docs-v2/content/influxdb3/enterprise/admin/license.md

title	description	menu	weight
Manage your InfluxDB 3 Enterprise license	{{< product-name >}} licenses authorize the use of the {{< product-name >}} software. Learn how licenses work, how to activate and renew licenses, and more.	influxdb3_enterprise name parent Manage your license Administer InfluxDB	101

{{< product-name >}} licenses authorize the use of the {{< product-name >}} software and apply to a single cluster. Licenses are primarily based on the number of CPUs InfluxDB can use, but there are other limitations depending on the license type. The following {{< product-name >}} license types are available:

• Trial: 30-day trial license with full access to {{< product-name >}} capabilities.
• At-Home: For at-home hobbyist use with limited access to {{< product-name >}} capabilities.
• Commercial: Commercial license with full access to {{< product-name >}} capabilities.

License feature comparison

Features	Trial	At-Home	Commercial
CPU Core Limit	256	2	Per contract
Expiration	30 days	Never	Per contract
Multi-node	{{% icon "check" "v2" %}}		{{% icon "check" "v2" %}}
Commercial use	{{% icon "check" "v2" %}}		{{% icon "check" "v2" %}}

{{% caption %}} All other {{< product-name >}} features are available to all licenses. {{% /caption %}}

CPU limit

Each {{< product-name >}} license limits the number of CPUs InfluxDB can use. The CPU limit is per cluster, not per machine. A cluster may consist of multiple nodes that share the available CPU limit.

For example, you can purchase a 32-CPU Commercial license and set up an {{< product-name >}} cluster with the following:

• 3 × writer nodes, each with 4 CPUs (12 total)
• 1 × compactor node with 8 CPUs
• 3 × query nodes, each with 4 CPUs (12 total)

With the {{< product-name >}} Commercial license, CPU cores are purchased in batches of 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 cores.

CPU accounting

CPU cores are determined by whatever the operating system of the host machine reports as its core count. {{< product-name >}} does not differentiate between physical and virtual CPU cores.

[!Note] If using Linux, InfluxDB uses whatever cgroup CPU accounting is active--for example: cpuset or cpu.shares.

Activate a license

Each {{< product-name >}} license must be activated, but the process of activating the license depends on the license type:

• Activate a Trial or At-Home license
• Activate a Commercial license

Activate a Trial or At-Home license

When starting the {{< product-name >}} server, it will ask you what type of license you would like to use. Select trial or home and provide your email address. The server auto-generates and stores your license.

Activate a Commercial license

1. Contact InfluxData Sales to obtain an {{< product-name >}} Commercial license. Provide the following:

   • Cluster UUID
   • Object Store Info

   [!Note] This information is provided in the output of the {{< product-name >}} server if you try to start the server without a valid license.

   InfluxData will provide you with a Commercial license file.

2. Provide the following when starting the {{< product-name >}} server:

   • License email: The email address associated with your Commercial license.

     Use either the --license-email option or set the INFLUXDB3_ENTERPRISE_LICENSE_EMAIL environment variable.

   • License file: The file path of the provided Commercial license file.

     Use either the --license-file option or set the INFLUXDB3_ENTERPRISE_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.

{{< code-tabs-wrapper >}} {{% code-tabs %}} influxdb3 options Environment variables {{% /code-tabs %}} {{% code-tab-content %}}

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id node01 \
  --license-email example@email.com \
  --license-file /path/to/license-file.jwt \
  # ...

{{% /code-tab-content %}} {{% code-tab-content %}}

INFLUXDB3_ENTERPRISE_LICENSE_EMAIL=example@email.com
INFLUXDB3_ENTERPRISE_LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license-file.jwt

influxdb3 serve \
  --cluster-id cluster01 \
  --node-id node01 \
  # ...

{{% /code-tab-content %}} {{< /code-tabs-wrapper >}}

Renew a license

To renew an {{< product-name >}} Commercial license, contact InfluxData Sales.

Expiration behavior

When your {{< product-name >}} license expires, the following occurs:

• Write requests continue to be accepted and processed.
• Compactions continue to optimize persisted data.
• Query requests return an error.
• If the {{< product-name >}} server stops, it will not restart without a valid, non-expired license.