Free Confluence for Jira Service Management Knowledge Base (Annual Licenses)
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
Jira Service Management's native knowledge base, powered by Confluence, lets agents create, read, update, and delete KB articles directly in JSM — without a separate Confluence login. No purchase of Confluence is required, but you must add Confluence to your site to unlock these features.
Billing plan | What you need to do |
|---|---|
Monthly | Add Confluence on the free plan (up to 10 users) — no extra steps needed. |
Annual | Add Confluence on a Standard plan first, then remove billable users to drop it to the no-cost tier. See steps below. |
This article clarifies how to enable a free Knowledge Base in Jira Service Management for sites with an annual subscription.
Please note that users who are granted product access to Confluence to access additional knowledge base capabilities will be charged based on the Confluence plan and user tier that is chosen to power your knowledge base.
Solution
How to add Confluence to your site
If Confluence hasn't been added to your site yet, a site admin can do this by going to admin.atlassian.com → select your site → Apps → Add app → Confluence. For a full walkthrough, see Add a new Atlassian app or collection to your organization
Adding Free Confluence to use the Knowledge Base in Jira Service Management
To add a knowledge base to your space and Confluence to your site, go to your space > Knowledge Base > Get Started:
As you are on an annual billing, you will need to add Confluence on a Standard plan:
After successfully adding Confluence, you'll be redirected back to the Knowledge base of the project, and there'll be a notice, "Your knowledge base is powered by Confluence Standard. You'll be charged based on the user tier for users on your site who have Confluence product access. If you're using Confluence to power your knowledge base, you can save by removing all billable users from Confluence". Click Manage user access.
You'll be taken to the Manage subscriptions page, where you'll see another notice: "Reduce your bill by managing user access. If you're using Confluence to power your knowledge base, you can save by removing all billable users from Confluence".
To do so, go to Products and remove any groups that grant users access to Confluence.
Once you remove all users' access to Confluence, you can check on the Manage subscriptions page that the notice will be gone, and Confluence will be on a Free trial:
After the trial is over, Confluence will automatically have no cost towards your billing:
You may grant product access to 1 user on Confluence and remain on the free billing plan that comes with your Jira Service Management Knowledge Base. If you grant product access to Confluence to more than one user, it will be charged based on the Confluence plan and user tier that is chosen to power your knowledge base.
When this does not apply
This article covers the native JSM knowledge base only. It does not apply if you want to:
Use Confluence as a standalone product (spaces, pages, or features outside the JSM KB) — this requires a standard Confluence license.
Set up the knowledge base on a monthly billing plan — monthly sites can add Confluence directly on the free plan.
Configure KB features on Data Center or Server — this article is Cloud only.
Was this helpful?