Harness Flex Pricing
Flex Pricing is currently in limited availability and is being rolled out gradually. Contact your Harness account executive or support team to learn about eligibility and access.
Overview
Harness Flex Pricing is a unit-based pricing model that allows you to use any Harness module without purchasing separate licenses for each one.
Instead of buying modules individually, you purchase a pool of Harness Subscription Units (HSUs) and spend them across modules such as Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Platform, Infrastructure as Code Management (IaCM), Internal Developer Portal (IDP), AI SRE, and Security Testing Orchestration (STO) based on your needs.
What are Harness Subscription Units (HSUs)?
A Harness Subscription Unit (HSU) is a standardized unit for measuring usage across all Harness modules. The number of HSUs consumed varies by module, feature, and type of activity. A CD service deployment, a CI build, a security scan, and a feature flag request each consume a different number of HSUs.
How it works
- Purchase HSUs: Buy a pool of units based on your expected usage.
- Use HSUs across modules: HSUs are consumed as you use different Harness modules.
- Monitor usage: Track your HSU consumption and remaining balance in real time.
- Scale as needed: Add more HSUs as your usage increases.
This model removes the need to predict which modules you will use or how much capacity you will need. You can adjust usage across modules as your requirements change.
Why Flex Pricing
- Simplified purchasing: Purchase a single pool of HSUs instead of separate licenses, which makes buying faster and budgeting easier.
- Flexibility to experiment: Use your existing HSUs to try new modules and shift usage as your needs change, without additional purchases.
- Aligned with usage: Pay based on actual consumption with clear visibility and real-time tracking of HSU usage.
HSU pricing tiers
Harness offers tiered HSU pricing based on your organization's needs:
| Tier | Price per HSU | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0.00 | Trying out Harness modules before committing usage |
| Essentials | $0.75 | Small to medium businesses |
| Enterprise | $1.25 | Large organizations with committed usage |
Every Free account receives 1,000 free HSUs per month at no cost. These free units reset each calendar month and let you explore modules or handle light workloads before you need to purchase additional capacity. Free accounts also have a lifetime overage buffer of 3,000 HSUs that is never charged. Go to What you get on the Free plan to review everything a Free account includes.
How HSU pricing is applied
Harness charges every HSU purchase at your plan's rate card. Buying in stages does not change your per-unit rate.
- Additional purchases use the same rate card. Units bought later in a term are charged at the same per-unit rate as your first purchase.
- Your rate card is pinned at your first paid purchase. The rates in effect at that point apply for the full contract term, so later changes to Harness global pricing do not change your rates during the term.
- Downgrading unpins your rates. An account that returns to the Free plan loses its pinned rate card, and the latest global rate card applies if it upgrades again.
Go to Plan changes and rate cards to review pinning across upgrades and downgrades.
HSU Calculator
Different modules consume HSUs at different rates depending on your pricing tier. Toggle between Enterprise and Essentials to see the applicable metrics and rates for each module. Enter your expected usage to estimate monthly HSU consumption.
Buy HSUs yourself
You can purchase HSUs with a credit card directly in the product instead of contacting the Harness sales team. The purchase option is available on any account. The minimum self-serve purchase is 5,000 HSUs per year, and your first purchase moves a Free account to Essentials immediately.
Go to Self-serve purchase to review how self-serve checkout works and which limitations apply.
Flex Pricing billing
All modules are billed on calendar month boundaries, such as January 1 to 31 and February 1 to 28, regardless of when your contract starts. If your contract begins mid-month, Harness prorates the first month.
How usage is calculated
Harness uses two methods to calculate your monthly usage, depending on the type of metric:
- Discrete metrics: Count individual events, such as pipeline executions, API calls, or scan runs. Usage is calculated by adding up all events during the billing period. These metrics always use SUM aggregation.
- Cumulative metrics: Measure usage over time, such as active users, database instances, or API endpoints. These metrics can support lookback windows, free usage allowances, tiered pricing, and different aggregation methods depending on how usage is tracked.
