Hamster Studio tells you the moment your team is about to outgrow its plan, and gives you a one-click path to the next tier. No surprise bills, no waiting on a billing ticket, no losing your work.
Every plan has two limits that matter day to day:
When you try to do something that would push past either limit, Hamster Studio shows you an upgrade dialog at the exact moment you need it — inside the invite flow, inside the brief picker, inside the chat box. You pick a plan, pay, and keep going. The draft or invite you were working on is still there when you come back.
"I want to add a teammate right now — tell me before I waste time typing." When you open the invite dialog and your team is already at its creator-seat cap, Hamster Studio doesn't wait until you've typed out five email addresses. It tells you immediately, with the number of seats your plan allows and the plan that removes the cap.
"We're about to run out of briefs — give me a way to fix that in one flow." When you try to create a brief that would tip you over your monthly allowance, Hamster Studio shows you the upgrade dialog before it creates anything. Your draft doesn't get lost. You upgrade, come back, and the brief creates with your new limits already applied.
"I asked Hamster a question and I'm over quota — what happens?"
If you explicitly tag @hamster or you're still in the getting-started flow, you get the upgrade prompt so you know why the reply didn't arrive. If you're deep in a thread that happened to mention @hamster, Hamster quietly steps back rather than shoving a paywall into the conversation — the team keeps using the thread, and whoever can manage billing sees the limit in the Billing page.
There's nothing to reload, no second login, and no delay before your team can use the new seats.
Only members who can create and edit briefs count against your seat cap — typically owners, admins, and creators. Viewers (reviewers, stakeholders, read-only commenters) are unlimited on every plan, so you can invite your entire company to see what the team is shipping without touching the cap.
When someone on your team moves from a viewer role to a creator role, that's when Hamster Studio checks your seat cap and prompts to upgrade if you're full. Moving the other direction — creator to viewer — always goes through.
If a member leaves your team, the seat frees up immediately and you can invite someone else without upgrading.
Upgrading a plan is a billing action, so it's gated by the billing management permission. By default, only team Owners have it — admins, creators, and reviewers do not. See Roles and Permissions for the full matrix.
If you're blocked by a limit but don't have permission to upgrade, the dialog points you to the team owners so you can ask. No one in the team is left without a path forward.