbucket, Assets and AI-powered service capabilities.

Which areas are growing?

Which are already approaching their included allowances?

3. Review your current Atlassian plans and Collections

Don’t look at usage in isolation.

Your existing subscription, plan level and Collections may provide allowances or capabilities that change the overall value equation.

4. Plan before December

Once additional usage billing begins, it may be too late to make informed changes.

Reviewing your environment now gives you time to optimise, budget and plan for increased AI and automation adoption.