> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.boat.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Seats, limits and caps

> Buy organization seats, share the plan's start and concurrency limits, and cap each member's usage.

## Seats

An organization pays for the larger of two numbers:

* Its members.
* The seats that the owner bought.

You do not need one person or one email for each seat. To get more starts and concurrency without more people, set the seat count. Use the [Billing](https://boat.dev/dashboard?tab=billing) tab with the organization selected, or call the API:

```bash theme={null}
curl -X PUT https://boat.dev/api/boat/teams/acme/seats \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BOAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"seats": 5}'
```

| Change | Result |
| - | - |
| Raise the count | The organization card pays the prorated difference at once. If the card fails, the seat count does not change. |
| A member joins | The member takes an empty seat at no extra cost. |
| Lower the count | You get credit on the next invoice, not a card refund. You cannot go below the number of members. |

## Shared limits

The start-rate and concurrency numbers of the plan are **one shared pool for the whole organization**. Boat multiplies them by the number of seats.

Example: a 5-seat organization on the \$20 plan gets:

| Limit | Value |
| - | - |
| Concurrent sandboxes | 500 |
| Starts per minute | 60 |
| Starts per hour | 300 |
| Starts per day | 1000 |

* If one member uses all of the hourly start budget, Boat refuses every other member's `new`, `fork` and `resume` billed to the organization. This lasts until the window rolls.
* Personal sandboxes use the member's own personal limits.
* The seat multiplier applies only while the organization's plan is active. Without a plan, remaining credit packs still run sandboxes, at the limits of a single seat.

## Per-member caps

One shared balance means one member can spend all of it. So the owner can cap each member on the [Organization](https://boat.dev/dashboard?tab=org) tab. Both caps are unlimited by default.

| Cap | Limits |
| - | - |
| Usage cap | That member's organization-billed machine time per billing window |
| Concurrent sandboxes | How many organization-billed sandboxes that member can run at once |

* Caps apply only to organization-billed sandboxes.
* A sandbox counts against the caps of its **creator**. This is also true when a teammate resumes it.

| Over the cap | `new`, `fork` and `resume` answer |
| - | - |
| Usage cap | `402 team_member_cap_reached` |
| Concurrent-sandbox cap | `429 member_limit_reached` |

In both cases, Boat snapshots and stops the member's organization sandboxes within about a minute. Nothing is lost. The sandboxes can resume again when the owner raises the cap or the billing window renews.


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