GitLab licensing is the set of terms under which GitLab Inc. sells its DevSecOps platform, the application that combines source code management, CI/CD, security scanning, planning and AI features. GitLab sells the same product in three tiers, Free, Premium and Ultimate, and in three delivery offerings: GitLab.com, the multi-tenant software-as-a-service; GitLab Self-Managed, which the customer installs and runs on its own infrastructure; and GitLab Dedicated, a single-tenant SaaS hosted by GitLab.[3][4] Paid tiers are subscriptions priced per user, normally for a twelve-month term.[1]
The contract is the GitLab Subscription Agreement. The version current on the retrieved date is GLSA_01.12.26 v8, and GitLab’s Terms of Use page states that the current terms apply to customers using only Free Software and to net-new and renewal purchases made on or after 2026-01-12. A subscription bought before that date, including its upgrades and added users, stays under the agreement in effect when it was bought.[2][1] The Agreement covers both paid and Free use, and has appendices for customer support and for the SaaS offerings.[1] Catalog proof: Agreement version follows the purchase date.
Editions
GitLab’s commercial editions are tiers rather than separate products. All three are available on GitLab.com and Self-Managed; GitLab Dedicated comes with the Ultimate feature set.[3][12]
| Tier or offering | List price on the pricing page | Notable inclusions | Catalog row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | USD 0 | 5 users per private top-level group and 400 compute minutes per month on GitLab.com | Free |
| Premium | USD 29 per user per month, billed annually | 10,000 compute minutes per month; 12 promotional GitLab Credits per user per month | Premium |
| Ultimate | Custom pricing | Non-billable Guest users; 50,000 compute minutes per month; 24 promotional credits per user per month | Ultimate |
| GitLab Dedicated | Price on request | Single-tenant, GitLab-managed, region of choice on AWS | Dedicated |
| GitLab Dedicated for Government | Price on request | AWS GovCloud, FedRAMP Moderate baseline | Dedicated for Government |
The price and allowance figures are from the pricing page retrieved on 2026-10-07.[3] Older tier names survive in the Agreement’s support appendix, which maps Free to the former “Core”, Premium to “Silver” and Ultimate to “Gold”.[1]
Add-ons sit on top of a tier: GitLab Duo seats, GitLab Credits, the GitLab Flex purchasing model, Enterprise Agile Planning seats, extra storage and extra compute minutes.[4] The pricing page lists Enterprise Agile Planning at USD 15 per user per month for Ultimate, compute minutes at USD 10 per 1,000 as a one-time payment, storage at USD 5 per month for 10 GiB billed annually, and GitLab Credits at USD 1 per credit.[3] Catalog rows: Enterprise Agile Planning, Compute minutes (1,000), Storage (10 GiB), Credits (on-demand).
Metrics
The base unit is the User. The Agreement defines a User as a person or machine authorized by the customer “that requires the provision of a seat within the admin platform”, who can access the purchased Software “regardless of whether the User actually accesses, or the frequency with which they access, the Software”.[1] The documentation turns this into the Billable user, the accounts that occupy a seat, and the Maximum users high-water mark used for overage billing.[5]
| Unit | Catalog row | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| User seat | User, Billable user, Maximum users | Premium, Ultimate and Dedicated subscriptions |
| Planner seat | Enterprise Agile Planning seat | Ultimate with the Enterprise Agile Planning add-on |
| AI seat | GitLab Duo seat | GitLab Duo Pro and Duo Enterprise |
| Usage currency | GitLab Credit | GitLab Duo Agent Platform and other usage-based features |
| CI/CD runtime | Compute minute | Instance runners on GitLab.com, and on Self-Managed or Dedicated when a quota is enabled |
| Repository storage | Storage (GiB) | Git repository and LFS on GitLab.com |
How seats are counted is covered in GitLab billable users and seats. Credits and AI add-ons are covered in GitLab Credits, Duo and Flex.
Counting / floors
Who is billable. Members with the Planner, Reporter, Security Manager, Developer, Maintainer or Owner role are billable on every paid tier. Guest users are billable on Premium but not on Ultimate. Pending, deactivated, banned and blocked users, users with only the Minimal Access role, and service accounts and bots created by GitLab are not billable.[5] A user who belongs to several groups or projects under the same top-level group counts once.[5] Catalog proof: Guest users are free on Ultimate, billable on Premium; Minimal Access and inactive accounts are non-billable; Machine users are Users unless GitLab-created.
High-water mark. Overage is the maximum number of billable users during the billing period minus the seats purchased. The documentation states that “The cost is based on the maximum number of users during the billing period, not the current number of users.”[5] Catalog proof: Overage is measured on maximum users.
No reduction mid-term. Under s.6.5 of the Agreement the customer “shall not have the right to report less than the number of Users originally purchased under the Subscription”, and Add-On Users are co-termed with the subscription.[1] Seats can be reduced only at renewal.[5] Catalog proof: No reduction of users during the term.
