Overview
After a group has been purchased, Group Leaders can expand it on their own — adding more seats to bring in new learners, or adding courses to give the group access to new content — all without contacting an admin.
Which Groups Support This Feature
The Add Seats and Add Courses buttons appear on the Group Management page only for groups that were created through a WooCommerce purchase. Specifically:
| Group type | Add Seats Button | Add Courses Button |
|---|---|---|
| Created via Custom Group License (Buy Courses/Group page) | Yes | Yes |
| Created via pre-configured license (non-subscription) | Yes | No |
| Created via subscription-based license | Yes — see Adding Seats after Subscription Purchase | No |
| Manually created (admin-created, no purchase) | No | No |
Note: If a Group Leader does not see these buttons, confirm that their group was created through a qualifying purchase and that the buttons have not been hidden using the Group Management page attributes.
Adding Seats
Group Leaders use Add Seats to increase the maximum number of learners their group can hold.
- The Group Leader navigates to their Group Management page (the frontend page configured under Uncanny Groups > Settings).
- They click the Add Seats button for the relevant group.
- They are redirected to a Woo cart where they can enter the number of additional seats they want to purchase.
- They review the price — bulk discounts are applied automatically based on the group’s total seat count after the purchase, not just the seats being added. (See the example below.)
- They complete the checkout. Once the order reaches Completed status, the new seats are added to the group.
How Bulk Discounts Apply to Seat Additions
Bulk discounts are calculated against the group’s total seat count after the addition, which means adding seats can reduce the per-seat price retroactively for the whole group.
Illustrative example (numbers are for explanation only, not actual product pricing): Suppose a group has 10 seats and the Group Leader adds 2 more, bringing the total to 12. If a bulk discount tier applies to groups of 10 or more, that tier is evaluated against the new total of 12 seats. Under that tier, the discount applies to all 12 seats.
See Configure Bulk Discounts for instructions on setting up discount tiers.
Adding Courses
If a group is created by the purchase of a Custom Group Licenses on the Buy Courses/Group page, then Group Leaders will see the Add Courses button on the Group Management page.
Group Leaders use Add Courses to give their group access to additional LearnDash courses. Only courses with a corresponding LearnDash Group Course WooCommerce product are available to add.
- The Group Leader navigates to their Group Management page.
- They click the Add Courses button for the relevant group.
- They are redirected to the assigned Buy Courses page where they see a list of available LearnDash Group Course products with individual prices. Bulk discounts apply if configured.
- They select the course(s) to add and proceed to checkout.
- Once the order reaches Completed status, the selected courses are added to the group and all current group members gain access.
Note: The Add Courses button is not available for subscription-based groups. If your Group Leaders need to manage courses on a subscription group, contact your site admin.
Order Status and Access Activation
Seat and course additions are activated when the WooCommerce order reaches Completed status. If your payment gateway leaves orders in Processing by default, we recommend enabling automatic order completion for virtual/downloadable products in WooCommerce > Settings > Products. Until the order completes, the new seats or courses will not be active.
Important: Do Not Delete Associated Products or Orders
The WooCommerce products and orders tied to a group’s purchase history must remain intact. Deleting or trashing them can cause errors when Group Leaders attempt to add users, seats, or courses.
If a product or order has been accidentally deleted and a group is now broken, the group can be downgraded to a Basic LearnDash Group from the Edit Group page in the WordPress admin. This removes the WooCommerce association and restores basic functionality, but the Group Leader will no longer be able to use the Add Seats or Add Courses buttons.
Subscription-Based Groups
Adding seats to a subscription-based group follows a different process. See Add Seats after Subscription Purchase for full instructions.
Related Articles
- Enable Custom Group Licenses — set up the Group License product and Buy Courses page that enables this workflow
- Set up LearnDash Group Course Products — create the course products that appear in the Add Courses list
- Configure Bulk Discounts — set up volume pricing for seats and courses
- Add Seats after Subscription Purchase — the parallel workflow for subscription-based groups
- Using the Group Management Page — full reference for the Group Leader’s frontend management interface