How to Determine the Number of Salesforce Licenses You Have

The sales director storms into your office with an urgent problem. “We just hired three new reps who can’t access Salesforce. The system says we’re out of licenses, but I thought we had plenty!” Meanwhile, finance is questioning why your Salesforce costs keep climbing while headcount remains stable. You’re caught in the middle, trying to explain a licensing situation you can’t fully see.

This scenario plays out in companies every day. Salesforce licensing feels deceptively simple on the surface—just count your users, right? But beneath that simplicity lies a complex web of license types, usage rights, and allocation challenges that can drain your budget if mismanaged.

The average organization wastes 30% of their Salesforce spend on unused or incorrectly assigned licenses. That’s $30,000 annually for every $100,000 in Salesforce investment—money that could fund other critical initiatives or boost your bottom line.

Understanding exactly how many licenses you have—and how they’re being used—isn’t just an administrative task. It’s a strategic necessity that impacts your operational efficiency, budget management, and ability to scale your business processes effectively.

This guide walks you through multiple approaches to checking your Salesforce license count, from simple UI navigation to advanced API methods and third-party tools. You’ll learn not just how to count licenses, but how to optimize them for maximum value.

Understanding Salesforce License Types

Before diving into how to check your license count, you need to understand what you’re actually counting. Salesforce’s licensing model is multi-layered, with several distinct license categories that serve different purposes.

User License Types

Every Salesforce user must have exactly one user license, which determines their baseline access level. These come in several flavors:

• Salesforce (Full) Licenses – Comprehensive access to CRM functionality, costing $25-$330 per user monthly depending on edition
• Platform Licenses – Access to custom objects and core platform features without full CRM functionality, at roughly 1/10 the cost of full licenses
• Identity Licenses – Authentication access for users who primarily use connected applications
• Chatter Licenses – Limited to collaboration features only

Feature and Permission Set Licenses

Beyond the base user license, organizations can assign additional capabilities through:

• Feature Licenses – Add specific functionality like Marketing User or Service Cloud to base licenses
• Permission Set Licenses – Enable specific capabilities through permission sets, often for specialized functions

External User Licenses

For customer and partner access, Salesforce offers Experience Cloud licenses:

• Customer Community – Basic access for customers
• Customer Community Plus – Enhanced customer access with case management
• Partner Community – Channel partner access with lead and opportunity management

These can be purchased as member-based (assigned to specific users) or login-based (pay-per-login) models.

Checking License Count Through the Salesforce UI

The simplest way to check your license count is directly through Salesforce’s user interface. This method requires no technical skills and provides immediate visibility.

Step-by-Step Process

1. Log into Salesforce with an administrator account
2. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner
3. Select “Setup” from the dropdown menu
4. In the Quick Find box, type “Company Information”
5. Click on “Company Information” in the results

The Company Information page displays comprehensive details about your organization, including a “User Licenses” section that shows:

• Each license type your organization has purchased
• The total number of licenses available for each type
• How many licenses are currently assigned to users
• How many licenses remain available

Below the User Licenses section, you’ll also find separate tables for Permission Set Licenses and Feature Licenses with similar information.

Important Timing Considerations

Be aware that Salesforce doesn’t update license counts instantaneously. When you add or remove licenses, or activate/deactivate users, the system can take up to 24 hours to refresh the counts displayed on the Company Information page.

If you’ve made recent changes and the numbers don’t look right even after waiting a full business day, contact Salesforce Customer Support to investigate potential discrepancies.

Accessing License Information via Salesforce API

For organizations that need programmatic access to license data or want to automate license tracking, the Salesforce API offers a powerful alternative to the UI approach. This method is particularly valuable for large enterprises managing multiple Salesforce instances or those building custom license management dashboards.

Understanding the UserLicense Object

The foundation of API-based license tracking is the UserLicense object, which contains metadata about every license type in your organization. This object includes critical fields like:

• Name – The license type name
• TotalLicenses – How many licenses you’ve purchased
• UsedLicenses – How many licenses are currently assigned

Building a SOQL Query

To retrieve license information via API, you’ll construct a SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language) query. A basic query looks like this:

SELECT Name, TotalLicenses, UsedLicenses FROM UserLicense ORDER BY Name

This returns all license types with their total and used counts. For specific license types, add a WHERE clause:

SELECT TotalLicenses, UsedLicenses FROM UserLicense WHERE Name=’Salesforce Platform’

Executing the API Call

To execute these queries, you’ll need:

1. OAuth authentication with Salesforce
2. An access token
3. The appropriate API endpoint

A typical curl command might look like:

curl “$INSTANCE_URL/services/data/v58.0/query?q=SELECT+TotalLicenses,+UsedLicenses+FROM+UserLicense” -H “Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN”

The response returns JSON-formatted data containing your license information, which can be parsed and used in custom applications or dashboards.

