Team Signatures
How seats and licenses work with automatic setup
A seat is used when SyncSignature generates a signature. Not when you import a teammate, and not when you install one. That one rule explains most of the surprises people hit with seat counts, and it matters most once automatic setup is running, because new hires start generating signatures without anyone asking you first.
Two consequences follow, and both are worth knowing before you turn automation on: every email alias counts as its own seat, and going past your seat count is billed automatically as overage rather than blocked.
What uses a seat
| Action | Uses a seat |
|---|---|
| Importing a teammate into TEAMMATES | No. A teammate with no group has no signature |
| Adding that teammate to a group with a template | Yes. The signature is generated on assignment |
| Adding an alias as a teammate and putting it in a group | Yes. Each alias is its own seat |
| Installing a signature, by hand or with Auto install | No. The seat was already used when the signature was generated |
| A teammate sitting in the workspace with no group | No |
| Deleting a teammate record | Frees the seat back into your pool |
Generation is the moment that counts. This is why a teammate can exist in your workspace for months without costing anything, and why adding them to a group is the action worth being deliberate about.
Aliases each count as a seat
SyncSignature treats every email alias as an additional teammate, on Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 alike. That is what lets sales@yourcompany.com and support@yourcompany.com carry different signatures for the same person. The tradeoff is that each of those is a separate seat once it has a signature.
A worked example, because this is where counts get away from people:
| Person | Addresses with signatures | Seats used |
|---|---|---|
| One salesperson, primary address only | dana@ |
1 |
| Same person, plus two role aliases | dana@, sales@, support@ |
3 |
| A 20 person team, no aliases | 20 addresses | 20 |
| The same 20 person team, each with one alias | 40 addresses | 40 |
Seats do not scale your bill one for one, because the rate steps down as the count grows. Going from 20 seats to 40 takes you from $480 a year to $768, not to $960. The multiplier is real, but it is gentler than doubling.
Import the aliases people genuinely send from, and skip the rest. An alias with no signature uses nothing, so the decision point is whether you put it in a group, not whether it exists in your directory.
What automatic setup changes
Automatic setup does not change the rule. It changes who triggers it, and how often.
On Google Workspace, organizational units sync as groups, so a new hire lands in the group matching their OU, or in the default group if their OU is not one you selected. A signature is generated for them, which uses a seat. Nobody has to approve that, which is the point of the feature and also the thing to plan for.
On Microsoft 365, an admin still assigns each new hire to a group, because organizational unit to group sync is Google Workspace only. Seat consumption there stays a deliberate act.
Going over is billed, not blocked. If automatic setup generates more signatures than your plan covers, the extra seats are added and billed as overage. There is no approval step inside SyncSignature, so the count can grow without anyone deciding to let it. Nothing breaks, and that is exactly the thing to watch: signatures keep working either way, so check the count in Account rather than waiting for something to fail.
There is no seat cap to set on a Team plan. If you have seen the signature limit feature, that is an Agency plan control for capping individual client workspaces, and it does not apply here. On Team, the levers are the organizational units you choose to sync and the aliases you choose to import. Set those deliberately, because nothing downstream will stop the count for you.
Auto install does not affect any of this. It controls whether a generated signature reaches Gmail on its own, not whether a seat is used. See how to fully automate email signatures for the full hands-off setup.
Keeping the count deliberate
Automation and cost control are not in conflict. You decide the boundaries once, at setup.
- Scope the organizational units you sync. This is the strongest lever on Google Workspace. Units you do not select do not feed new hires into the system.
- Pick a default group on purpose. It catches users whose OU was not selected. That is a safety net, and it is also the path by which unexpected people acquire signatures.
- Import only the aliases that send mail. Every alias in a group is a seat.
- Delete leavers rather than only disabling them. Disabling the account in your directory stops the signature, but the seat is freed when you delete the teammate record in TEAMMATES. That seat goes back into your pool for the next hire, so a workspace that never gets tidied slowly climbs toward the next breakpoint.
- Check usage before a hiring round. The Account section shows signatures used and available.
What seats cost
Teams is billed per seat with a 5 seat minimum, and paid plans are billed annually. The rate steps down at volume, but the ladder is a step function rather than a smooth curve, and that is the part that catches people out.
You are billed at the next breakpoint up, not at your exact seat count. The breakpoints are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 seats. A team of 6 bills at the 10 seat tier, which is $20 per month, not 6 times $2.00.
| Seats | Rate per seat | Billed at the next breakpoint up |
|---|---|---|
| 5 to 25 | $2.00 | 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 |
| 26 to 60 | $1.60 | 30, 35, 40, 50, or 60 |
| 61 to 100 | $1.44 | 70, 80, 90, or 100 |
The per seat rate is what you pay when your seat count lands exactly on a breakpoint. Everywhere in between, it is the floor rather than the price.
Above 100 seats, talk to us for a quote. Solo is $6 per month for a single user, and the Free plan is free forever.
Common issues and fixes
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Seat count is higher than your headcount | Aliases each hold their own seat | Check TEAMMATES for alias entries, and remove the ones nobody sends from |
| Seat count grew without anyone adding people | Automatic setup generated signatures for new hires | Expected on Google Workspace. Narrow the organizational units you sync under Integrations if it should not include them |
| The bill is higher than the per seat rate suggests | Billing snaps to the next breakpoint up, so a team of 6 bills at the 10 seat tier | Compare your seat count against the breakpoint list above |
| An unexpected overage charge | Signatures were generated past the plan's seat count | Overage is automatic rather than blocked, and there is no cap to set. Review usage in Account, delete the teammate records you do not need to free those seats, and narrow the units you sync under Integrations so it does not recur |
| A leaver is still using a seat | Disabling the directory account does not delete the teammate record | Delete the record in TEAMMATES. The seat returns to your pool |
| Someone imported but the count did not move | They have no group, so no signature was generated | Nothing to fix. The seat is used only when they join a group |
| Shared mailboxes are using seats | They were added as teammates and grouped | Remove the ones that do not need a branded signature |
Related articles
- How to fully automate email signatures covers the setup that generates signatures on its own.
- Invite a teammate using Google Directory explains organizational unit sync and alias selection at import.
- Email signatures for aliases in Google Workspace covers giving each alias its own signature.
- Import and manage teammates covers adding, grouping, and removing teammate records.
Still stuck? Email support@syncsignature.com and include your workspace name and the seat count you expected to see.