ArcGIS Online User Responsibilities

All ArcGIS Online users are responsible for: 

  • Monitoring your credit use: Regularly check your credit balance through your user profile in ArcGIS Online.
  • Managing your content: Periodically review and delete unnecessary or outdated content (files, layers, maps) to reduce storage costs.
  • Data stewardship: Backing up and preserving critical research data outside of the ArcGIS Online platform. ArcGIS Online is a powerful platform for analysis and visualization but should not be considered a permanent, long-term data archive.
  • Adhering to Policy: Complying with this governance document and the university's general Acceptable Use Policy for IT resources.

Credit Management Policy 

Effective March 1, 2026, all new ArcGIS Online accounts created under the UCSB site license are allocated an initial balance of 1,000 service credits. This quota applies annually, from August 1 to July 31.

For projects requiring a significant number of credits, (e.g., large-scale research, intensive analysis for a thesis or dissertation), users can submit a request for an additional allocation to the dreamlab@library.ucsb.edu. Please include in your request:

  • A brief project description and justification.
  • The specific analysis tools or processes that will consume credits. 
  • An estimated number of credits required. This can be calculated using the Esri Credits Table. 

Account Lifecycle and Deactivation Policy

As part of the implementation of this policy, all accounts and content dating before July 1, 2021 will be deleted, transferred to an institutional owner, or designated abandoned by February 28, 2026. 

To ensure license availability and maintain a secure and organized ArcGIS Online environment, we have implemented this process for managing inactive accounts:

Definition of an Inactive Account: An ArcGIS Online account will be considered inactive if the user has not logged in for a period of 36 consecutive months.

  • An email notification will be sent to the user's email address listed in ArcGIS Online; if the account has been flagged as inactive and will be scheduled to be disabled in 90 days. 
  • To keep the account active, the user simply needs to log in to ArcGIS Online within that 90-day window.
  •  If no login activity is recorded within 90 days of the notification, the account will be disabled and deleted. 

Graduated/Departed Users: Accounts for users who have graduated or are no longer employed by UCSB are subject to the same inactivity policy. Users are strongly encouraged to export or transfer ownership of any critical data before their departure.

Common Options for AGO Account Management

When you graduate, retire, or leave UC Santa Barbara, you access affiliated with your UCSB Net ID will expire in anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Your content will not be immediately removed, but it will not be preserved indefinitely. 

If you have content that is important to you or others, and needs to be maintained after you leave the University, please take steps to ensure its continued availability. Some of the most common options for transferring or preserving content are outlined below: 

  • Delete content that you will no longer need
  • Transfer ownership to another user. This transfer can be to anyone at UC Santa Barbara who has an AGO account. Departments and Labs may request functional ArcGIS Online Accounts.
    • An IT ticket must be submitted by the PI to create a functional @ucsb.edu email, which can be granted access and privileges in AGO. 
  • Copy content to another AGO organization or to your ArcGIS personal account. Not all content from the university account will be transferable to a personal user account.