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Find unused AI coding licenses before you renew

Seat reports count who has a license, not who uses it. CloudByte AI shows every developer's real Claude Code and Cursor activity, tells broken installs apart from unused seats, and gives you the evidence to reassign, coach or cancel before the renewal date.

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Seat reports

Why do seat reports overcount real AI usage?

Because a seat report counts who was given access, not who uses it. A license counts as assigned whether the developer runs sessions every day or never finished setup. Bulk purchases, stalled installs and people who tried a tool once and went back to their old workflow all look the same on the invoice, and when the renewal date lands in a busy sprint, every seat renews by default.

In our pilot, 24% of seats had zero AI activity.

Why seats go quiet

  • Setup stalled

    A proxy rule or an unfamiliar terminal step stopped the install, and nobody followed up.

  • The old workflow won

    The developer tried the tool, went back to how they already worked, and kept the seat.

  • Wrong fit for the work

    Some work suits AI pair programming less, and nobody asked whether the seat was needed.

  • Simply forgot

    A busy sprint pushed setup off the list, and the renewal came first.

01Activity per developer

How do you find idle AI coding seats?

Look at real activity per developer instead of assignments. CloudByte AI captures every Claude Code and Cursor session on each developer machine, so for every person you see active days, sessions and when they last ran one, week over week. Anyone with no sessions in the window you choose stands out.

  • Active days and sessions for each developer, trended week over week
  • The date of each developer's last session, per tool
  • Session depth, so a seat with one quick test is not mistaken for real use
  • An idle-seat report ahead of every renewal
How Activity Tracking works
Agent health

Broken install or unused seat?

Check agent health before you cancel anything. Every installed agent sends a heartbeat every 3 minutes, so each machine shows a status. A developer with no sessions whose agent is Stale or Offline may have a broken install rather than no interest, and fixing it costs less than losing them.

  • Online

    Heartbeat within the last 3 minutes and every hook healthy.

    The install works. No sessions here means the seat really is unused.

  • Initiated

    Installed and registered, waiting for its first full sync.

    Installed and registered, but setup never finished. Help them complete it before deciding.

  • Stale

    Missed several heartbeats in a row, often a sleeping laptop.

    Heartbeats stopped. Often a sleeping laptop, sometimes an install that needs fixing.

  • Offline

    No recent heartbeat. Check that the agent is still installed.

    No recent heartbeat. Check the agent is still installed before you count the seat as idle.

See Agent Health
Checklist

A renewal-week checklist

Seven steps to run in the week before renewal, and where each one lives in CloudByte AI.

  • 1. List every seat you pay for

    What to look at

    Seats per tool from each vendor's admin view or invoice.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    Activity Tracking shows who actually ran Claude Code and Cursor sessions

  • 2. Flag zero activity

    What to look at

    Seats with no sessions in the last 30 days.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    The idle-seat report and active days per developer

  • 3. Rule out broken installs

    What to look at

    Agents that never synced or stopped sending heartbeats.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    Agent Health: Initiated, Stale and Offline machines

  • 4. Check low use

    What to look at

    Developers with a handful of sessions, not zero.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    Sessions and session depth per developer

  • 5. Talk to each developer

    What to look at

    Why the seat went quiet: setup, fit or habit.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    Developer Insights status: Stuck, Active, Exploring or Idle

  • 6. Decide and record

    What to look at

    Reassign, coach or cancel each flagged seat.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    Re-check the same developers a week later in the same view

  • 7. Price the decision

    What to look at

    What idle seats cost you each month.

    Where in CloudByte AI

    The ROI calculator's spend on inactive seats
Next steps

What to do with idle seats

Reassign, coach or cancel, and talk to the developer before any of them. A stalled setup usually needs one conversation, a seat in the wrong hands can go to someone who wants it, and seats nobody needs can go at renewal. A week later, check the same developers again to confirm the change worked.

  • Reassign

    Give the seat to a developer who wants it. Someone whose work does not suit the tool can free it for someone whose work does.

  • Coach

    If setup stalled, one conversation often fixes it. Pair them with a regular user and share the skills your team already relies on.

  • Cancel

    Seats nobody needs can go at renewal. Ask the developer first, so you never revoke a seat someone was about to start using.

Track activity after the change
Cost

Estimate what idle seats cost

Multiply the seats nobody uses by the price per seat. The ROI calculator does it with your own numbers: enter developers, the tool cost per seat and the share active weekly, and it shows spend on inactive seats each month next to the value of the hours everyone else saves. Once CloudByte AI is running on your team, replace the estimate with measured activity.

Open the ROI calculatorSee which tools CloudByte AI works with
FAQ

Unused AI license questions, answered

How to find idle seats, when a seat counts as unused and what to do about it.

Ask us anythingBook a demo

Compare the seats you pay for with real activity. CloudByte AI captures Claude Code and Cursor sessions on every developer machine, shows active days and sessions per developer, and lists idle seats ahead of every renewal. Check agent health first, so a broken install is not mistaken for an unused seat.

We suggest flagging a seat after 30 days with zero activity: long enough for genuine onboarding delays, short enough to act before the next billing cycle. Check in at day 14, so you have two weeks to fix a stalled setup or talk to the developer before the seat is flagged.

Ghost seats: reclaim unused AI licences

Yes. A developer whose agent is Online but who has no Claude Code or Cursor sessions has not started using the tool. An agent stuck at Initiated was installed and registered but never finished its first sync, and a Stale or Offline agent points to an install that needs attention. Each needs a different conversation.

Agent Health

Talk to the developer before revoking it. If setup stalled, help them finish it; if the tool does not suit their work, reassign the seat to someone who wants it; if nobody needs it, cancel it at renewal. Then check their activity again a week later to confirm the change worked.

Yes. The agent captures Claude Code and Cursor sessions on each developer machine, and both tools show the same per-developer activity, so you can review seats for either tool, or for a developer who uses both, in one view.

All integrations
From the blog

Further reading

The full story behind idle seats, and how to weigh AI spend against what it returns.

All articles

Walk into your next renewal with evidence.

Install the agent once per laptop and see every developer's real AI activity within minutes.

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  • 10-minute setup
  • Your Anthropic key, your spend (Enterprise)