V12 entitlements: how are collections, dev instances and API-only seats counted?

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Hi everyone,

We are planning an upgrade to v12 and trying to understand exactly how
entitlements are counted before we design our environments. I could not find
these answers in the licensing docs, so apologies if I missed something obvious.

1. How are collections counted against a tier limit?

Is the count per activation (instance + PUBLIC_URL), or aggregated per
organization across all instances? And are hidden collections and the
directus_* system collections included in the count, or only user-created
visible ones?

2. Does a separate non-production instance consume an entitlement?

We currently keep development and production in a single instance, separated by
a table-name prefix (dev_*), which doubles our collection count — every new
entity costs two collections instead of one.

We are considering splitting development into its own instance, with its own
database and its own PUBLIC_URL. Since the licensing docs state that
non-production use is always free, does a dedicated development instance stay
free, or does it consume an activation / count against the same limits?

3. What exactly counts as a "seat"?

The docs define a seat as a team member who logs in to Directus Studio. In our
setup, most users never open the Studio: they authenticate through /auth/login
from our own front-end application and then only consume the REST API. Only two
or three administrators actually use the Studio.

Are API-only users counted as seats, or only Studio users?

Thanks in advance — happy to clarify anything about the setup.

1 Answer

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Hey @Turco01, welcome to the forum!

Firstly, are you aware of the Open Innovation Grant (OIG) that enables any team under 50 people + $5M in revenue to get a free license unlocking unlimited seats, collections, and flows? If you are eligible, you can apply for the key here and this would impact the answers to the questions for you. For now, I’ve gone ahead and answered them without knowing which tier you’d be on.

  1. Collection count is realised per instance rather than aggregated across all instances and includes hidden user-created collections but not directus_* system collections. V12 does enable you to “Deactivate a Collection”, differing from hiding a collection in that they are absent from the API + the Studio.

  2. A separate non-production instance does consume an entitlement (though the OIG enables up to 5 activations to account for multiple environments (e.g. distinct deg/stage/prod) for the same project.)

  3. Only Studio users are counted as seats.

Great questions, hope these answers help, please feel free to ask follow ups and add any more that come up.