Understanding Atlassian's Expanded Usage-Based Pricing
Atlassian is expanding usage-based pricing across more of its cloud products, announced September 1 and taking effect December 3, 2026. If you're an Atlassian customer, here's what's changing, how it works, and what to expect in the months ahead.
Why This Is Happening
Usage-based pricing ties cost more directly to actual consumption and resource usage. It doesn't replace seat-based pricing, the two work together, with seats determining base access and usage scaling cost with how intensively specific capabilities, particularly AI-powered ones, are used.
How It Works
Most paid Atlassian cloud plans include a monthly usage allowance at no additional cost. That allowance is sized based on your plan tier and seat count, pooled across your entire organization, and refreshes every month. Unused allowance does not carry over to the next month.
If your organization needs more capacity than the included allowance provides, you have a few options: upgrade to a higher plan tier, move to a “collection” (a bundled plan type that includes substantially higher allowances), pre-purchase usage packs, or pay as you go for usage beyond your allowance.
To help you keep track of all this, Atlassian Administration now contains a centralized dashboard where you can monitor usage in real time, forecast costs, and set or adjust usage limits for your organization. Automated alerts notify you when you reach 80% and 100% of any allowance or limit, so there shouldn't be surprises on your bill.
What's Changing, Product by Product
Several specific usage meters are being introduced or updated:
Rovo credits (AI features)
AI-powered actions, including Rovo Chat, Agents, Think Deeper, the Coding Agent, and third-party API calls now draw from an included monthly credit allowance. Usage beyond that allowance is billable. Core features like search, summaries, and inline suggestions remain free regardless of usage.
Automation
Atlassian is shifting how automation usage is measured, from counting entire “flow runs” to counting individual steps. Previously, a 2-step automation and a 20-step automation both counted as a single unit. Now, each action, condition, branch, or loop counts as one step, giving a more granular and accurate picture of consumption. Enterprise plans, which previously included unlimited automation, will now include a defined monthly allowance instead.
Assets
Assets is launching as a new capability within Jira and the Teamwork Collection. If you're already a Service Collection customer using Assets, you'll gain centralized visibility into your Assets usage and billing through Atlassian Administration.
CSM AI resolutions
This is Atlassian's first outcome-based usage meter. You're only charged when an AI agent fully resolves a customer service inquiry end-to-end with no human involvement, at $1.00 per resolution. If the AI doesn't fully resolve the ticket, there's no charge.
Bitbucket
Build minutes, Git LFS storage, package storage, and network usage are now managed centrally through Atlassian Administration rather than at the individual workspace level. For monthly billing, allowances move from workspace-level to organization-level pooling. For annual billing, usage beyond the included allowance becomes billable. Failed builds consume build minutes, consistent with how other CI/CD platforms like GitHub, CircleCI, and GitLab measure usage; usage run on self-hosted runners does not count toward the meter.
What This Means for Your Organization
For most customers, day-to-day usage won't change immediately. Included allowances are designed so teams can keep using existing features without tracking every action. The bigger shift is visibility: Atlassian Administration now shows real-time consumption across these meters, making it easier to anticipate costs as AI and automation usage grows.
Pricing under this model is public and published by Atlassian, and a usage calculator is available on Atlassian's website to help you estimate costs based on your team's expected activity.
How Praecipio Can Help
The gap between now and December 3 is an opportunity to get ahead of these changes rather than react to them once billing begins. As North America's largest pure-play Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, we can help you turn the new visibility into a plan on two fronts:
Understand the impact
Before deciding whether to adjust plans, move to a collection, or pre-purchase usage packs, it helps to know exactly where you stand. Through a focused assessment, we review your current consumption across the new meters, Rovo credits, automation steps, Assets, CSM AI resolutions, and Bitbucket, and model it against your included allowances to show where you're likely to exceed them and what it will cost. The shift in automation billing from flow runs to individual steps is a good example: automations that were "free" under the old model may now carry real cost, and cleaning them up ahead of time can pay for itself. You'll come away with a clear view of your exposure and a prioritized set of options.
Manage the day to day
Usage-based pricing isn't a one-time adjustment; it's an ongoing discipline. Consumption grows as your teams adopt more AI and automation, and staying efficient means watching the dashboards, tuning automations that now bill by the step, right-sizing plans and collections, and adjusting limits before they turn into surprises. Our Managed Services team can own that for you — monitoring usage, forecasting cost, and continuously optimizing your environment so you capture the value of these capabilities without the bill creeping up on you.
Whether you want to understand your exposure before December or put ongoing management in place, reach out to Praecipio.
Key Dates
As of September 1, 2026, meter usage will begin appearing in Atlassian Administration (note that usage data may take up to a week to fully populate). Billing for usage beyond included allowances begins on December 3, 2026, for most meters. That gap gives organizations time to review their usage patterns and decide whether adjustments to plans, collections, or usage packs make sense before charges begin.
For meter-specific rates and full enforcement details, Atlassian's central usage and pricing page is available.
If you have any additional questions around Atlassian’s new usage-based pricing, reach out to Praecipio.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is usage-based pricing (UBP)?
It's a pricing model where cost is tied partly to how much of certain features, particularly AI and automation capabilities, an organization actually uses, in addition to the number of seats it has. It works alongside, not instead of, seat-based pricing.
Will this change what I pay right away?
Not necessarily. Most paid plans include a monthly allowance for these usage meters at no extra cost. You'd only see additional charges if your organization's usage exceeds that included allowance. Extra-usage billing doesn't begin until December 3, 2026, for most meters.
What happens if my team exceeds its monthly allowance?
You'll receive automated alerts at 80% and 100% of your allowance. From there, you can choose to upgrade your plan, move to a collection for higher allowances, purchase a usage pack, or pay as you go for the additional usage.
Does unused allowance roll over to the next month?
No. Allowances refresh monthly and any unused portion does not carry over.
Which products and features are affected?
The meters being introduced or updated include Rovo credits (AI features), Automation steps, Assets objects, CSM AI resolutions, and several Bitbucket meters (build minutes, Git LFS storage, and package storage/network). More information is available directly from Atlassian.
Are all AI features billable?
No. Core functions like search, summaries, and inline suggestions remain free. Credit-consuming features include Rovo Chat, Agents, Think Deeper, the Coding Agent, and third-party API calls.
How is the new CSM AI resolution meter different from other meters?
It's outcome-based rather than usage-based in the traditional sense. You're only charged ($1.00 per resolution) when an AI agent fully closes a service ticket without any human escalation. If it doesn't fully resolve the issue, there's no charge.
How can I monitor my organization's usage?
Atlassian Administration provides real-time usage tracking, cost forecasting, and the ability to set or adjust usage limits. A usage calculator will also be available on Atlassian's website.
Where can I get official, up-to-date details on pricing and rates?
Atlassian's central usage and pricing page is available here.
