Smartsheet License Management After the 2025 Shakeup

If you’re responsible for managing Smartsheet in your organization and feel like you’re flying blind, you’re not alone. Smartsheet license management is notoriously difficult—thanks to a complex pricing model, evolving license types, and limited visibility into actual usage.

Without the right data and governance, it’s easy to overbuy, misallocate, or waste money. Zylo data shows that 73% of Smartsheet licenses go unused, and the average organization spends $224,000 annually. That’s shelfware hiding in plain sight.

Cost is only part of the challenge. IT and Software Asset Management (SAM) teams also face a lack of visibility, limited controls, and growing compliance risk.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How the Smartsheet licensing model works—and where it trips up most teams
• The most common drivers of overspend
• Tactical steps to optimize, rightsize, and reclaim licenses
• How to use automation and integrations to simplify governance over time

What Is Smartsheet License Management?

Smartsheet license management means tracking who has access, how licenses are used, and whether they match real business needs. Its goal is to reduce costs, minimize risk, and improve visibility.

Effective Smartsheet license management includes:

• Tracking license assignments across users and departments
• Matching license types (e.g., Member, Admin, Viewer) to actual usage
• Identifying inactive or underutilized licenses for reclamation
• Ensuring compliance with contract terms and access policies
• Informing procurement with data to support renewal negotiations

Managing Smartsheet effectively takes coordination:

• IT teams need automation and access visibility to manage onboarding and offboarding
• Software Asset Managers care about license rightsizing and audit readiness
• Procurement depends on accurate usage data to drive savings at renewal

When these teams share a common view of Smartsheet usage, they can reduce waste, improve governance, and negotiate from a position of strength.

Smartsheet’s 2025 Licensing Model, Explained

In early 2025, Smartsheet introduced a new licensing model—the User Subscription Model. It introduces stricter rules, more visibility into usage, and new risks for organizations that aren’t actively managing access. Here’s what you need to know:

What Changed This Year

In 2025, Smartsheet began enforcing several changes that directly impact license cost and governance:

• Stricter internal vs. external user enforcement based on email domain
• Role-level activity tracking, which can reveal license waste
• Increased billing transparency and “true-up” risk tied to usage patterns
• Tighter policies around access levels, especially for collaborative or admin users

These updates mean reactive license management is no longer viable. You need real-time visibility and processes in place to manage risk proactively.

Member vs Guest vs Viewer

Understanding Smartsheet’s role types is fundamental to license optimization:

• Members: Paid license required for internal users only, providing full access to create, edit, own, and automate. With the new model, all internal users who edit or comment will have a paid “Member” license.
• Guests: Typically external collaborators with limited access to view, comment, and interact within shared boundaries. License may be free depending on configuration and permissions.
• Viewers: Often unlicensed internal users with read-only access. They cannot create, edit, or manage content.

Internal vs External License Rules

Smartsheet determines user classification primarily through domain logic:

• Internal: email domain matches your organization. These users almost always require a paid Member license, and even light users can be auto-assigned licensed roles if unmanaged.
• External: email domain differs from your organization’s domain. Users may be treated as Guests. They are usually exempt from licensing costs but should be monitored for security.

Relying on domain logic alone is risky. If you’re not regularly auditing collaborators, internal users may be operating under free Guest access, putting you out of compliance.

What Each Plan Includes (Pro, Business, Enterprise)

Each Smartsheet plan offers a different level of access, governance, and collaboration. Knowing what’s included helps ensure you’re not overbuying.

• Pro (Team): Built for small teams (1–10 users), Pro includes basic dashboards, standard views, formulas, 250 automation runs/month, and 20 GB storage—but no Guest editing; external collaborators are view-only.
• Business (SMB/Dept): Designed for growing teams, Business includes all Pro features plus unlimited automation, 1 TB storage, Timeline view, admin console access, and support for unlimited Guest editors (external only).
• Enterprise: Tailored for large organizations, Enterprise offers everything in Business plus SSO, audit logs, governance controls, domain-level visibility, and full access to Smartsheet AI features.
• Advance (Add-on Bundles): Optional Silver, Gold, or Platinum bundles that extend Smartsheet with secure data sharing, Salesforce integration, premium analytics, and more—priced separately and often based on “connected user” count.

