Understanding Licenses
How Licenses Work
Easy Mail Archive uses a license-based billing model. Your monthly bill is determined by the number of licenses your account requires, multiplied by the per-license price of your plan. Understanding how licenses are calculated helps you predict costs and optimize your subscription.
License Calculation
Your license count is the higher of two values:
- Active users - The number of users who currently have access to your archive
- Storage licenses - Your total storage usage divided by the per-license storage allocation, rounded up
The formula is: licenses = max(active_users, ceil(storage_gb / storage_per_license_gb))
Example on Starter Plan (10 GB per license)
If you have 12 active users and are using 95 GB of storage:
- Active users: 12
- Storage licenses: ceil(95 / 10) = 10
- Billed licenses: 12 (the higher value)
If you have 5 active users but are using 120 GB of storage:
- Active users: 5
- Storage licenses: ceil(120 / 10) = 12
- Billed licenses: 12 (storage drives the count)
What Counts as an Active User?
An active user is any user account that exists in your Easy Mail Archive tenant and has not been deactivated. This includes:
- Users who log in to search and view archived emails
- Users who have mailboxes being archived, even if they never log in to the web interface
- Administrator accounts
Deactivated user accounts do not count toward your active user total. If an employee leaves your organization, deactivating their account will reduce your license count at the next billing cycle.
Checking Your License Usage
You can view your current license breakdown in Settings > Billing. The billing overview shows both your active user count and your storage-based license calculation, so you can see which factor is driving your costs.
Tips for Managing Licenses
- Deactivate former employees promptly to avoid paying for unused accounts
- Monitor storage growth to anticipate when storage might increase your license count
- Consider the Business plan if storage is driving your costs - at 25 GB per license instead of 10 GB, you may need fewer total licenses