Atlassian Cloud renewals: user tiers, monthly billing and how to cancel Jira or Confluence

Jira, Confluence and Jira Service Management cloud subscriptions renew on their own. A monthly subscription renews every month by default, and under Atlassian's Customer Agreement an annual subscription term renews automatically at Atlassian's then current rates unless notice is given before the term ends. Nobody has to approve the renewal for the money to go out.

What changes the bill is how Atlassian counts users, and it counts them differently on the two billing cycles. This guide explains how monthly and annual cloud billing work, what happens when you outgrow a user tier, how to cancel and what happens to your data, and a short routine for the renewal. It is based on Atlassian's support pages, licensing FAQ and Customer Agreement (the version effective from 1 October 2026) as they stood in October 2026. Atlassian is moving accounts from its original billing experience to an improved one, so some screen names depend on which your account uses.

Monthly billing counts the most users you had

• Monthly cloud subscriptions are priced per user, and Atlassian charges the card on file each month.
• A user added to an app counts towards billing straight away, even if they never accept the invite or log in.
• Under what Atlassian calls maximum quantity billing, phased in from July 2025, the bill is based on the maximum number of users you had at any point in the billing period. Atlassian's page is explicit that there will be no deductions, refunds or credits from the billed user quantity.

That last rule changes how removing people saves money. Removing a leaver on the last day of the month no longer brings that month's bill down, because they were on the subscription earlier in the period. It brings the next month's bill down instead, as long as nobody is added in their place. So the time to remove users is as soon as they stop needing access, not the week before the invoice, and an invitation sent just in case costs money from the day it goes out. The same discipline as reclaiming unused seats on any other tool applies, only sooner.

Annual billing is sold in user tiers

Annual cloud subscriptions are priced by user tier rather than per user. Atlassian's licensing FAQ uses the example of a 500-user Confluence Cloud subscription: you can license any number of users up to 500 without affecting your renewal price. Inside the tier, adding a user costs nothing extra.

• Going over: if you exceed your tier, you need to upgrade to the next tier. By default, cloud user tier upgrades are prorated through the current term end date, so you pay the difference for the rest of the term.
• Going down: Atlassian's page for Enterprise plans says you can only downgrade a user tier when you renew annually. Plan any reduction for the renewal rather than expecting a refund part way through a term.
• Extra users: the Customer Agreement says increased use is charged at Atlassian's then-current rates, which may be prorated for the rest of the term.

How the annual renewal arrives

Annual cloud sites can be set up to renew automatically by credit card or PayPal. In the original billing experience, Atlassian's FAQ says a renewal quote is sent 60 days before expiry, and the option to turn on auto-renew appears during payment. Atlassian does not publish the equivalent timing for the improved billing experience, so check the renewal date in admin.atlassian.com rather than waiting for a quote.

The contract says the same thing in legal terms. Clause 10.1 of the Customer Agreement says a subscription term automatically renews at Atlassian's then current rates, and that either party may elect not to renew by giving notice to the other before the end of the current term. The Agreement does not set a minimum notice period for that, but the notice has to arrive before the term ends. If your organisation bought through a quote or order with different terms, read those as well, and see how to serve a notice of non-renewal if you need to put it in writing.

Leaving a renewal unpaid is not a way out. Atlassian's support page says a subscription might be deactivated if you fail to pay within 15 days of the payment due date, at which point you lose access to the app. If you do not want the subscription, cancel it.

Changing between monthly and annual

To move from monthly to annual, go to admin.atlassian.com/billing, select Manage on the subscription, choose Change plan and pick the annual billing option. Atlassian says the annual payment starts from the last day of your current billing cycle and you pay a prorated price for the remainder of your billing period. Going the other way, from annual to monthly, is not self-service: Atlassian asks you to contact it to request the change, so decide before an annual term starts rather than part way through it.

Cancelling, refunds and your data

In the improved billing experience, you cancel from admin.atlassian.com/billing: select Subscriptions, find the subscription, select Manage, then more actions and Deactivate, and confirm. Accounts still on the original billing experience cancel from my.atlassian.com instead.

• Timing: a deactivated subscription is deactivated 15 days after the end of the current subscription period.
• No credit for leaving early: Atlassian offers no credit for cancelling before the end of a billing cycle, so cancelling mid-term saves the next term, not the rest of this one.
• Refund windows: refunds for monthly cloud subscriptions are only available within the first paid month after the trial, and new annual cloud subscriptions can only be refunded within 30 days of the first purchase.
• Data: after deactivation, Atlassian's data retention page says app data is kept for 60 days on Free, Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans (15 days for a trial) and then permanently deleted. Export what you need before you cancel, not after.

Cancelling is not the only way to stop paying. Jira and Confluence each have a Free plan for up to 10 users, and Jira Service Management one for up to 3 agents, so a small team that only needs the basics can reduce its user count to fit rather than give up the site.

Make sure the right people get the bills

Atlassian's billing admins can manage payment details, pay invoices, add and remove other billing admins, upgrade, downgrade and deactivate plans, and receive the billing emails. Atlassian recommends at least two billing admins, so that someone can still get in if one person loses access. Accounts moved to the improved billing experience have their old primary, secondary and technical contacts converted to billing admins, so check that the list still matches the people who should get the renewal emails, and that a leaver is not the only one on it. Removing them belongs in your offboarding checklist.

A routine for the Atlassian renewal

1. 1For each app (Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management), write down the plan, the billing cycle, the renewal date shown in admin.atlassian.com and the user count or tier you pay for.
2. 2On monthly billing, remove leavers as soon as they go, because the bill is based on the highest number of users in the period.
3. 3About two months before an annual renewal, compare the users you have with the tier you pay for. If you are comfortably inside a smaller tier, plan to renew onto it.
4. 4Decide whether the next term should be monthly or annual before it starts, because only the monthly to annual switch is self-service.
5. 5To leave, export your data, then deactivate before the end of the term, and remember that no credit is given for the time left.
6. 6Check that at least two current people are billing admins.

Each vendor in this series handles seats and renewals its own way. If you also run Slack or Microsoft 365, read those guides too rather than applying one rule of thumb to every tool.

Tracking Atlassian Cloud in StackTrackr

Record each Atlassian app as its own tool, because each has its own subscription, user count and renewal date. On annual billing, enter the cost of the full year with an annual billing cycle; on monthly billing, enter the monthly cost with a monthly billing cycle. Set the renewal date to the one in admin.atlassian.com. Under License key and seats, enter the user tier you pay for on an annual plan, or the current user count on a monthly one, and update it when it changes.

The Customer Agreement asks for notice before the end of the term but sets no minimum period, so leave the notice period blank unless a quote or order you signed sets one. With it blank there is no cancellation deadline, and the renewal reminders give you the lead time instead. If your terms do require notice, enter it in days: StackTrackr then works out the cancellation deadline, shows it in the register's Cancel by column, and reminds you ahead of it and again on the day. Starter alerts at 30 and 7 days; Team and up use a cadence you set, 90, 60, 30 and 7 days by default, so the 60-day reminder is the cue for the tier review. Have a look at what it tracks, or start a free trial and add your Atlassian apps first.