Google bills per assigned license, not per person who works there: a suspended account is billed the same as an active one. To know how much you are overpaying you need three numbers (licenses purchased, assigned, and sitting on suspended accounts) and your plan type: on a flexible plan the bill drops the next month, on an annual plan only at renewal. The same goes for Slack, Zoom, Figma and the rest.
Updated on October 11, 2026 · 8 min read · Mekovault
When you ask “how many licenses are we paying for?”, the answer is usually the number on the invoice. But the useful question has three parts:
A real example from a 120-person company: 100 Business Standard licenses purchased, 92 assigned, 8 on suspended accounts; 20 Business Starter, 12 assigned, 1 suspended. Result: 17 licenses paid for with nobody using them, about $129 a month. Not a disaster, but it is every month, and it only shows up if somebody counts.
Google bills per assigned license. A suspended account keeps its license, so it costs the same as a person who is working. To stop paying for it you have to delete the account or move it to an archived user (a different, cheaper license that keeps email and files). And this is where the plan type comes in.
| Plan | What happens when you delete an account | What to do with the departure |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible (month to month) | The license is released and stops being billed from the next cycle | Delete or archive at the end of the grace period |
| Annual | The license stays under contract until renewal | Reassign it to the next hire; note the reduction for the renewal date |
What applies to Google does not apply to the others. In Slack, deactivating the user stops the charge from the next cycle. In Zoom you have to remove the license from the person and also reduce the quantity on your contract. In Figma or Adobe, the seat stays assigned until somebody releases it in the console. And the person who signed in to Slack or Salesforce “with Google” still counts as an active user there even if their Google account is suspended. The verified rules per platform, with sources, are in License control.
Licenses reads every connected platform and shows the three figures per product, with the total per currency. When an offboarding runs, the license is flagged for release and, if the plan is annual, Mekovault tells you what to reduce and reminds you before renewal. For platforms that cannot be automated, it tells you exactly what to change in their console and who is responsible. And in Purchases, every subscription has an owner, an expiration date and an invoice, so none of them renews on its own. You can estimate your leak with the calculator.
In the admin console, under Billing, Subscriptions: that shows licenses purchased and assigned. The ones sitting on suspended accounts are not obvious; you have to cross the list of suspended users with their licenses. Mekovault shows it on one screen.
On the flexible plan you pay for the licenses you have each month and can reduce whenever you want. On the annual plan you commit to a quantity for a year at a lower price; you can add, but not reduce until renewal. That is why a departure on an annual plan is 'saved' for the next hire or for the renewal date.
In Slack, deactivating the user stops the charge from the next billing cycle. In Zoom you have to remove the license from the user and also reduce the quantity on your contract. In Google, suspending is not enough. Every platform has its own rule; the verified ones are in License control.