Smartsheet AI Capabilities: What You Get by Plan

Smartsheet AI features are bundled into the Enterprise plan and available on a seat-based pricing model. Pro and Business plans do not include AI functionality.

Enterprise AI features include:

• Smart Summaries to auto-generate insights from sheets
• AI-assisted formula builder based on natural language input
• Natural language navigation to find and access Smartsheet content quickly
• AI workflow suggestions that recommend automation based on user behavior

Smartsheet’s AI tools are designed to reduce manual work, accelerate task completion, and improve collaboration at scale. But simply having access doesn’t create value.

For IT and SAM leaders, it’s important to monitor AI adoption across licensed users. If Enterprise seats aren’t using the features included, that’s a missed opportunity—or a signal to adjust licensing strategy.

Smartsheet Plan Feature Comparison (2025)

Below is a side-by-side comparison of features for each of Smartsheet’s current plan tiers.I recommend using this framework to assess whether your current plan fits actual usage—or if it’s time to renegotiate.

My Recommendations for Choosing the Right Plan

While features are important, choosing the right plan is about aligning functionality with user behavior. Instead of focusing on features, I suggest:

• Matching license type to usage by role
• Using your SMP to identify which type of events users are actioning—whether creating, editing, or commenting on an asset

Many large organizations default to the Enterprise plan for its governance and security capabilities. The downside to overbuying is that you can burn through your budget fast.

In my experience, don’t accept the seat count or user mix as-is. By pairing your Smartsheet plan with real usage insights, you gain control over both cost and compliance.

What These Changes Mean for IT and SAM Leaders

Smartsheet’s 2025 licensing updates increase pressure on IT and Software Asset Management (SAM) teams. With licensing tied directly to user classification and usage behavior, mismanagement leads to overspending and audit risk.

License Management Must Drive Value

Smartsheet license management should contribute to business outcomes such as cost reduction, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency.

• Reduce overspending on Member licenses with ongoing reviews of roles and usage
• Prevent compliance issues by avoiding the misclassification of internal users as Guests
• Adopt automation to scale cost controls and governance

In my experience, the most effective IT and SAM teams treat license management strategically. They reclaim licenses proactively, align entitlements with usage, and reduce exposure before it becomes a budget issue.

Admin Panels Don’t Provide What You Need

Smartsheet’s admin panel falls short when it comes to enterprise-scale license oversight. It offers access-level snapshots, but not spend and renewal insights required for optimization or governance.

What’s typically missing:

• Internal/external role validation based on email domain
• A complete view of assigned vs. available licenses across cost centers
• Visibility into spend sources and renewal timelines

Without this context, data is siloed, decisions are delayed, and license waste builds quietly. A dedicated SaaS Management Platform (SMP) like Zylo fills these gaps by providing enriched data, actionable insights, and automation.

License Optimization Depends on Real-Time Usage Data

Optimizing Smartsheet licenses requires continuous insight into how licenses are used—and by whom. That means tracking:

• Types of events (e.g., sheet creation) are used by each license type
• How often users are active within the platform
• Which teams are using licenses inefficiently

With this data, SAM professionals can accurately report license positions, reduce over-assignment, and support compliance. Meanwhile, it gives Procurement leverage to negotiate renewals based on real demand instead of assumptions.

The Hidden Cost of Smartsheet: Where Waste Builds Up Fast

Smartsheet waste creeps in quietly. That’s because organizations pay for more than they need and miss opportunities to adjust license types before renewal.

Most IT and SAM teams uncover waste only after a budget spike or an audit prompt. But the real problem usually starts much earlier: misaligned roles, unchecked internal access, and a lack of visibility into how the tool is actually being used.

Inactive Internal Licenses Quietly Inflate Costs

One of the most common waste patterns is over-assigning Member licenses to users who rarely log in or don’t use the tool at all. This often happens when:

• IT auto-assigns licenses during onboarding
• Project-based access never gets reviewed after completion
• Admins don’t have usage data beyond login timestamps

Without usage-based license reviews, these seats stay active and billable. And since Member licenses are where the cost lives, the impact grows fast.