One tier per group or instance. All users in a GitLab.com group or on a Self-Managed instance must be on the same plan.[3] GitLab’s licensing policy allows different tiers on separate instances, but treats using higher-tier features on code developed in a lower-tier instance as a “prohibited commingling of features”.[7] Catalog proof: One tier per group or instance; Prohibited commingling of tiers.
Free tier limit. On GitLab.com Free, a top-level group with private visibility may have up to five users; above that it is placed in a read-only state.[11] Catalog proof: Five-user limit on GitLab.com Free.
Virtualization & partitioning
GitLab does not license by processor, core or virtual machine, so there are no partitioning rules. What matters is the number of instances. One activation code or license key may be applied to several Self-Managed instances, for example production, development and test, if the users on them are the same as, or a subset of, the users of the licensed production instance. GitLab then bills on the instance with the highest billable user count.[7] Where the user populations differ, each instance needs its own subscription.[7] Catalog proof: One activation code for several Self-Managed instances.
Cloud / BYOL
There is no bring-your-own-licence path between offerings. GitLab.com, GitLab Dedicated and Self-Managed each need a separate subscription, and subscriptions “cannot be transferred between GitLab.com and GitLab Self-Managed”.[7][4] Self-Managed can run on a public cloud like any other host; the subscription is still counted per instance and user.[3] GitLab Dedicated is hosted only on infrastructure selected and managed by GitLab and is not provided for installation on customer infrastructure.[1] Offerings, compute minutes and storage are covered in GitLab offerings, compute minutes and storage. Catalog proof: Separate subscriptions per offering.
Programs
| Program | What it does | Catalog row |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription Term and automatic renewal | 12-month term that renews with the same users, tier and add-on users unless 30 days’ notice is given | Subscription Term and automatic renewal |
| Quarterly subscription reconciliation | Seats added in a quarter are invoiced prorated for the rest of the term | Quarterly subscription reconciliation |
| Annual true-up | Overage users are invoiced for the full year at list price | Annual true-up |
| GitLab Flex | One annual dollar commitment drawn down by monthly seat and credit reservations | GitLab Flex |
| Credits monthly commitment pool | Shared monthly pool of GitLab Credits, billed up front | Credits monthly commitment pool |
| Included GitLab Credits promotion | 12 (Premium) or 24 (Ultimate) credits per user per month for a limited time | Included GitLab Credits promotion |
| Community programs | Ultimate plus 50,000 compute minutes for qualifying open source projects, educational institutions and startups | GitLab for Open Source, GitLab for Education, GitLab for Startups |
The quarterly and annual processes come from s.6.6 and s.6.7 of the Agreement.[1] Since 2021-08-01 quarterly reconciliation has been the default for new and renewing subscriptions bought directly, but reseller, multi-year, purchase-order, public-sector and offline subscriptions are reconciled annually instead.[3][6] GitLab Flex has its own billing terms, which override the Agreement where they conflict.[9] The community programs and their limits are described on the documentation’s community programs page.[16] The detail is in GitLab quarterly reconciliation and true-ups.
AI features and usage billing
GitLab sells AI in two ways. GitLab Duo Pro and Duo Enterprise are seat-based add-ons: seats are bought and assigned to named users, and they do not consume credits.[10][8] The newer GitLab Duo Agent Platform is billed in GitLab Credits. Credits come, in order of use, from per-user included credits, temporary evaluation credits, a monthly commitment pool and on-demand usage at USD 1 per credit.[8][3] Accepting the usage billing terms cannot be undone for the rest of the subscription.[8] GitLab Duo Core comes with Premium and Ultimate, but from GitLab 19.0 its agentic features need GitLab Credits.[10]
Audits and compliance
Section 5.3 of the Agreement lets GitLab verify usage electronically or require the customer to produce usage reports. The customer must keep Customer Records for the term and two years afterwards. With 30 days’ notice, GitLab may have an independent auditor check those records. The customer pays the audit cost if it finds underpayment of more than 5%.[1] Self-Managed instances on Cloud Licensing report seat data to GitLab automatically. Offline instances export a license usage file instead, and Flex reconciles their credit usage twice a year.[7][9] When a Self-Managed licence expires the instance becomes read-only until a new subscription is activated or the licence is removed to fall back to Free.[17] Catalog proof: Usage verification and audit; Offline instances report usage manually.
Open core
GitLab is distributed under an open-core model. The repository’s LICENSE file puts code outside the ee/ and jh/ directories, and all client-side JavaScript, under the MIT Expat licence.[13] Code in ee/ is under the GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) license, which allows production use only with a valid subscription “for the correct number of user seats”, while allowing copying and modification for development and testing without one.[14] Enterprise Agile Planning users are governed by separate Agile Planning Terms that restrict them to planning features.[15] See GitLab open core and Subscription Agreement. Catalog proof: EE code needs a subscription for production use.
Out of scope
This page does not cover GitLab Professional Services, the GitLab Partner Program and reseller agreements, the GitLab Duo AI Terms on data and output ownership, data processing terms, or JiHu GitLab, the separately licensed distribution in the jh/ directory.[2][13] Prices are list prices in USD; GitLab notes that prices may vary when bought through a partner or reseller.[3]