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Seat Count

Notes on buying business software and keeping the bill in check

Buyer's kit

Desk calculator

Seat cost calculator

Enter seats, price and unused seats to see the annual bill and the share spent on idle licenses.

Enter the seats you pay for, what each one costs and how many go unused. The calculator shows the yearly bill, the part of it spent on idle seats and what each seat in use really costs. It runs in your browser and nothing you type is stored or sent.

The annual price per seat is the price you enter, multiplied by 12 if it is quoted per month. The annual bill is seats times that annual price. The cost of idle seats is unused seats times the same annual price. The cost per seat in use is the annual bill divided by the seats that are used. Prices are in whatever currency you pay in.

Annual bill for all seats
9,000.00
Annual cost of unused seats
1,440.00
Share of seats unused
16.0%
Real cost per seat in use, per year
214.29

How this works

First the price is turned into a yearly figure: a monthly price is multiplied by 12, a yearly price is used as it is. Then three results follow from your counts.

  • Annual bill = seats paid for × yearly price per seat.
  • Cost of unused seats = unused seats × yearly price per seat.
  • Cost per seat in use = annual bill ÷ (seats paid for − unused seats).

The share of unused seats is unused seats divided by seats paid for. If you enter more unused seats than seats, the calculator treats every seat as unused.

The limits are worth knowing. The calculator assumes one flat price per seat, so it does not model tiered pricing, volume discounts, usage charges or add-ons. It uses the price you type in, which may differ from the price on your invoice after discounts and taxes. And removing a seat from a console does not always lower the bill, because many contracts allow reductions only at renewal. To find the unused count in the first place, use the seat usage audit, and check the seats section of the contract checklist before you plan a cut.

Cross-references