TELCOMA Since 2009
Start a project

Guide · Jira Cloud

How to find inactive users in Jira Cloud

For Jira Cloud admins who want a list of people who hold a Jira seat and don't use it. You'll build the list with Atlassian's own tools, learn what its dates really mean, and free seats without deleting anyone.

Updated 13 October 2026 · 7 min read

Step 1

Export your users with their last-seen dates

Atlassian bills for every user with Jira access, used or not. Its cloud licensing FAQ says a user counts toward billing once product access is granted.

The most complete list Atlassian gives you is the user export. You need the organization admin role.

  1. Go to admin.atlassian.com and select your organization.
  2. Select Directory → Users. If your Users page has a Site filter, you're on the original user management experience: open your site first, then Users.
  3. Select Export users.
  4. Choose all users in your organization, then Only active users.
  5. Tick App access, so the file has a role column for each app.
  6. Select Export users. Atlassian emails you a link to the CSV file.

Three columns matter:

  • Role - Jira - [your site] shows None, Guest, User or Admin. User or Admin means they have Jira access, which is what you pay for.
  • Last seen in Jira - [your site] is the date the person last viewed Jira on that site for at least 2 seconds. Blank means no date on record.
  • User ID is the person's account ID. You'll use it in step 2.

Filter the role column to User and Admin, then sort by last seen, oldest first. A blank date, or one older than your cut-off (90 or 180 days, say), puts the person on your candidate list. Jira Service Management and other apps get their own pair of columns.

Opening a user in Directory → Users shows a last active date, but it's one date across every app on the site and can lag by up to 24 hours. Insights in Atlassian Administration has active-user charts (some need Atlassian Guard Standard or a Premium plan). They show counts, not names.

Know the limits

What the last-seen date can't tell you

The export is a good first pass, but know what it measures.

  • Viewing, not work. Atlassian defines active as viewing a page for at least 2 seconds. A manager who opens one dashboard a month looks as active as someone who works in Jira daily.
  • Not always up to date. An open Atlassian suggestion, JRACLOUD-76982, says Jira only records activity once a user performs an operation, not when they just log in. Some admins report that reading work items didn't move the date. An old date is a reason to ask, not proof.
  • Integration accounts look idle. Accounts that only use the API don't view pages, so they can show no date while working every day. Leave them out.
  • No automation. Atlassian's own knowledge base says you can't automate removing inactive users from the Jira interface. A suggestion to deactivate users after a period of no activity, AX-1169, has been open since 2019.

On Atlassian Guard Premium or an Enterprise plan, the organization audit log can also include in-app activity, such as viewing a page.

Step 2

Check who did any real work

Jira's search can show whether a person changed anything recently. Open the work item search, switch to JQL, and run this with the User ID from the export:

key in updatedBy("paste-user-id-here", "-90d")

In Atlassian's JQL reference, an update here means creating a work item, changing any of its fields, or adding, editing or deleting a comment. No results means the person did none of those in the last 90 days. Change -90d to match your cut-off.

  • Run it as someone who can browse every space. Search only returns work items you can see.
  • Logging work isn't part of that definition, so check worklogs separately if your teams track time.
  • It's one search per person: fine for twenty names, slow for five hundred.

Old last-seen date plus no updates makes a strong candidate. Send the list to managers with a reply-by date before you change anything.

Step 3

Free the seat without deleting anyone

There are several ways to stop paying for a user:

  • Remove app access. Takes away Jira only. The person keeps their account and other apps, and their work stays. In Directory → Users, open the user, go to the Apps tab, select ••• next to Jira, then Remove access. This takes them out of every group that gives Jira access. (Atlassian's steps)
  • Suspend access. Blocks the user from your whole organization. No billing while suspended; restoring brings back their roles and groups.
  • Remove user. Takes them out of your organization and stops billing. To bring them back, you invite them again and reassign their groups.
  • Deactivate account. Only for managed accounts on a domain you've verified. They can't use the account anywhere, and billing stops. Keep this for people who have left.
  • Delete account. Managed accounts only, and permanent after 14 days.

For most clean-ups, removing app access is enough, and giving access back undoes it. Remove the organization admin role first if they have it. If your groups come from an identity provider such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID, make the change there.

Timing matters for the saving. Under maximum quantity billing, monthly plans are billed on the highest number of users in the billing period. Removing someone mid-month doesn't lower that month's bill, but the lower count carries into the next cycle. Annual plans pay for a user tier until renewal, so clean up before you renew.

To estimate what idle seats cost, try our licence waste calculator. It uses Atlassian's October 2026 monthly list prices: Jira at $7.91 per user on Standard and $14.54 on Premium, and Jira Service Management at $20 and $51.42 per agent.

License Audit inside Jira's admin settings: how inactivity is decided, the audit period, and seats by Jira product.
License Audit for JiraJira Cloud · Atlassian Forge

The shortcut: License Audit for Jira

Step 2 is one search per person. We built License Audit for Jira to run that check for every licensed user at once.

  • Pick a period and run it. No activity in 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days. It scans in the background.
  • Only actions count. Changing a status or field, commenting, logging work, or creating or reporting a work item. Being assigned doesn't count, because someone else did that.
  • Every user is checked in full. A quick scan clears most people. Anyone it can't clear is checked against every work item on the site before being listed.
  • Seats and cost. Per Jira app: the seats Atlassian bills you for, the seats on your plan, and how many belong to inactive users. Enter your seat price to see the yearly total.
  • The list. Each inactive user, the apps they hold a seat for, and how long they've been inactive. Search, filter, and export to CSV or Excel.
  • Read-only. No write permission, so it can't change your site or remove anyone. It runs on Atlassian Forge with no servers of its own.

Apps can't see logins or page views, so someone who only reads Jira will be listed. Check those names against the last-seen date before you act.

To act on the list, Seat Reclaim for Jira finds the same users and frees their seats after you confirm, by taking them out of product access groups. It never deactivates accounts or touches admins, and every change can be undone. You can request access from its page.

License Audit has a free 30-day trial, then is billed per user per month on your Atlassian invoice. The price is on the Marketplace listing.

Get it on the Atlassian Marketplace See how it works

FAQ

Common questions

How do I see when a Jira user was last active?

In Atlassian Administration, open Directory, then Users, and select the person. That date covers every app on the site and can lag by up to 24 hours. For a Jira-only date, export users with App access ticked and read the Last seen in Jira column.

Is there an inactive users report in Jira Cloud?

Not as a list of names. The closest built-in options are the user export with last-seen dates and the active-user charts under Insights in Atlassian Administration, some of which need Atlassian Guard Standard or a Premium plan.

Do inactive users count toward my Jira licence?

Yes. Atlassian bills for users who have access to Jira, whether or not they use it. A user stops counting when you remove their Jira access, suspend or remove them, or deactivate their account.

Does removing Jira access delete a user's work?

No. Their work items, comments and history stay where they are, and they keep their Atlassian account. Give them Jira access again and they can carry on.

What does inactiveUsers() do in JQL?

It matches accounts that are already deactivated or deleted. It doesn't find people who still have access but don't use Jira. For those, run updatedBy() for each person.

How do I remove inactive users from Jira in bulk?

Take them out of every group that gives Jira access (Directory, then Groups, in Atlassian Administration), or script it with Atlassian's APIs. This is reversible. Deleting accounts is not.