Redeem Families Sponsorship

Members of Enterprise organizations are offered a free Families organization sponsorship that can be applied to a new or pre-existing Families organization and redeemed directly from the web vault.

Using a Families organization, securely share vault data between yourself and up to five friends or family members. Families organizations include premium Bitwarden features for all six users, including advanced two-step login methods, encrypted file attachments, emergency access, and more.

This article will help organization members redeem their sponsorship, however if you are an admin of a self-hosted Bitwarden Enterprise organization, you'll need to complete these steps to enable Families sponsorships for your members.

To redeem your sponsorship:

1. Log in to the Bitwarden web app as the account attached to the sponsoring organization.

2. Using the navigation, select Settings → Free Bitwarden Families:

   

3. On this screen, provide a personal email you want to redeem the sponsorship with and select Redeem.

   tip

   If you already have a separate personal Bitwarden account, use the email address attached to that account. If you don't already have a separate personal Bitwarden account, you will need to create one with the personal email you enter here. Do not use the email address or Bitwarden account attached to the sponsoring organization.

4. In your inbox, you will receive an email from Bitwarden inviting you to accept the sponsorship offer. Select Accept Offer to continue:

   

5. If there is a Bitwarden account associated with the provided personal email, log in. If there is not an account associated with the personal email, you will be directed to the Create Account screen.

   tip

   Sponsored Families organizations must always be accessed from https://vault.bitwarden.com or https://vault.bitwarden.eu. Your work account might use a different URL, for example https://company.bitwarden.com, so you will need to remember to use the right URL to log in to the right account.

   Tip: Bitwarden mobile and desktop apps can quickly swap between accounts that use different URLs.

6. Once you have logged in, you will be directed to a screen where you can finish redeeming your sponsorship for a New Families Organization or an Existing Families Organization:

   • New Families organization
   • Existing Families organization

   Select New Families organization from the dropdown:

   

   Fill in the following information:

   • An Organization name

   • A Billing email

   • Whether you want to add Additional storage (GB). Your sponsorship covers 1 GB free.

   • Payment information

   You won't have to make any payments for the Families organization as long as you are an active member of the sponsoring organization, unless you add Additional storage. When you are done filling in your information, select Submit.

   Select the organization from the dropdown and select Accept Offer:

   

   When you accept the offer, your old subscription will be replaced by the Enterprise sponsorship. You won't have to make any payments for the Families organization, unless you add Additional storage, for as long as you are an active member of the sponsoring organization.

Q: Can I redeem with the account that's a member of the sponsoring Enterprise?

A: No. Upon redemption, you will be asked to enter a personal email address that you own. If you already have a personal Bitwarden account, enter that account's email address. If you don't, enter a personal email address for which you want to create a personal Bitwarden account.

Q: Can I redeem for my existing Families organization?

A: Yes! Redeeming a sponsorship for an active Families organization will immediately switch you to a sponsored subscription and add prorated account credit for the time remaining on the subscription you have paid for.

Q: Can I add additional storage?

A: Yes, however only 1 GB is included in your sponsorship. More storage can be added at any time and doing so will charge your payment method on file.

Q: What happens if I leave the organization sponsoring me?

A: If you leave or are removed from the sponsoring organization, or if you manually end your sponsorship, your payment method on file will be charged at the next billing interval.

Q: What do I do if I received a renewal reminder in my email?

A: If you're still a member of the Enterprise organization, typically an employer, that's sponsoring your free Families organization, you can safely ignore this email. If you're no longer a member of that Enterprise organization, ensure your organization will renew without interruption by opening your Families organization Admin Console, navigating to Billing → Payment method, and checking that the payment method is valid.

Q: What does Awaiting Sync mean?

A: The status Awaiting Sync indicates your self-hosted Bitwarden server is waiting to sync with the Bitwarden cloud before your sponsorship can be fully redeemed or changed. Sync happens once a day.

If you try to redeem your sponsorship before the sync is complete, you will get an error message in the cloud web vault that reads Cannot find an outstanding sponsorship offer for this organization.

Q: Can self-hosted Enterprise organizations issue sponsorships?

A: Yes. There's a short setup procedure that must be completed by an administrator which you can learn more about here. Please remind your users that their sponsored Families organization can be redeemed through our public cloud (https://vault.bitwarden.com).

Q: Can a sponsored Families organization be on a self-hosted server?

A: Yes, however there are a few steps to go through:

1. Redeem your sponsorship at https://vault.bitwarden.com as described above.

2. Still on https://vault.bitwarden.com, retrieve your Families organization's license file as described here.

3. Log in to your self-hosted server and apply the license file to an organization as described here.

Please note, your self-hosted server will need to be connected to an SMTP mail server in order for invitations to your families organization to be sent to other members.

Q: If my organization is on a US server, can I redeem a Families organization on the EU server?

A: No, the Families plan sponsorship can only be redeemed on the same cloud server as the sponsoring Enterprise organization. If your Enterprise organization has migrated from one cloud server to another, a new Families organization will have to be sponsored on the correct cloud server. For more information on migrating organizations, see the Bitwarden migration guide.

Q: How do I remove a Families organization?

A: To remove a Families organization, log in to the account that is a member of the Enterprise organization and navigate to Settings → Free Bitwarden Families. Select the  cog icon associated with the sponsored Families organization and select Remove.