Summary and recommendation
Kustomer user management can be run manually, but complexity usually increases with role models, licensing gates, and offboarding dependencies. This guide gives the exact mechanics and where automation has the biggest impact.
Kustomer is a customer service CRM with three built-in roles - Admin, Supervisor, and Agent - plus the ability to define custom roles by toggling permission flags across functional areas such as Conversations, Reporting, and Integrations. User management lives at Settings → Users (gear icon in the left sidebar).
Every app that connects to Kustomer for support operations routes access through this single role-per-user model; a user cannot hold multiple roles simultaneously.
Quick facts
| Admin console path | Settings → Users (accessible via the gear icon in the left sidebar) |
| Admin console URL | Official docs |
| SCIM available | Yes |
| SCIM tier required | Ultimate ($139/seat/mo) |
| SSO prerequisite | Yes |
User types and roles
| Role | Permissions | Cannot do | Plan required | Seat cost | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | Full access to all settings, user management, billing, integrations, workflows, and all conversation data across the org | Any paid plan | $89/seat/month (Enterprise) or $139/seat/month (Ultimate), billed annually | Admin role grants access to billing and org-wide settings; assign carefully. Every seat counts toward the 8-seat minimum. | |
| Agent | Can view and respond to conversations assigned to them or their teams; access to customer timeline and notes | Cannot access Settings, manage other users, create workflows, or view org-wide reports by default | Any paid plan | $89/seat/month (Enterprise) or $139/seat/month (Ultimate), billed annually | Each Agent consumes a full paid seat regardless of activity level; no read-only or light-agent tier is documented. |
| Supervisor | Can view all conversations, access reporting and team management features, monitor agent activity | Cannot modify org-level settings or billing by default | Any paid plan | $89/seat/month (Enterprise) or $139/seat/month (Ultimate), billed annually | Supervisor is a built-in role; granular permissions can be adjusted via custom roles on supported plans. |
| Custom Role | Admin-defined permission set; can combine any subset of available permission flags | Cannot exceed the permissions of the Admin role | Available on Enterprise and Ultimate plans; confirm with Kustomer sales for exact tier gating | Same per-seat cost as the plan tier; no separate charge for custom roles | Custom roles must be created before inviting users; role assignment cannot be changed in bulk via the UI. |
Permission model
- Model type: hybrid
- Description: Kustomer uses a set of built-in roles (Admin, Supervisor, Agent) combined with the ability to create custom roles. Custom roles are built by toggling individual permission flags across categories such as conversations, customers, reporting, settings, and teams. A user is assigned exactly one role.
- Custom roles: Yes
- Custom roles plan: Enterprise and Ultimate (confirm with Kustomer; not available on legacy or trial plans)
- Granularity: Permission flags are grouped by functional area (Conversations, Customers, Reporting, Settings, Teams, Integrations). Individual flags can be toggled on or off within each area when building a custom role.
How to add users
- Log in as an Admin and navigate to Settings (gear icon) → Users.
- Click 'Invite User' or 'Add User'.
- Enter the user's email address.
- Select a Role from the dropdown (Admin, Supervisor, Agent, or any custom role).
- Optionally assign the user to one or more Teams.
- Click 'Send Invite'. The user receives an email invitation to set their password and activate their account.
- The seat is counted against the org's license as soon as the invitation is sent (confirm billing trigger with Kustomer).
Required fields: Email address, Role
Watch out for:
- Invitations expire; if the user does not accept within the expiry window, the admin must resend.
- The invited user's seat is provisioned at invite time, not at first login - verify with Kustomer billing terms.
- Minimum of 8 seats applies org-wide; removing users below this threshold does not reduce the billed amount.
- Annual billing is required; mid-year seat additions are typically prorated but mid-year reductions may not reduce the annual commitment.
| Bulk option | Availability | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CSV import | No | Not documented |
| Domain whitelisting | No | Automatic domain-based user add |
| IdP provisioning | Yes | Ultimate ($139/seat/month) - SCIM provisioning requires both SAML SSO and the Ultimate plan |
How to remove or deactivate users
- Can delete users: Verify in tenant
- Delete/deactivate behavior: This app exposes delete operations in its API documentation, but the admin-console path may present removal as deactivation, archiving, or deletion depending on tenant configuration. Confirm whether the UI action is reversible before treating removal as recoverable.
- Navigate to Settings → Users.
- Locate the user by name or email using the search field.
- Click on the user's name to open their profile.
- Click the 'Deactivate' button (or toggle the user's status to Inactive).
- Confirm the deactivation in the dialog prompt.