Using Third-Party Tools for License Management

Beyond Salesforce’s native capabilities, several specialized platforms provide enhanced license visibility and management features. These tools are particularly valuable for large organizations seeking to optimize license usage and reduce costs.

Torii: SaaS Management with Salesforce Integration

Torii is a SaaS Management Platform that integrates directly with Salesforce to provide real-time visibility into license inventory and usage patterns. Instead of manually checking license counts, administrators can configure Torii to continuously sync user data, license assignments, and usage metrics.

Torii captures:

• Complete user lists with active status
• All standard user license types
• Feature licenses (Service Cloud, Flow, Marketing, etc.)
• Login history to identify inactive users

The platform even offers an AI assistant called Eko that lets you ask natural language questions like “How many Salesforce licenses do I have?” and get immediate answers.

Other License Management Solutions

Several other platforms offer Salesforce license management capabilities:

• Zylo – Provides detailed utilization analysis and identifies cost-saving opportunities
• Ascendix – Offers AppExchange applications specifically for license management
• AppExchange Tools – Various native applications for license tracking and optimization

These solutions typically require less technical expertise than API methods while providing more comprehensive features than Salesforce’s native UI.

License Optimization Strategies

Once you know how many licenses you have, the next step is optimizing them to reduce waste and maximize value. Organizations typically can reduce Salesforce costs by 30% through proper license optimization.

Identifying Over-Provisioned Licenses

One of the most common and expensive licensing mistakes is assigning high-tier licenses to users who don’t need full functionality. For example:

• A user who only needs read-only access doesn’t need a full Sales Cloud license at $25-$330 monthly
• Team members who only create and view cases don’t need complete Service Cloud licenses
• Users who primarily work with custom objects can use Platform licenses at 1/10 the cost

Conduct a thorough audit of actual user requirements and compare them against assigned licenses. You’ll often find that 70% or more of your “full” license holders only use basic features.

Deactivating Inactive Users

Another major source of waste is licenses assigned to inactive users. These include:

• Former employees who have left the organization
• Users who transferred to roles that don’t require Salesforce
• Employees on extended leave
• Duplicate accounts created during system migrations

Implement regular audits to identify users who haven’t logged in within 90-180 days. Many organizations discover that 20-30% of their assigned licenses are held by users who haven’t accessed the system in six months.

Strategic License Type Allocation

Rather than defaulting to full CRM licenses for everyone, strategically allocate different license types based on actual needs:

• Use Platform licenses for users who need custom objects but not full CRM
• Leverage the five free integration user licenses for system-to-system connections
• Consider login-based licensing for external users who access systems infrequently

This strategic approach can dramatically reduce per-user costs while maintaining necessary functionality.

Best Practices for Ongoing License Management

Checking your license count is a point-in-time assessment, but effective license management requires ongoing governance and regular reviews.

Establishing Governance and Accountability

Create clear governance structures for license management:

• Designate a license management owner (typically in IT or procurement)
• Implement a centralized review process for all license requests
• Document license policies and role-to-license mappings
• Require business justification for new license requests

This centralized approach prevents unnecessary license proliferation and creates opportunities to reallocate existing licenses before purchasing new ones.

Regular Auditing Cycles

Implement quarterly or annual license reviews to:

• Track usage patterns over time
• Identify newly inactive users
• Flag departments with unusually high license costs
• Detect capacity issues before they trigger overage fees

These regular reviews should become part of your standard cost governance processes, alongside budget reviews and other financial activities.

Tracking Contract Milestones

Maintain a calendar of critical contract dates:

• Renewal dates
• Notice deadlines for license reductions (typically 30-60 days before renewal)
• True-up windows
• Expiration of promotional pricing

Missing a notice deadline can inadvertently lock you into unwanted licenses for another year, negating your optimization efforts.

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