Difference Between Guests and Paid Users in monday.com [2025 Guide]

Let’s walk through it in plain English: how many guests you get on each plan, what a paid seat actually is, and the difference between guests and viewers (with some real‑world examples sprinkled in so it hopefully all makes sense).

How many guests do you get on each monday.com plan?

First a disclaimer; there is no longer a product called monday.com.  (I only use the term “monday.com” in this article to simplify the language).  What used to once be a single product called monday.com has evolved into 4 core Monday Products;

• Monday Work Management (project management forcused – way fewer features than CRM)
• Monday CRM (sales focused but by far the best all-round Monday tool)
• Monday Dev (web development focused)
• Monday Service (ticketing/support focused)

Pricing Plans and features do vary quite a bit from product to product.  (Eg no free plan on CRM).  But I’ll try to keep this article relevant and accurate no matter which product you are using/thinking of using.

monday.com charges you per “seat,” but it also gives you guests so you don’t have to buy a license for every single client pr team member who just wants to peek at progress. The exact rules depend on your plan.

Here’s the gist:

• Free plan (only Monday Work Management has a Free plan) – no Viewers and no Guests

• Free trial: See “Pro Plan” for details.  (No matter which pricing plan you click on for your Free Trial, the Free Trial is always at Pro Plan level with Pro Plan features).

• Basic: You get up to 3 guests for free. Invite a 4th, and boom—they start counting as a paid seat.  I checked with support and it seems that you can add as many guests as you want, but on the basic plan every 4 guests count as 1 paid seat.  See below this list for a more detailed explanation from support.  Ie I believe.  Unlimited Viewers on this plan.

• Standard: Same as Basic.

• Pro: Unlimited guests. Invite every client, contractor, and their dog if you really want.  Unlimited Viewers.

• Enterprise: Also unlimited guests and viewers, plus all the serious security bells and whistles.

Because they don’t make it abundantly clear in their docs, I asked Monday support (actually their chatbot) what they had to say about the maximum number of guests (in this case I was asking about the Work Management Standard Plan but I believe this info holds true for Basic and Standard Pricing Plans on all products);

On the Work Management Standard plan, you can invite guests, and their billing follows a 4:1 ratio— every 4 guests count as 1 billed seat. This means you can invite up to 3 guests for free. When you invite a 4th guest, that group of 4 guests will count as 1 billed seat. You can then invite 3 more guests before another seat is used. This pattern continues: for every additional group of 4 guests, 1 seat is counted toward your total billing. For example, if you’re on a Standard plan with 5 seats, and you’ve added 4 members, you have 1 seat remaining. That remaining seat can support up to 4 guests. If you invite 7 guests, you’re still within your seat limit—4 guests count as 1 seat, and the next 3 guests haven’t yet triggered another billed seat. But if you invite an 8th guest, that second group of 4 guests will use an additional seat, bringing your total to 6 seats (4 team members + 2 guest groups). At that point, your account will be automatically upgraded to the next seat tier.

Because pricing is seat‑based, once you go over the free guest limit on Standard, extra guests are treated like full paid users—so it’s worth keeping an eye on that guest count.

What is a paid seat (aka a member)?

A paid seat is your proper “power user”—monday.com calls them members. These are the people actually running work inside the platform, not just peeking at it.

Members can:

• Get into main boards, shareable boards, and private boards (depending on permissions).

• Create new boards and dashboards, build workflows, and set up automations and integrations.

• Invite others, move items, and generally make things happen.

Every member = one paid seat, and your subscription is based on how many of those you buy (usually in bundles: 3, 5, 10, etc.).

Rule of thumb: if someone is building processes and pushing work forward inside monday.com, they’re a paid seat.

What is a guest?

Guests are your “VIP visitors” from outside your company—clients, partners, vendors—who only need to see specific pieces of work, not your entire setup.

Guests:

• Must have an email domain that’s different from your company’s main domain.

• Only see the shareable boards you explicitly invite them to (no sneaky access to your main or private boards).

• Can interact on those boards: comment, update items, and collaborate, within whatever permissions you’ve set.

• Billing‑wise:

• Standard: Up to 3 guests are free. Every unit of 4 costs you 1 paid seat.  (ie 3 is free, 4 or up to 7 cost you 1 paid seat, 8 costs and up to 11 costs you 2 paid seats, 12 or up to 15 costs you 3 paid seats etc).

• Pro & Enterprise: Guests are unlimited and stay free from a seat perspective.

Example: You run an agency and want your client to approve tasks and see timelines on their own project board—but absolutely not see other clients. Perfect guest scenario.

What is a viewer?

Viewers are the “look but don’t touch” crowd. They can see things but can’t break anything, which is always comforting.

Viewers:

• Have read‑only access to boards you share with them. They can open, scroll, and observe, but not edit.

• Can be internal or external—no one cares what email domain they use.

• Are unlimited on all plans and do not affect your bill at all.

They’re ideal for execs, advisors, or anyone who says, “I just want to see what’s going on, I don’t need to touch it.”

Do viewers need to use your company email?

Nope. Viewers absolutely do not need to use your company domain.

• They can use any email—Gmail, a client’s domain, that ancient address they refuse to give up, whatever.

• The domain rule is more of a “guest thing,” since guests are specifically designed for external collaborators with different domains from your main account

So if someone just needs read‑only access, you can safely make them a viewer regardless of their email address.

Quick side‑by‑side: who gets what?

Here’s a tidy snapshot so you don’t have to keep all this in your head:

How to decide who gets which type

When you’re adding someone to monday.com, ask yourself:

• Are they building or managing workflows?

  • Yes → They’re a paid seat.

• Are they external and actively collaborating, but only on specific client‑style boards?

  • Yes → They’re a guest.

• Do they just need to see what’s going on and never touch anything?

  • Yes → They’re a viewer.

Get those three buckets clear, and monday.com suddenly feels a lot simpler—and your finance person might even smile at you.