GitLab Credits, GitLab Duo and GitLab Flex are the parts of GitLab’s licensing that do not follow the per-user tier model. GitLab Credits are “the standardized consumption currency for usage-based billing”. They pay for the GitLab Duo Agent Platform and some non-agentic features.[1] The older GitLab Duo Pro and Duo Enterprise add-ons are sold as seats, and their features do not consume credits.[4][1] GitLab Flex, introduced in GitLab 19.1, is a purchasing model that wraps seats and credits into “a single annual commitment”.[5] AI use is also governed by the GitLab Duo AI Terms, one of the Additional Terms listed on GitLab’s Terms of Use page.[6]
Editions
| Offer | How it is sold | Who can buy | Catalog row |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitLab Duo Core | Included with Premium and Ultimate (GitLab 18.0 and later) | Premium, Ultimate | None (included) |
| GitLab Duo Pro | Seats, from the Customers Portal or sales | Premium, Ultimate | Duo Pro |
| GitLab Duo Enterprise | Seats, through sales | Premium, Ultimate | Duo Enterprise |
| GitLab Duo Agent Platform | GitLab Credits | Free, Premium, Ultimate | Credits (on-demand) |
| GitLab Duo Agent Platform Self-Hosted | Enterprise License Agreement, flat fee per customer | Self-Managed with an offline license | Duo Agent Platform Self-Hosted |
| GitLab Flex | Annual or multi-year dollar commitment, sales-assisted | Premium, Ultimate | GitLab Flex |
Duo Core, Pro and Enterprise are described on the GitLab Duo add-ons page.[4] The pricing page retrieved on 2026-10-07 lists GitLab Credits at USD 1 per credit, with volume discounts for an annual commitment. It does not show list prices for Duo Pro or Duo Enterprise.[2] GitLab Flex cannot be bought by credit card and is “available only through sales-assisted channels”.[2]
GitLab Duo Core changed in 2026. From 2026-05-21, Duo Core users lose access to GitLab Duo Non-Agentic Chat. They are pointed to Agent Platform features such as Agentic Chat, agents, flows and Code Suggestions, and the documentation adds: “You must have GitLab Credits to use these features.”[4] GitLab says it will give 30 days’ notice before it enforces usage limits on Duo Core.[4]
Metrics
The GitLab Credit is the usage unit. Billing happens “at the root namespace or top-level group level, not at the project level”. Use is attributed to the subject that acts, which may be a human user or a non-human subject such as a service account or a bot running an automated flow.[1] For model-based features, credits convert to LLM calls through a per-model multiplier. Basic models give eight calls per credit; more capable premium models give fewer, in some cases less than one call per credit.[1] Some GitLab Duo features have a flat price per end-to-end execution. Features run on a self-hosted model get a 20% discount on the credits consumed.[1] On GitLab.com with GitLab-managed models, a flow that fails before it completes deducts no credits. On Self-Managed with self-hosted models, calls are metered as they start, so a failed flow can still consume credits.[1]
The GitLab Duo seat is the unit for Duo Pro and Duo Enterprise. The documentation says these add-ons “require you to purchase seats and assign them to team members”.[4]
Counting / floors
Where credits come from
GitLab lists four sources, used in this order: each user’s included credits, then temporary evaluation credits, then the monthly commitment pool, and finally on-demand credits once the usage billing terms have been accepted.[1]
Included credits. Premium and Ultimate users receive 12 or 24 credits per user per month under a promotion.[2] They are individual: “These credits are individual and cannot be shared between users.” They reset each month and do not roll over.[1] Non-human subjects and community program subscriptions get none.[1][7] The promotion terms say the offer started on 2026-01-15 for a limited time and “is not a contractual entitlement of the Customer’s subscription”. The promotional credits expire when GitLab ends the offer.[3] Catalog proof: Included credits are per user and do not roll over; Included credits are not a contractual entitlement.
Temporary evaluation credits. Customers that have neither bought a pool nor accepted usage billing can ask sales for a free pool for evaluation. These credits are valid for 30 days.[1]
Monthly commitment pool. A pool is shared by all users in the subscription and cannot be reserved for a subset of users, groups or projects. Usage caps are the tool for limiting individual consumption.[1] It is bought for an annual or multi-year term and billed up front. The annual number of credits is divided by twelve and resets on the first of each month without rollover.[1] A pool can be increased at any time for the rest of the term, but “You can decrease your commitment only at the time of renewal.”[1] GitLab.com Free groups and Self-Managed Free EE instances can also buy a pool; personal namespaces cannot.[2] Catalog proof: Commitment pool decreases only at renewal.
