Seats

 
 If the user arrives through directory provisioning and belongs to a group you have mapped to a specific tier on the [Group mappings](/docs/government/org-admin/provisioning) page, that mapping takes precedence and the user is placed on the mapped tier if a seat is available.
 
-Otherwise the system walks through all of your tiers, both Anthropic-managed and self-managed, in sort order (lowest first) and places the user on the first tier that has a free seat. Self-managed tiers may or may not have a seat limit, depending on how they were allocated. A user is left **Unassigned** only when every tier that has a seat allocation is full. An unassigned user has no model access until an owner assigns them a seat manually on the [Users](/docs/government/org-admin/users) page or until more seats become available.
+Otherwise the system walks through all of your tiers, both Anthropic-managed and self-managed, in sort order (lowest first) and places the user on the first tier that has a free seat. Self-managed tiers may or may not have a seat limit, depending on how they were allocated. A user is left **Unassigned** when every tier that has a seat allocation is full, or when your organization has not been allocated any seats yet. An unassigned user has no model access.
 
+Automatic placement happens when a user first arrives. A user who is already **Unassigned** gets a seat tier in one of these ways:
+
+* An owner chooses one for them on the [Users](/docs/government/org-admin/users) page. A tenant administrator can do the same from your organization's admin view.
+* Your organization receives its first seat allocation. Members without a seat tier are seated automatically from the new seats at that moment, Primary Owners first and in the same tier order as above, provided nobody in the organization already holds a seat. Anyone still without a seat tier afterwards, for example because there were more members than seats, needs an owner to choose one for them on the Users page. Later allocation changes do not repeat this, so a user you deliberately leave unassigned stays that way.
+* The user arrived through directory provisioning and belongs to a group that is mapped to a tier. The next sync seats them once the mapped tier has a free seat, as described on the [Group mappings](/docs/government/org-admin/provisioning) page.
+
 <Tip>
   If you see an Anthropic-managed tier whose **Assigned** count equals its **Limit**, new users cannot land on it automatically. Either increase the allocation on the [Billing](/docs/government/org-admin/billing) page, move existing users to a different tier to free seats, or ask a tenant administrator to add seats.
 </Tip>

 ## Things to know
 
 * The **Assigned** count includes only active users. When a user is deactivated, their seat is released immediately and becomes available for someone else.
-* Changing a tier's limit on the Billing page does not move any users. If you lower a limit, you must first move enough users off the tier so the assigned count fits within the new limit, because the system will not let you reduce an allocation below the number of people currently seated on it.
+* Changing a tier's limit on the Billing page does not move anyone who already holds a seat. If you lower a limit, you must first move enough users off the tier so the assigned count fits within the new limit, because the system will not let you reduce an allocation below the number of people currently seated on it.
 * The sort order that controls automatic assignment is managed on the [Tiers](/docs/government/org-admin/seat-tiers) page. Anthropic-managed tiers have a fixed order set by Anthropic, and self-managed tiers sort wherever their sort order number places them relative to the managed ones.