Automatic Seat Upgrades - Enterprise Subscription Feature

What are Automatic Seat Upgrades?

Automatic Seat Upgrades let CanIPhish add licences to your subscription on your behalf when an activity would otherwise be blocked for exceeding your licensed seat count.

Without it, a phishing campaign, training assignment or licence allocation that needs more seats than you hold is simply stopped, and somebody has to notice, buy more licences, and start again. With it enabled, the seats are purchased automatically — up to a maximum you set in advance — and the activity proceeds.

The feature is off by default. Nothing is ever purchased automatically until a Platform Admin turns it on and sets a limit.

Before you begin

Automatic Seat Upgrades are available when all of the following are true:

• Your subscription is on the Enterprise plan.
• Your subscription is active.
• Your subscription is set to automatically charge a payment method on file. If you pay manually by invoice or bank transfer, the feature is unavailable — there is no card for us to charge without contacting you.
• You are a Platform Admin or Platform Super Admin.

If any of these is not met, the Automatic Seat Upgrades section will not appear on your Subscription & Billing tab. If you believe it should be available to you, contact our support team.

Turning it on

1. Go to Platform Settings and open the Subscription & Billing tab.
2. Find the Automatic Seat Upgrades section.
3. Switch the toggle to On.
4. Enter a Maximum seats value — the absolute ceiling automatic upgrades are allowed to reach.
5. Click Save.

Choosing your maximum

The maximum you set must be:

• Greater than your current licensed seat count.
• A multiple of 10.
• No more than double your current licensed seat count.

For example, if you currently hold 250 licences, you may set a maximum anywhere from 260 up to 500.

The two-times limit is deliberate. It caps how far automatic purchasing can go without a person reviewing the decision, and it is applied at the moment you configure the setting.

How upgrades work

When they happen

An upgrade is attempted only when an activity is about to exceed your licensed seats. That includes:

• Launching or scheduling a phishing or training campaign.
• Recurring and automated campaigns that run without anyone present.
• Campaigns created through the CanIPhish API or an AI assistant.
• A learner starting training.
• For partners, licence allocation across managed tenants.

If an activity fits within the seats you already hold, nothing is purchased.

How many seats are added

Seats are added in blocks of 10, always rounded up to cover what is needed. An activity short by 3 seats adds 10; short by 24 adds 30.

What you are charged

When seats are added, you are charged immediately for the prorated cost of the additional seats for the remainder of your current billing term only. You are not charged a full term for them, and your renewal date does not change.

Your invoice shows this as two lines — a charge for the remaining time at your new seat count, and a credit for the unused time at your old one. The amount you pay is the difference.

Worked example

You hold 250 licences on an annual subscription with six months remaining, and a campaign needs 43 more. CanIPhish rounds up to the next block of 10 and raises your subscription to 300 seats. You are charged the prorated cost of those extra 50 seats for the remaining six months — not a full year. At renewal, you are billed the normal annual rate for 300 seats.

Taxes are applied according to your billing jurisdiction, exactly as they are on your regular invoices.

Payment is confirmed before seats are granted

The additional seats are only added once payment has succeeded. If your card is declined, no charge is made and no seats are added — your subscription is left exactly as it was. You will be notified so the payment method can be corrected.

Reaching your maximum

Your maximum does not move on its own. Automatic upgrades consume the headroom between your current seat count and the ceiling you set, and stop there.

When an activity needs more seats than your maximum allows, no purchase is made and the activity is blocked as it would have been before the feature was enabled. Your Platform Admins are notified so somebody can decide what to do.

To allow further automatic upgrades, return to the Subscription & Billing tab and set a new maximum. Because the two-times limit is recalculated against your seat count at that moment, raising the ceiling is always a deliberate, human decision.

Staying informed

Your Platform Admins and Platform Super Admins receive a notification whenever:

• Seats are added automatically, including how many and your new total.
• An activity needs more seats than your configured maximum allows.
• A payment method is declined and no seats could be added.

Every configuration change and every automatic purchase is also written to your audit log.

Turning it off

Switch the toggle to Off on the Subscription & Billing tab and click Save. No further seats will be purchased automatically.

Turning the feature off does not remove seats you have already purchased or change your subscription in any way — those licences remain yours for the rest of your term. You can switch it off at any time, including once your seat count has already reached the maximum you set.

Partners and managed tenants

If you are a partner whose managed tenants draw licences from a single central subscription, Automatic Seat Upgrades are configured on your master tenant only, and apply to that central pool.

The setting does not appear on individual managed tenants, because those tenants do not hold their own subscription — their licences are allocated to them from your pool. When allocation across your tenants is set to exceed your licensed amount, the upgrade is applied to your central subscription and the additional licences become available for you to allocate.

Frequently asked questions

Will my renewal date change?

No. Automatic upgrades change your seat count only. Your billing term and renewal date are untouched.

What happens at renewal?

You are billed at your normal rate for the seat count you hold at that time, including any seats added automatically.

Can seats be removed automatically?

No. Automatic Seat Upgrades only ever increase your seat count. To reduce it, contact our support team or manage your subscription directly.

Can this be triggered by someone without billing permissions?

Only a Platform Admin or Platform Super Admin can enable the feature or set the maximum. Once configured, upgrades are performed automatically by the platform within the limit you set — they are not initiated by whoever happened to launch the campaign, and no other user can raise your ceiling.

Will I be charged twice if a campaign is retried?

No. Repeated attempts that arrive at the same seat count are treated as one purchase.

I pay by invoice. Can I still use this?

Not currently. The feature requires a payment method on file that can be charged automatically. If you would like to move to automatic card payment, contact our support team.

Where can I see what was purchased?

Automatic purchases appear on your invoices in the normal way, and each one is recorded in your audit log alongside the activity that triggered it.