Is it possible to deactivate a GitHub Enterprise Seat, but not delete it?

[Rod-at-DOH]

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We're getting low on available GitHub Seats. So, we're looking at removing some people who are no longer with us. But in some cases, this isn't straight forward. For example, I've assigned a Seat to a contractor, who we may need in the future. Is it possible to deactivate a GitHub seat, but not delete it?

[irfan-sec]

Hi @Rod-at-DOH,

Great question! In GitHub Enterprise, you cannot "deactivate" a seat for a user without fully removing their access seats are directly tied to active user accounts with access to your organization.

Here’s how it works:

When you remove a user (such as a contractor) from your organization, their seat becomes available for someone else.
If you want to “reserve” a seat for a user but don’t want them to have access right now, that’s not possible—seats are only occupied by active members.
If the contractor returns in the future, you can simply re-invite them; if a seat is available at that time, they’ll be able to rejoin.
Tip:
If you want to keep a record of contractors, you might maintain an external list for easy re-invitation, but within GitHub, there’s no “inactive” status—only active (using a seat) or removed (seat is freed)

[arik-topaz]

We use the suspend user option exactly for that (on GitHub Enterprise Server)

[Rod-at-DOH]

I've never heard of the suspect user option. Where is that in GitHub Enterprise Service?

[arik-topaz]

Server, not service
GitHub Enterprise Server is a self-hosted version of the GitHub platform.
This option is not available if your Enterprise / Org is hosted in GitHub enterprise Cloud (meaning hosted in Github.com)