Over-Licensed Departments Drive Unseen Spend

Unnecessary licenses drive hidden spending, which occurs when companies buy licenses “just in case” or overestimate future growth. These seats sit idle for months, taking up extra space in your budget.

This behavior leads to:

• License sprawl across departments with little oversight
• A bloated license pool disconnected from real demand
• Renewals based on outdated assumptions

When no one’s reviewing that allocation quarterly, the cost becomes normalized—and invisible.

External Users Are Often Misclassified

Smartsheet licenses internal users based on domain, or email address. Misclassifying users is common, where organizations assign full licenses to users who only view content. It gets further complicated when external vendors, consultants, and partners use corporate email addresses.

If you’re not regularly auditing users by domain:

• External collaborators may be classified as internal
• You may unknowingly assign paid licenses to third parties
• True-up charges can catch you off guard at renewal

From what I’ve seen with Zylo clients, misclassifying Smartsheet users can result in inflated bills and audit exposure. The good news? It’s preventable with domain mapping and governance rules but requires active oversight from IT or SAM.

“Free” Users Can Trigger Paid Licenses Later

“Free” user licenses—or Provisional Member licenses—lead many teams to assume they don’t need to act, putting them at risk for increased costs.

Here’s how it works:

• Internal users may be provisioned full access temporarily without an assigned license.
• These users can appear “free” at first but will be included in license counts if no action is taken after a remediation period (a minimum of 30 days).

At renewal, Smartsheet may bill for those provisional users based on usage history. This becomes a “true-up” trap, creating a “silent cost” that builds in the background.

Waste is almost always a visibility issue—not a usage problem. But once it’s baked into your renewal or contract terms, reversing it becomes difficult. That’s why high-performing IT and SAM teams prioritize proactive license reviews, role validation, and workflows to catch these issues early.

Smartsheet License Management: Reduce Costs without Disrupting the Business

Reducing Smartsheet costs doesn’t mean taking access away from your users. It requires aligning licenses to actual usage—and automating the rest.

I’ve worked with teams that recovered thousands of dollars in value simply by fixing misassigned roles and eliminating manual license tracking. If you’re tasked with improving efficiency without impacting productivity, start here.

Step 1: Centralize License, Spend, and Contract Data

Reducing Smartsheet costs starts with comprehensive visibility into licensing, usage, spend, and contracts. To make informed decisions, IT, SAM, and Procurement teams need a unified view across:

• License assignments (Member, Guest, Viewer)
• User activity data (logins, sheet creation, engagement patterns)
• Contract entitlements (seat counts, pricing tiers, term dates)
• Actual spend from AP, expense systems, and reseller invoices
• Internal vs. external user domains for access classification
• Department or business unit allocations for cost attribution

When this data is siloed—spread across admin panels, spreadsheets, and ERP systems—teams operate on partial insights. It results in:

• Overspending
• License misalignment
• Reactive decision making
• Missed savings opportunities

Centralizing your Smartsheet data in a SaaS Management Platform like Zylo gives you the complete picture you need to make informed and confident decisions that result in cost savings.

Step 2: Identify and Reclaim Unused or Underutilized Licenses

The biggest opportunity to reduce Smartsheet costs comes from reclaiming unused licenses. To do this at scale:

1. Flag licenses inactive for 90+ days—or whatever threshold makes sense for your organization.
2. Evaluate Member licenses assigned to low-engagement users.
3. Confirm Guest access is appropriate based on user domain and role.
4. Automate license reclamation workflows, such as:
   • Surveying users to validate whether access is still required
   • Triggering deprovisioning tasks when inactivity thresholds are met
   • Escalating to managers or app owners for license removal approvals

Automation tools in SMPs ensure these Smartsheet license management tasks happen continuously—without relying on IT or SAM teams to chase down data manually. That’s how you reduce waste without slowing teams down.