- The user is immediately logged out and can no longer sign in.
| Data impact | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Owned records | Conversations and customer records previously owned or assigned to the deactivated user remain in the system and retain their assignment. Admins can reassign open conversations to active agents. |
| Shared content | Shared views, saved searches, and team memberships created by the deactivated user persist and remain accessible to other team members. |
| Integrations | API tokens or OAuth connections tied to the deactivated user's account may stop functioning; review and rotate any integration credentials before deactivating. |
| License freed | Deactivating a user removes them from the active seat count. However, the 8-seat minimum and annual billing commitment mean the financial impact may not be immediate. |
Watch out for:
- Open conversations assigned to a deactivated user are not automatically reassigned; admins must manually reassign or use a workflow to handle unassigned queues.
- If the org is on an annual contract, deactivating a seat mid-term may not reduce the invoice until renewal.
- SCIM-provisioned users deactivated via the IdP are deactivated in Kustomer automatically (Ultimate plan only); manual deactivation is required on Enterprise.
- Reactivating a previously deactivated user restores their profile and history but consumes a seat again.
License and seat management
| Seat type | Includes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Seat | Core CRM, conversations, workflows, basic reporting, API access. No SCIM or SAML SSO. | $89/seat/month, billed annually |
| Ultimate Seat | Everything in Enterprise plus SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, advanced reporting, and additional platform features. | $139/seat/month, billed annually |
| Enterprise Bundle Seat | Enterprise features plus AI capabilities (AI Agents, AI Copilot bundled). | $129/seat/month, billed annually |
- Where to check usage: Settings → Users - the Users list shows all active and inactive users; active users represent consumed seats. Billing details are accessible under Settings → Billing (Admin only).
- How to identify unused seats: Filter the Users list by 'Last Active' date to identify agents who have not logged in recently. Kustomer does not provide a native 'unused seat' report; admins must manually review last-login timestamps.
- Billing notes: Annual billing is required on all plans. Minimum 8 seats applies. Add-ons (AI Copilot at $40/user/month, HIPAA Compliance at $25/user/month) are billed per active user on top of the base seat cost. Data storage overages are $50/GB; attachment storage is $1/GB. Mid-contract seat additions are typically prorated; reductions generally take effect at renewal.
The cost of manual management
There is no bulk CSV import for users, so large team onboarding requires inviting each agent individually through the UI. Every app stakeholder who needs read access to conversations must consume a full paid seat - there is no light-agent or read-only tier.
Open conversations assigned to a deactivated agent are not automatically reassigned, creating manual queue cleanup work each time someone offboards. The 8-seat annual minimum means seat reductions mid-contract typically do not reduce the invoice until renewal.
What IT admins are saying
Practitioners on G2 and support forums flag three recurring friction points. First, SCIM and SAML SSO are locked to the Ultimate plan ($139/seat/month); teams on the Enterprise plan ($89/seat/month) cannot automate provisioning without upgrading.
Second, the billing trigger for a new seat - invite time versus first login - is documented inconsistently, causing surprise charges.
Third, the absence of a native unused-seat report means admins must manually audit the 'Last Active' column in Settings → Users to identify dormant accounts.
Common complaints:
- Users report that there is no bulk user import via CSV, requiring manual invitation of each agent individually for large teams.
- Reviewers note that the lack of a read-only or light-agent seat tier means every stakeholder who needs visibility into conversations must consume a full paid seat.
- Admins have noted that open conversations are not automatically reassigned when an agent is deactivated, creating queue management overhead.
- Some users report confusion about when a seat is actually billed - at invite time vs. first login - due to unclear documentation.
- The 8-seat minimum and annual billing commitment are cited as friction points for smaller teams or those with seasonal staffing needs.
- SCIM and SAML SSO being locked to the Ultimate tier ($139/seat/month) is a common complaint from teams on the Enterprise plan who want automated provisioning without upgrading.
The decision
Choose the Ultimate plan only if automated provisioning and SSO are non-negotiable requirements; the $50/seat/month premium over Enterprise is the cost of that automation. If the team is below 8 seats or has seasonal staffing swings, the annual minimum commitment adds meaningful financial risk.
Custom roles are available on Enterprise and Ultimate, but role assignment cannot be changed in bulk through the UI - factor that into any large re-org or onboarding workflow.
Bottom line
Kustomer's manual user management is straightforward for stable, mid-sized support teams but becomes operationally expensive at scale: no bulk import, no light-seat tier, no auto-reassignment on deactivation, and no native dormant-seat reporting.
Every app user who touches conversation data consumes a full paid seat, so access hygiene directly maps to license spend.
Teams that need automated provisioning must commit to the Ultimate plan and configure SAML SSO before SCIM becomes available - there is no lower-cost path to lifecycle automation.
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