On-demand credits. Usage beyond included and committed credits is billed monthly at USD 1 per credit, but only if the customer has accepted the usage billing terms.[1] Buying a commitment pool accepts those terms. Once accepted, they “stay active for the rest of your subscription and subsequent self-serve renewals, and you cannot opt out”.[1] Without accepted terms, credit-based features stop once included and evaluation credits are used up.[1] For Free namespaces, on-demand usage is capped at USD 25,000 per calendar month. It switches off automatically when the cap is reached.[1] Catalog proof: Usage billing terms cannot be opted out of.
Duo seats
On GitLab.com, Duo seats are bought for the top-level group, and the number of seats bought “cannot be higher than the number of seats in the subscription associated with your group namespace”. The Self-Managed and Dedicated procedure has the same limit.[4] On GitLab.com a seat can go to any user with at least the Guest role. On Self-Managed it cannot go to a blocked, banned or deactivated user.[4] Seats can be assigned one by one, in bulk, through SAML Group Sync on GitLab.com, or automatically from LDAP group membership with the duo_add_on_groups setting on Self-Managed.[4] Catalog proof: Duo seats cannot exceed subscription seats.
GitLab Flex
Under Flex the customer commits a dollar amount for the year. Each month it reserves the seats and credits it expects to use, and the cost of that reservation is debited from the balance at the discounted Flex rates.[5] Usage above the reservation is on-demand: credits are charged at list rate and seats at the negotiated seat rate, both drawn from the same balance.[5] Reservations change at month boundaries and must be submitted by the second-to-last day of the month. Changing between Premium and Ultimate needs a contract amendment.[5]
The contract sets a minimum required reservation for every month. Unused reserved credits expire at month end, and “Seats are charged at the highest count reached during the month”.[5] If the commitment is exhausted early, GitLab invoices the minimum reservation each remaining month plus on-demand usage. Unused balance does not carry over between Flex terms.[5] The pricing FAQ adds that the commitment cannot be converted back to cash, and that the deployment model chosen at signing cannot be changed mid-term.[2] Catalog proof: Flex reservations expire monthly; Minimum reservation stays due after Flex balance is exhausted.
Virtualization & partitioning
Credits are counted per subject and per namespace, not per host. A Flex commitment can be shared across several Self-Managed instances by applying the same activation code or license file to each. Seats are then counted “as the high watermark across all instances combined” and credits are totalled across instances.[5] Offline Flex instances report seats manually, and their credit usage is reconciled twice a year through a sales-assisted true-up.[5]
Cloud / BYOL
GitLab Credits and the Agent Platform are available on GitLab.com, Self-Managed and GitLab Dedicated.[1] Self-Managed customers with an online license can use self-hosted models in the Agent Platform and pay by usage. Customers with an offline license must buy the GitLab Duo Agent Platform Self-Hosted add-on. That add-on is “billed under an Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) with a flat fee per customer” and covers all billable users on the instance.[4] Under Flex on GitLab Dedicated, the administration fee and storage are billed separately and do not draw from the Flex balance.[5]
Programs
| Program | Summary | Catalog row |
|---|---|---|
| Included GitLab Credits promotion | 12 or 24 credits per user per month on Premium or Ultimate, for a limited time | Included GitLab Credits promotion |
| Credits monthly commitment pool | Prepaid, shared, resets monthly; decreases only at renewal | Credits monthly commitment pool |
| GitLab Flex | Annual dollar commitment with monthly reservations | GitLab Flex |
GitLab Flex has its own billing terms, which “take precedence over the GitLab Subscription Agreement where the two conflict”. The standard add-on user and overage processes do not apply to Flex.[5] Community program subscriptions can use commitment pools, on-demand credits and evaluation credits, but not included credits.[7] Catalog proof: Flex replaces add-on user and overage billing.
Out of scope
This page does not cover the GitLab Duo AI Terms on input, output and indemnity, the feature list of each Duo add-on, or the full credit multiplier tables, which change as models are added.[6][1] GitLab Secrets Manager and hosted runners for GitLab Dedicated also use credits under a different consumption model; they are named here but not described.[1] The other add-ons, storage and compute minutes, are covered in GitLab offerings, compute minutes and storage, and the add-on list is on the GitLab plans page.[8]