## Seat types

### Viewer (free)
The **Viewer** seat is free and lets people collaborate on Jams. Viewers can access and comment on Jams but cannot create or manage them in workspaces. Viewers automatically become **Creator seats** when they take certain actions, such as:

- Creating a Jam
- Creating a recording link
- Sending a Jam to an integration
- Moving a Jam into a paid workspace via any integration

By default, all new users join your workspace as creators.

### Creator (paid)
The **Creator** seat is a paid role for people who create and manage content in your workspace. Creators have full capabilities, including:

- Creating, moving, and deleting Jams and recording links
- Moving content between workspaces and integrations
- Actively collaborating within a paid workspace

Creators impact your workspace’s billing, as each Creator occupies a paid seat.

### Admin (paid)
The **Admin** seat is a paid, permanent role for managing settings and members. Admins have all Creator capabilities, plus additional management privileges, including:

- Managing settings and member roles
- Controlling billing and subscription details
- Upgrading or downgrading members between Viewer, Creator, and Admin roles

Admins also occupy a paid seat and directly impact your billing.

## Examples of seat combinations and billing impact
Since your workspace cost depends on seat types, here are common scenarios:

1. **Only free seats:**
   - **Alex** is invited to view Jams, give feedback, and comment occasionally but does not create new Jams. Alex uses a **Viewer seat**, so your billing stays unaffected.
2. **Free and paid seats:**
   - **Riley** is a product manager who creates Jams regularly as a **Creator**, so billing includes Riley.
   - **Joe** is a developer and uses a **viewer seat** to view and comment on Jams created by Riley. Joe’s viewer seat is a free member of your workspace.
   - **Jordan** frequently manages members and settings. Jordan has an **Admin seat** and is also a paid member.
3. **All paid seats:**
   - **Taylor** actively creates recording links, collaborates on integrations, and manages the workspace. Taylor holds both Creator and Admin capabilities under an **Admin seat**, impacting your billing.

## How people get a paid seat
1. **Self-upgrade (Viewer → Creator)**
   Viewers can automatically upgrade themselves to a paid Creator seat by performing specific actions:
   - **Create** a new Jam
   - **Create** a new recording link
   - **Move** or copy a Jam into a paid workspace via an integration
   - **Send** content to an integration, triggering active collaboration

Downgrading a member to a Viewer seat doesn’t stop them from self-upgrading again. To turn off automatic upgrades for the whole workspace, switch off **Auto-approve seats** in [**Settings → Billing**](/content/s/settings/subscription/index.html). Viewers then keep their free seats until an admin upgrades them. Only admins on paid plans can change this setting.

2. **Upgrade via Admin**
   Admins can manually upgrade a Viewer to a Creator or Admin seat anytime. Admins can also downgrade Creators to Viewers (free) or promote them to Admin. 
   - On Pro and Team plans, workspace admins fully manage seat types and billing adjustments.
   - Admins receive notifications each time someone upgrades their seat automatically or manually, helping maintain control of your workspace billing.

**Example:** Casey starts as a **Viewer**. Casey creates a new Jam to collaborate with their team. Creating the Jam upgrades Casey to a **Creator**, and billing updates automatically.

## Managing seats

### Team plan
1. Open Settings → Members
   Go to [**Settings → Members**](/content/s/settings/members/index.html).

2. Change a member's seat type
   Click their seat type (Viewer, Creator, or Admin) and select a new seat type from the available options.

### Enterprise plan
If your workspace uses Single Sign-On (SSO) and Active Directory sync, you’ll need to manage member roles directly through your Identity Provider (IdP) and Active Directory. You won’t be able to manage these roles directly in Jam.