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title: Keep your GitLab seats in check with restricted access
description: GitLab&#x27;s restricted access feature has been significantly improved to help organizations control seat usage and avoid unexpected license overages. When enabled...
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og:description: GitLab&#x27;s restricted access feature has been significantly improved to help organizations control seat usage and avoid unexpected license overages. When enabled...
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# Keep your GitLab seats in check with restricted access

**[GitLab](https://daily.dev/sources/gitlab)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

GitLab's restricted access feature has been significantly improved to help organizations control seat usage and avoid unexpected license overages. When enabled and all licensed seats are in use, GitLab blocks new billable users from being added. Key improvements include better integration with identity providers — users provisioned via SAML, SCIM, or LDAP are now assigned the non-billable Minimal Access role instead of billable roles when no seats are available. Dormant users who reactivate via OIDC or SSO are now placed in a pending approval state rather than silently consuming seats. The feature is distinct from user cap: restricted access is a seat-limit control tied to licensed seats, while user cap is an approval workflow regardless of seat availability. The two cannot be enabled simultaneously.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://about.gitlab.com/blog/gitlab-restricted-access-improvements>

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---

Tags: [#gitlab](https://daily.dev/tags/gitlab)

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