The Bitwarden Terms of Service govern every Bitwarden account, free or paid, personal or organizational. The parties are the user and 8bit Solutions LLC, which is “wholly owned by Bitwarden Inc.”. The terms were adapted from GitHub’s terms under a Creative Commons licence.[1] The text states “Effective date: June 1, 2017”. Its section summaries are “not legally binding”.[1] Seat counting, renewal and cancellation work through rules in Bitwarden’s help center, which are summarised below. Catalog source: Bitwarden Terms of Service.
Editions
The same terms apply to Free, Premium, Families, Teams and Enterprise. “Paid Content” is content available only to users on a payment plan.[1] Teams and Enterprise organizations can be billed annually or monthly. Premium and Families are billed annually.[8] Plan contents are listed in Bitwarden licensing.
Metrics
Accounts and logins. “Your login may only be used by one person”. A paid organization “may create separate logins for as many users as its subscription allows”.[1] “Overall, the number of Users must not exceed the number of accounts you’ve ordered from us.”[1] One person or legal entity may keep “no more than one free account”.[1] Catalog proof: One login per person; organizations limited to ordered users; Users must not exceed accounts ordered; One free account per person or legal entity.
User seat. “A user seat is the billed license for one user within a Bitwarden organization.” Invited users occupy a seat. The seat total sets how many users can join, and seats “are not permanently attached to a specific member”.[2] Catalog row: User seat.
Counting / floors
Only an organization owner or provider service user can add or remove seats.[2]
| Event | Rule (Manage Subscription Seats) | Catalog |
|---|---|---|
| User invited, cloud Teams or Enterprise | Billed seats increase automatically unless a seat limit is set | Cloud Teams and Enterprise seats scale up automatically on invitation |
| Seat limit reached | No new invitations until the limit is raised | Cloud Teams and Enterprise seats scale up automatically on invitation |
| Seat added mid-cycle | Charged only for the remaining time; annual plans charged on the renewal day of the month, consolidated at renewal | Mid-cycle seats are prorated and consolidated at renewal |
| User removed | Billed seats do not fall; the seat count must be reduced | Removing a user does not reduce billed seats |
| Seats exceed active users | Unassigned seats are still billed | Unassigned seats are still billed |
| Seats removed | Next charge credited for unused time | Removed seats are credited |
Source for all rows: Manage Subscription Seats in Your Organization.[2] Bitwarden’s example: a plan renewing on July 15 that adds a seat on May 1 is charged on May 15 for May 1 to July 14. On July 15 all seats are “consolidated into a single yearly charge”.[2]
Removed users are not removed seats. An organization that offboards staff without lowering the seat count keeps paying for them. Bitwarden notes that seats can be filled by inviting more people or removed from the subscription.[2] This is a true-down opportunity at any time, not only at renewal. See true-up.
Payment, renewal and cancellation
Price protection (E.1). “If you agree to a subscription price, that will remain your price for the duration of the payment term; however, prices are subject to change at the end of a payment term.”[1] Material changes, “such as price changes”, are notified at least 30 days before they take effect by a notice on the website.[1] Catalog proof: Subscription price fixed for the payment term; 30 days notice of material changes such as price changes.
Changes of plan (E.2). Upgrades are billed immediately. A switch from monthly to yearly billing bills “a full year at the next monthly billing date”. A downgrade may lose access to content, features or capacity.[1] Catalog proof: Upgrades billed immediately; monthly to yearly billed for a full year.
Billing in advance and refunds (E.3). Monthly and yearly plans are billed in advance. “We offer a 30 day refund policy on all paid Services.”[1] The cancellation guide adds that subscriptions older than 30 days are not eligible for a refund.[4] Catalog proof: Billed in advance monthly or yearly; 30-day refund policy on paid Services.
Renewal and disabled organizations. Organization subscriptions renew automatically, annually or monthly. If payment fails or the subscription is cancelled, the organization is disabled. Cloud customers have “a seven day grace period” between licence expiry and disabling, and self-hosted customers 60 days.[3] In a disabled organization only owners keep access to shared items. Items, collections, members and groups are not deleted, and paying the outstanding invoice restores a cloud organization.[3] Catalog proof: Grace periods before a disabled organization: 7 days cloud, 60 days self-hosted.
Cancellation. “If you cancel automatic renewal, you can continue using your subscription until the end of your current billing cycle.” After that, paid features are lost but the account or organization is not deleted.[4] Catalog proof: Cancelled subscriptions run to the end of the billing cycle.
Termination by Bitwarden (F.3). Bitwarden may suspend or terminate access “at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice”.[1] Catalog proof: Bitwarden may terminate access with or without cause.
Restrictions and contract terms
- No resale (C.3). Users may not “sell, resell or exploit any portion of the Service” without express written permission.[1] Catalog proof: No resale of the Service without written permission.
- Assignment (L.2). Bitwarden may assign the terms at any time. The user may not assign without prior written consent, and an unauthorised assignment is void.[1] Catalog proof: Customer may not assign without consent; Bitwarden may assign freely.
- Law and venue (L.1). US federal law and the laws of California apply, with exclusive jurisdiction of courts in California.[1] Catalog proof: California law and courts govern.
- Warranty and liability (H, I). The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. Bitwarden excludes liability for indirect and consequential losses, including losses from “any modification, price change, suspension or discontinuance of the Service”.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. The terms and billing rules count users and accounts. Self-hosted deployments are covered in Bitwarden self-hosted organization licensing.
Cloud / BYOL
Not applicable to cloud seats. A self-hosted organization’s seats mirror its cloud organization’s seats.[2]
Programs
- Enterprise trial. “We won’t charge you until your 14 day free trial of the Enterprise plan is over.” During the trial, seats are added if the number entered is exceeded, unless a limit is specified.[5] Catalog proof: Enterprise trial lasts 14 days before billing.
- Sponsored Families for Members. A sponsored Families organization is free “as long as you are an active member of the sponsoring organization”, unless additional storage is added.[9] Catalog proof: Sponsored Families free while an active member of the Enterprise organization.
- Provider Portal for MSPs. See below.
Provider (MSP) billing
An MSP that signs up as a Provider designates “a Teams seat minimum and an Enterprise seat minimum”. These counts are “a fixed floor which you are billed for monthly”.[6] Client organization seats are drawn from that pool at no extra cost while unassigned seats remain. Bitwarden’s example is 50 Enterprise seats, with 25 used by one client, leaving 25 for other Enterprise clients.[6] Catalog row: Provider seat minimum. Catalog proof: Provider seat minimums are a fixed monthly floor.
Seats above the minimum are listed as “Additional seats purchased”. They create a prorated charge on the next invoice and fall off the invoice when seats drop back to the minimum.[6] Unlike direct cloud organizations, “Client organizations that are managed by a provider will not automatically add user seats when they reach the assigned amount”.[6] Catalog proof: Provider seats above the minimum are prorated on the next invoice; Provider-managed client organizations do not autoscale seats.
There is “no fee for MSPs or their users to use the Provider Portal”. An MSP’s own internal organization is billed “at the discounted rate”. The Portal is not supported for self-hosted environments.[7] Bitwarden also offers MSPs incentives on cumulative seats under management.[6] Catalog proof: Provider Portal is free and cloud only.
Out of scope
- Reseller agreements and MSP incentive schedules, which are not public.
- The Bitwarden Privacy Policy, incorporated by reference into the terms.
- Self-hosted licence files and the 60-day update window.