Step 3: Reconcile Provisional Licenses

Reconciling provisional user licenses after the minimum 30-day grace period is essential to avoid unnecessary spending. To do this:

• Track all internal users accessing Smartsheet, licensed or not
• Set alerts when new users are provisioned without a license
• Align usage data with contract terms to ensure true-ups don’t catch you off guard

Step 4: Align License Mix with Usage

The license mix—how many Members, Guests, and Viewers you’re paying for—should reflect actual usage.

Use usage insights to:

• Downgrade users who don’t need full access
• Justify plan changes (e.g., Business vs. Enterprise) based on feature adoption
• Inform Procurement ahead of renewals with a clean license position

License optimization works best when it’s collaborative. SAM provides the usage data. Procurement executes the negotiation.

Step 5: Monitor Continuously

Optimization isn’t a one-and-done effort. License usage shifts constantly. Consistent monitoring is essential to contain license sprawl.

Build a rhythm around:

• Monthly or quarterly license utilization reviews
• Tracking new user provisioning and access level changes
• Flagging unexpected license spikes or policy violations

Step 6: Rightsize and Negotiate at Renewal

Renewal is your biggest cost control opportunity—and often it comes just once a year. Come to the table prepared.

• Reclaim and reassign licenses at least 90 days in advance of the renewal.
• Use actual usage data—not vendor estimates—to define license needs.
• Reduce seat counts tied to inactive users or non-adopters.
• Benchmark pricing against internal adoption and contract history.

How Zylo Helps You Take Control of Smartsheet License Management

If you’re managing Smartsheet without full visibility, automation, or policy-driven workflows, you’re likely overspending and reacting instead of optimizing. Zylo helps IT, SAM, and Procurement teams move from manual clean-up to proactive license governance.

Direct Integration with Smartsheet

Zylo’s Smartsheet direct integration centralizes license, user, and activity data into a system of record alongside contract and spend information. It provides insights on:

• Active users and assigned license types
• Usage patterns such as logins, sheet count, and user events (e.g., sheet creation, reports, dashboards)
• Historical license activity for true-up forecasting

With Zylo, you eliminate having to rely on Smartsheet’s limited admin views or disconnected spreadsheets.

While Smartsheet’s plans changed earlier this year, their API does not yet support this new model. Fortunately, Zylo’s Usage Connect makes it easy to import a user type report from Smartsheet’s admin panel.

Automated License Reclamation

Zylo’s License Management solution automates the heavy lifting of cost control. It eliminates manual tracking, making it easy to take action before renewals or budget reviews.

• Flags unused, underutilized, and risky licenses
• Identifies cost avoidance and savings opportunities
• Routes workflows to app owners for deprovisioning or reassignment
• Surveys users to validate access needs before removing licenses
• Report on monthly or quarterly true-ups

“If you consider something like a workflow that we use in Zylo, being able to have access to the information and automate the sending out of the emails to make sure that we’re re-harvesting the right licenses from the right people, it saves me hours.”

— Samantha Griffin, former Senior Software Asset Manager at Genesys

Insights to Support Renewal Strategy

With Zylo, SAM and Procurement have the data needed to negotiate confidently and stay ahead of renewal timelines:

• License position based on real-time usage
• Historical usage trends to forecast future needs
• App-level usage by department to drive internal accountability
• Price benchmarking to obtain fair pricing
• Renewal calendar and alerts for proactive management

Avoid Smartsheet License Sprawl Before It Happens

Smartsheet’s 2025 licensing model is stricter, costlier, and harder to manage without a SaaS Management Platform. License sprawl happens quietly—through misclassified users, inactive seats, and overlooked Guest access. And by the time renewals come around, the damage is already done.

But with an SMP in place, you don’t have to play defense.

• Centralize your license, spend, usage, and contract data
• Use real-time insights to rightsize roles and reclaim licenses
• Automate workflows to reduce manual oversight
• Prepare for renewals with usage-backed confidence

Don’t let Smartsheet licensing become your next budget crisis. Take control of usage, roles, and renewals with Zylo. Request a personalized demo to learn how.

Smartsheet License Management FAQs