Self signing envelopes now consumes one credit. This use to be free.

Hi ​@aseemgautam,

Thanks for reaching out here in the Docusign Community—great to have you here!

When something you’ve always done suddenly stops working the same way, it’s definitely inconvenient. Thanks for explaining what you’re seeing — let’s sort this out together.

One thing to check is whether Document Visibility is enabled on your account. If it is, that can prevent the Freeform Signing option from working. Freeform signing isn’t allowed when Document Visibility is turned on, so that feature directly affects your ability to self‑sign without sending the envelope. Please try disabling Document Visibility and test again 👉Freeform signing not allowed when Document Visibility is enabled

Let me know how that goes. If it still doesn’t work,  please share the step‑by‑step process you did when self‑signing from the beginning. Thank you!

Regards,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator
If this helped clarify things, feel free to Like👍and click "Best Answer"

​@Melanie.Panguito - Thanks. I don’t even see the Document Visibility options. Also the article you mentioned is dated July 2025. The issue I reported only happened in January after docusign’s new interface changes. I’ve never seen or used these visibility options before. It’s clear that that capability to self sign envelopes is chargeable or paid now.

You can see in the below image, I am the only signer & the button on top right says ‘send’. Earlier I was able to sign & there was no option to send. If I press send, one credit is removed from my account. This seems like a major shift to deducting credits on self signing envelopes, rather than a bug or some issue related to settings etc.

I have the same problem. I noticed it too late and have no more credits.
Currently, I can't sign any documents at all without upgrading to a more expensive plan.
I sign many documents myself every day. Now the "Add fields" button is there and after that only the "Send" option is available, which I don't need at all if I'm the only one signing.

I'm experiencing the same issue as the original poster: no such option is visible, and I haven't made any changes.

Workflow: 
Upload via Drag n Drop
tick the box “only I sign”
 Normally, from there I could sign >> save >> and download.
This is no longer possible. Use the German version.

Thank you for getting back to me and for sharing more details ​@aseemgautam.

I realize I may have misunderstood your situation earlier. I’m really sorry about that, and I hope you can forgive the mix‑up. After another look, it seems you’re trying to use the Sign a Document feature which lets you quickly upload a file to your DocuSign account and sign it yourself. This feature is strictly for self‑signing; it's free and should not use any of your envelope allowance. Kindly try the steps below instead:

Homepage/Agreements page → Start → Envelopes → “Sign a Document” → Upload your document → Sign → Drag & drop your fields → Finish

Article: Sign a Document

Let me know how that goes 😊

Regards,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator
If this helped clarify things, feel free to Like👍and click "Best Answer"

Hey ​@Katinka, Thanks for raising this, and I’m really sorry for the hassle. Could you please try the steps:

Homepage/Agreements page → Start → Envelopes → “Sign a Document” → Upload your document → Sign → Drag & drop your fields → Finish

Thank you!

Regards,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator

​@Melanie.Panguito - The title of this post says ‘envelopes’. 

I would like to understand why would I send an envelope to myself. When ever the checkbox ‘I am the only signer’ is checked, I should have an option to sign the document (this is how it use to work earlier) and not send the document. 

I think you clearly understand what I am trying to say here but won’t directly acknowledge that that self signing envelopes is now paid. For obvious reasons.

Hello, thank you very much, but this workflow doesn't exist in my version. When I set the fields, I can't add a signature, only indicate where a signature should be. Afterward, I can only send the document for further signing (to myself – which is pointless), but I can't finalize it. I don't know if the German version is different, but I can't perform these steps. I'm forced to send an envelope. And even if I upgraded my plan, the other options only offer me 100 envelopes per year – that would be far too few for me. I urgently need the signature functionality back!

​@Katinka - Thank you so much for sharing that setting. I’ve unchecked it & we are back to how it use to work. 

No problem. Sometimes it still glitches for me and says again that no envelopes are available, but logging in again allows me to continue. :-)   Not ideal, but at least it’s usable

Hi there!

Glad to hear that free self‑sign is working in the old UI. I wanted to let you know that I’ve coordinated internally and confirmed that the behavior described is not expected in the new UI. The issue has been acknowledged, and our engineering team is actively investigating it under ticket NDSESEND‑13785. Thank you for reporting this.

We understand how disruptive this can be and truly appreciate your patience while we work on a fix. If you’d like to stay updated, we recommend opening a support case and referencing the ticket number so you can receive notifications as progress is made:

👉  Open a Support Case

In the meantime, you can continue using the old UI, and the same functionality is available by selecting “Sign a Document” from the Home or Agreements page. Both options will create the envelope as Self‑Sign.

Regards,

Melanie | Docusign Community Moderator

Thank you Melanie :)