unleash.unleash/website/docs/using-unleash/deploy/license-keys.mdx

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title: License Keys for Unleash Enterprise
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import VideoContent from "@site/src/components/VideoContent.jsx";

This document describes all aspects and workflows of license key management in Unleash, available from 5.8 and required for self-hosted enterprise plans from v6.0 onwards.

_For questions, please reach out to Unleash Customer Success using the [linked address](mailto:customersuccess@getunleash.io)_.

:::info Warning

License key management applies only to **self-hosted, Enterprise** versions of Unleash.

-   For **Unleash hosted** (Pro/Enterprise), license management is not necessary and is handled automatically.
-   For **Unleash Open Source**, no license is necessary and these steps do not apply.

:::

Areas of license key management that will be covered include:

-   [License policy](#license-policy)
    -   [Enforcement](#enforcement)
-   [Obtaining a new or updated license](#obtaining-a-new-or-updated-license)
    -   [New Customers](#new-customers)
    -   [Existing Customers](#existing-customers)
-   [Installing a new or replacing an existing license](#installing-a-new-or-replacing-an-existing-license)
    -   [Admin UI](#admin-ui)
    -   [Environment Variable](#environment-variable)

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## License policy

License keys are leveraged for self-hosted Unleash Enterprise instance(s) to be compliant with the following aspects of a customer agreement:

-   **Seat count** (# of licensed users)
-   **Contract duration** (expiration date)

These parameters are encoded into the license key. Therefore, installation of a new license key per self-hosted instance will be required should changes to any of the above occur (for example, increased seat count or contract renewal).

Separate license keys are required per Unleash instance, for example, a dev or production instance would have separate keys.

:::warning
Reusing Unleash keys across multiple installations is prohibited under the terms of your license.
:::

### Enforcement

The Unleash UI will display banners in any of the following non-compliant scenarios:

-   **No installed/missing license key**  
    ![Banner showing a missing license](/img/license-banner-missing.png)
-   **Expired license key**  
    ![Banner showing an expired license](/img/license-banner-expired.png)
-   **Enroled user count higher than the number of seats supported by the license**  
    ![Banner showing a high user count](/img/license-banner-highuser.png)

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## Obtaining a new or updated license

### New Customers

If you are a new customer, your account representative will provide the required license key(s) as part of your self-hosted instance onboarding.

### Existing Customers

If you are an existing customer and are making changes to your agreement (changing seat count or the contract expiration), your account representative can be contacted to obtain the required license key(s).

Alternatively, reach out to sales@getunleash.io

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## Installing a new or replacing an existing license

Once you have a new or changed key, two methods are available to install a license on an enterprise self-hosted instance:

1. Through the [**admin UI**](#admin-ui), logged in as an admin privileged user
2. Specifying a [**environment variable**](#environment-variable) upon container deployment

The process is the same whether you are licensing your self-hosted instance for the first time.

:::note
After updating a license key, a manual browser refresh may be required for any displayed licensing related banners to be removed from your session.
:::

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### Admin UI

:::info
This area of the UI can also be used to verify the currently installed key details
:::

1. Log in to the Unleash UI as an admin privileged user
2. Navigate to the _admin menu (gear icon) -> License_
3. If a key is already installed, the following details will be shown:

    - Customer name
    - Plan
    - Seat count
    - License expiration date

4. Paste the new license key and click _Update license key_

![License overview screen](/img/license-overview.png)

---

### Environment Variable

License key installation or update through an environment variable on container deployment is also possible, using the format `UNLEASH_LICENSE`.

For security, if using [helm charts](https://github.com/Unleash/helm-charts) or docker compose to deploy Unleash, a best practice would be to setup the license key as a secret and reference it in the helm configuration [values.yaml](https://github.com/Unleash/helm-charts/blob/main/charts/unleash/values.yaml) or [docker-compose.yml](https://github.com/Unleash/unleash/blob/main/docker-compose.yml).

:::info
The default image references in the Helm chart point to open-source Unleash resources. To use Unleash Enterprise, you must manually update the image references to point to the appropriate _unleash-enterprise_ images
:::