Jira and Confluence Go Usage-Based on Dec 3: Rovo Credits Per User, and Overage Is On by Default

If your company runs Jira or Confluence, put this date somewhere you will see it: 3 December 2026, when Atlassian switches its AI features to pay-for-what-you-use.

The story is not the price. It is the default: the official support documentation states that overage billing is enabled by default. It is the same shape of trap as the GitHub Copilot budget settings — leave the settings alone, and anything past your allowance lands on the next invoice.

Last verified: 2026-09-03

1. What changes, and when

Atlassian’s own announcement gives the effective date: 3 December 2026.

Three things move to usage-based pricing:

• Rovo credits — deeper AI interactions such as Rovo Chat, agents and the Jira Coding Agent
• Automation steps — steps executed inside automation rules
• AI agent resolutions — tasks an AI agent completes autonomously

This sits as a separate usage layer on top of your existing subscription, rather than as an increase to the subscription itself.

2. What stays free (this part matters)

Official wording: “In-line summaries, rewrites, and Rovo Search remain free.”

In plain terms: the “summarise this page” and “rewrite this paragraph” buttons you press in passing, plus Rovo Search, do not consume credits.

So most people who use AI occasionally will not run into the ceiling at all. What burns credits is running AI as a core part of the workflow — chat threads with follow-up questions, agents working tickets autonomously, enriched cross-product queries.

3. How many credits do you get?

Included allowances per user per month, from the official support page:

On consumption, the docs say 10 credits for basic tasks, with variable pricing for premium interactions.

Do the arithmetic on Standard: 25 credits a month, at 10 credits per basic task, is two and a bit uses per person per month. That is a much smaller number than most people picture. Premium’s 70 credits is seven.

(Teamwork Graph queries are separate: single-product lookups are free, enriched cross-product queries cost variable credits.)

4. The sentence to pay attention to: overage is on by default

The support page states: “Extra usage is enabled by default”, priced at US$0.01 per Rovo credit, or US$10 per 1,000 credits.

So:

• Change nothing → credits run out, AI keeps working, the excess appears on your next invoice.
• Turn extra usage off → credits run out and, in the official wording, “your billable interactions will stop until usage resets on the first of the following month.”

Notifications: organisation and billing admins get proactive alerts at 80% and 100% of the included allowance. Note who that is — the alerts go to admins, not to the person burning the credits. The colleague actually spending them will usually have no idea they crossed the line.

5. What admins should do now

There is time before 3 December. These are worth doing today:

1. Decide whether you optimise for “never interrupted” or “never surprised.” You get one of the two. Fear the invoice, turn overage off; fear work stopping mid-flow, leave it on and set a spending cap.
2. Set a spending limit. Atlassian Administration gives org and billing admins real-time visibility into usage by team, plus the ability to set and adjust limits.
3. Measure before you choose a plan. The window before 3 December is a free observation period. Learn how often your team actually invokes AI in a month, then look at 25 / 70 / 150 again. Cheaper than fixing it afterwards.
4. Tell the team which features are free. In-line summaries, rewrites and Rovo Search cost nothing; opening a chat does. Saying that once removes most of the avoidable spend.

6. If you are thinking of moving automations out

Automation steps joining the meters is a new cost for teams leaning hard on Jira automation. If you are considering moving some of it elsewhere, n8n is a common option with a self-hosted free path, and our guides cover other tools’ verified free tiers.

One caution: migration is a cost too. Do not start until you have measured how many credits you actually overrun, and what that costs.

What we could not verify

• Whether the Free plan is affected: the announcement refers to “paid cloud plans” and “eligible plans” without enumerating tiers. We do not speculate about the Free plan.
• Included allowances and unit prices for automation steps and AI agent resolutions: no figures published; the numbers above are for Rovo credits only.
• Whether regional pricing differs: not verified.
• Whether existing contracts get transition terms: not addressed in the announcement, so no guesswork.

Official links and further reading

• Atlassian announcement: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/company-news/expanded-usage-based-pricing
• Rovo credits support page: https://support.atlassian.com/rovo/docs/rovo-usage-limits/
• Usage-based pricing overview: https://www.atlassian.com/licensing/usage-based-pricing
• A similar budget default: GitHub Copilot
• Automation alternative: n8n
• More verified free tiers: AMPM guides