Why does the price need to be per seat?

Because per-tool totals flatten it. A flat-fee tool with no per-seat price should be entered at its monthly cost divided by the seats you hold, or left out of the ranking and counted separately.

Do you keep what I type in?

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent while you type. Only if you press Send me the breakdown do we store your email and the counts you entered so we can reply with the itemised list.

SaaSClerk · free tool · runs in your browser

Unused Seat Calculator

Q: What counts as an unused seat here?

A seat you pay for that you mark as not in use: seats minus seats actually used, per tool. You decide what in use means — a login this month, a licence assigned to a person, or an active contract seat. The calculator applies whichever rule you enter.

A seat is unused when you keep paying for it and nobody uses it. That is the whole definition, and it is the one line item most teams can act on without a negotiation: no re-pricing, no migration, no policy debate. Enter four numbers per tool and this page tells you what those seats cost per month and per year, ranked by tool.

The shape of the problem is documented widely enough to be boring: licence utilisation sits well below purchased seats at most companies, and the gap is invisible in a bill that charges per seat and arrives as one total. If you want the mechanism behind it — auto-converted trials, seat counts that grew quietly — what forgotten subscriptions cost per month covers it.

Four fields per tool, read off your own invoices. The arithmetic runs in this tab; nothing leaves it until you press the button at the bottom, and only then do we keep the email you typed.

Tool

Seats

Price / seat / mo (USD)

Seats actually used

3 rows not counted yet — a tool needs a name, a whole seat count, and a price.

Your numbers

Seats on the bookssum of the seats you entered: 0
Seats not usedseats minus seats you marked used: 0
Unused shareunused seats ÷ all seats: 0.00%
Monthly cost of those seatsper tool: unused × that tool's per-seat price: $0.00
Same figure over twelve monthsmonthly × 12, no price or seat changes assumed: $0.00

Show the exact arithmetic

per tool:
  unused_seats      = seats − seats_used
  monthly_waste     = unused_seats × price_per_seat

totals:
  total_seats       = 0
  unused_seats      = 0
  unused_share      = 0 ÷ 0 = 0.00%
  monthly_waste     = $0.00
  annual_waste      = monthly_waste × 12 = $0.00

Prices are handled in whole cents; your dollars are multiplied by 100 and rounded once, here.

Per-tool breakdown, by email

We recompute your figures on our side and send the itemised list back. Your email is kept for that message; unsubscribe is one reply.

The arithmetic, in full

per tool
  unused_seats  = seats − seats_used
  monthly_waste = unused_seats × price_per_seat_cents

totals
  total_seats   = Σ seats
  unused_seats  = Σ unused_seats
  unused_share  = unused_seats ÷ total_seats
  monthly_waste = Σ monthly_waste
  annual_waste  = monthly_waste × 12

Money is computed in whole cents (your dollars × 100, rounded once), then formatted.

Every line above uses only what you entered. There is no industry average, no benchmark multiplier and no hidden weighting; the version with your own values substituted sits under Show the exact arithmetic.

What this does not include

Contract terms. A minimum-seat clause or an annual commitment can make an unused seat uncuttable until the next term; the figure stands either way.
Flat-fee tools. Something priced per organisation rather than per seat has no true per-seat price — split it across held seats or leave it out and count it separately.
Person-hours. Finding who holds a licence, offboarding them and removing their access is work this model does not price.
Anything you did not enter. Estimates built from one blended price per tool will flatten a wide spread — run it twice with two seat counts rather than trusting one average.

FAQ

What counts as an unused seat here?

Seats minus seats you mark as in use, per tool. You choose the rule — a login this month, an assigned licence, an active contract seat — and the calculator applies the one you entered. It does not guess your activity data, because it cannot see your systems.

Is the monthly figure money I can get back?

Not automatically. It is the cost attached to seats you marked unused. Whether that becomes a credit depends on the contract, so treat the number as the size of the conversation with the vendor.

Why a per-seat price?

A tool total flattens the spread. Per-seat prices keep the ranking honest: the tool with 40 idle seats at $30 is a different decision from the one with 3 idle seats at $200.

Do you collect what I type in?

Not while you type — the component computes in the tab. If you ask for the itemised breakdown, we store your email and the counts you entered so a human can reply; nothing else on this page writes to a server.

Next step

The calculator sizes the gap. Closing it needs a list of who holds which licence and when each contract renews, which starts from the billing email you already receive. Start a free audit builds that inventory, and the plans page states which parts are free and which are paid.

If you disagree with the definition rather than the number — unused should mean no login in ninety days, or a seat assigned to someone on leave should not count — send it through the contact form and quote the line. The formula printed above is the whole model, so there is nothing private to argue about.

Built by SaaSClerk. Related: the Shadow IT risk calculator (what spend has no named owner) and the subscription audit checklist.