Real-time usage visibility
You can view your HSU consumption at any time from the Subscriptions page in the Harness platform. The page shows your active, provisioned HSUs along with the following:
- Your total purchased HSUs and remaining balance
- Usage breakdown by module
- Daily and monthly consumption trends
Overage handling
Harness Flex Pricing allows usage beyond your purchased HSU pool, so your work is not interrupted even if you exceed it.
How overage works
- No service interruption: Your work continues even if you exceed your HSU pool.
- Overage billing: On Essentials and Enterprise, extra usage is billed at your plan's per-HSU rate, invoiced monthly in arrears.
- Automatic tracking: Overage is included in your monthly invoice.
- Usage alerts: Harness notifies you as you approach your HSU limit. Go to Usage alerts to review the thresholds.
The per-HSU overage charges in this section apply to paid plans. Free accounts draw on a lifetime buffer of 3,000 HSUs instead, and Harness never charges for it. Go to What you get on the Free plan to review the buffer.
Overage pricing example
If your monthly consumption exceeds the HSUs included in your contract, the additional usage is billed at a higher per-HSU overage rate. This overage charge appears on your next monthly invoice.
Example: Your team purchased 50,000 HSUs but consumed 55,000 HSUs in a given month.
| Enterprise | Essentials | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchased HSUs | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Actual usage | 55,000 | 55,000 |
| Overage | 55,000 minus 50,000 = 5,000 HSUs | 55,000 minus 50,000 = 5,000 HSUs |
| Overage rate | $1.25 / HSU | $0.75 / HSU |
| Additional charge | 5,000 x $1.25 = $6,250 | 5,000 x $0.75 = $3,750 |
Overage HSUs are charged at a higher rate than the HSUs included in your contract. If you expect your usage to exceed your purchased HSU allocation, contact your Harness account team before you reach that limit.
Increasing your committed HSUs in advance is typically more cost-effective than paying overage charges and helps ensure uninterrupted access to Harness.
Usage alerts
Harness notifies Account Administrators by email when HSU consumption reaches key usage thresholds. Each notification includes an option to add capacity before your workloads reach the limit.
Notifications are sent once per threshold during each billing cycle. You can monitor your current consumption and review notification history on the Subscriptions page at any time.
| Usage threshold | Notification |
|---|---|
| 80% | Review your usage and plan for additional capacity if needed. |
| 90% | You are nearing your purchased HSU limit. |
| 100% | You have reached your purchased HSU limit. Additional usage is billed as overage. |
Go to Monitor HSU usage and alerts for the steps.
Frequently asked questions
What can I use Harness Subscription Units for?
You can use HSUs across all Harness modules, including CI, CD, STO, IDP, and FME. You spend them based on your actual usage without assigning them to specific modules in advance.
What happens if I exceed my HSU limit?
Your usage is not blocked. On a paid plan, additional usage beyond your purchased HSUs is billed at your contracted overage rate. Free accounts draw on a lifetime buffer of 3,000 HSUs that is never charged. You receive alerts as you approach the limit.
Do unused HSUs expire each month?
Purchased HSUs are typically part of an annual commitment and unused units carry forward within your contract period. The 1,000 monthly HSUs on the Free plan are an exception and do not carry forward. For exact terms, review your contract.
How can I track HSU usage?
Track usage from the Subscriptions page, which shows how HSUs are consumed across modules along with details about project, organization, resources, and activity.
Can I add more HSUs later?
Yes, but the method depends on your plan. A Free account can make one self-serve purchase in the product. Essentials and Enterprise accounts contact the Harness account team to add HSUs to a contract or start a new commitment.
How do I choose the right Harness plan?
Free suits initial exploration and evaluation, Essentials suits core usage across modules, and Enterprise suits advanced feature, governance, and security needs.
Who should I contact for pricing or usage guidance?
Contact your Harness account team for help with usage analysis, planning your HSU pool, or making changes to your contract.
Transition to Flex Pricing
If your account is on a Developer 360 or DevOps Essential subscription plan and you want to move to Flex Pricing, contact your Harness account team or Harness Support. They can help you understand how your current usage maps to HSUs and guide you through the transition.
Related concepts
- Go to What you get on the Free plan to review Free account entitlements.
- Go to Self-serve purchase to buy HSUs with a credit card.
- Go to Subscription overview and management to review the Developer 360 model.