Enterprise Edition licenses are based on the number of administration panel users (soft-cap), subject to your specific license terms. In licensing and pricing discussions, these administration panel users are commonly referred to as seats. One seat corresponds to one admin user who can access the Strapi admin panel.
A Strapi "admin user" is anyone who can log in to your Strapi CMS admin panel, regardless of their role assignment.
Examples of admin users include:
Super admins (default role with full access)
Content managers
Content editors
Localization managers
Anyone who can access the admin panel in production, including via SSO
The following are not counted as admin users:
Automation accounts in any environment (API Tokens)
End users (accessing content via REST or GraphQL APIs)
Strapi has distinct authentication systems for different purposes:
Admin core package
Handles admin panel authentication
User counts are limited by license
Admin users have access to the control panel / back office / admin panel
Users-permissions plugin
Manages end-user authentication
Controls access to REST and GraphQL endpoints (content API)
End users do not count toward license limits
API token feature
Available in Strapi v4 and Strapi 5
Provides authentication without registering specific users
Cannot be used for admin panel access
For detailed information about user licensing, contact our sales team.
📄 Key licensing definitions for Strapi Enterprise Edition