How billing works with Trello Premium and Standard

Monthly vs. annual billing

When you upgrade your Trello Workspace to Standard or Premium you have the option to choose between a monthly or annual billing plan. Annual billing is paid in advance and gives a discount for each member when compared to monthly billing. You can find more detail on that, as well as a comparison with our other plans on our pricing page.

When is a member billable?

There are two ways someone can be billable in a paid workspace:

1. They are a Workspace member - either a normal member or a Workspace admin

2. They are a multi-board guest in the Workspace

A guest is someone who is a member of a board in a Workspace but is not a member of the Workspace itself. A multi-board guest is someone who is a guest on two or more boards within a Workspace. Multi-board guests are billed at the same rate as Workspace members. See this page for more information on multi-board guests.

You won't be billed for the following types of users with Standard or Premium:

• Virtual users - These are people who are invited to a Workspace but who haven’t created their Trello account yet. Once they accept their invitations and start using Trello, they’ll be converted automatically to a normal member of the Workspace, and become a billable member.

• Deactivated Workspace members - Deactivated Workspace members have had access to Workspace resources disabled, but existing board and card memberships are preserved to help you know what work needs to be reassigned.

• Single-board guests - If you invite someone to one board in your Workspace without inviting them to the Workspace (this is called a Guest), they're not considered billable. If that person is added as a guest on a second board, and a Workspace admin approves, they will become a billable multi-board guest. Once someone is approved as a billable multi-board guest, any member can add that guest to subsequent boards. 

How adding and removing Workspace members affects billing

After your initial upgrade, you'll pay a pro-rated price when you add someone to your Standard or Premium Workspace or when someone becomes a multi-board guest. When you pay for that license, you pay for it until the end of your current billing period. 

Removing or deactivating a member from the paid Workspace frees up their license which can then be assigned to a different user at no additional charge. This lets you transfer licenses to new members as many times as you like until your subscription renews. For example:

Casper works alone, he creates a Workspace to group all of his mattress-testing boards. He pays $119.99 for the year for a single user. Three months later, he adds a contractor, Michael, to the Workspace, to help test mattresses. Casper's card is charged a pro-rated price of $89.99, for a Premium license for 3/4 of a year. 

Two months later, Michael's contract is up. Casper deactivates Michael's account, which leaves his Workspace with one open Premium license. He then adds Kristen to the Workspace, and does not see a charge.

Billing FAQ

Do I need to pay for all Workspace members, even if they're not admins?

Standard and Premium are upgrades for the entire Workspace. Billing is based on the total number of active Workspace members and multi-board guests, including normal members and admins.

Can I add someone to a board without paying to add them to the Workspace?

Yes, as long as your Workspace settings allow adding Guests to boards, those users can be added to their first board for free. This can be useful for adding external members to your Workspaces, such as clients or contractors. Once the member has been added to their second board they become multi-board guests.

As a tradeoff, Guests will not receive some of the perks of Standard and Premium, and will not be controllable with Standard or Premium permissions (being able to deactivate a user/remove them from all Workspace boards at once, view their recent activity, restricting Workspace boards to Workspace-members only or a certain domain only).

How can I replace a billed user?

Because Standard and Premium are billed per Workspace member, instead of per user account, you can remove a billed user and replace them with someone else at no additional cost.

To replace a billed user: 

1. First, remove an existing user from your Workspace members page from within the sidebar 

2. Then, invite a new user to the Workspace

As long as you don't exceed the number of member licenses you've purchased your credit card will not be billed for their access until the next billing cycle. You can check your Workspace's receipts clicking Billing in the sidebar to open the Workspace billing page to see how many seat licenses have been purchased in the current billing cycle and compare that to the Workspace's members page to ensure that a new license will not be purchased.

Will I be charged for observers?

Observers are billed the same as normal Workspace members and guests. If you add someone to a single board in the Workspace (but not to the Workspace itself), you won't be billed for them and can designate them as a board observer at no cost. However, if that person has been added to two or more boards in your Workspace as a guest, or if they're a member of your Workspace, they will be billable.

What happens if I upgrade from monthly to yearly?

Your subscription will remain active until the end of the billing period. Then, when your monthly subscription is due, you'll automatically be upgraded to yearly. That will be the start date of your new yearly billing subscription.

What if I still have questions?

We’re happy to help! Reach out to us on our contact page and we can explain any questions or concerns that you might have about the billing process.