Rotation and Expiry
Licenses expire, so they need to be replaced regularly. When your software is connected to Axoniq Platform, this happens automatically. This page explains how, and what happens when a license is missing or expired.
License rotation
For agreements without an end date, which includes every self-service plan, Axoniq Platform issues a new license for each environment every day. Each license is valid for 7 days, followed by 3 days of grace. A connected system therefore always holds a license with several days to spare, and a short outage of Axoniq Platform has no effect.
For agreements with an end date, the license is valid until that date and is only reissued when the agreement changes.
Whenever you change your subscription, for example to allow more applications, a new license is issued and delivered right away.
New licenses are delivered to:
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every Axon Server node of the environment that is connected to Axoniq Platform, in the version it supports;
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every Axoniq Framework application of the environment that is connected to Axoniq Platform.
Systems that use a license file or environment variable do not receive new licenses. Replace the license yourself before it expires; see Running Without a Platform Connection.
Expiry warnings
Axoniq Framework warns in its log before its license expires:
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from 7 days before expiry, every 6 hours;
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from 3 days before expiry, every hour;
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on the last day, every minute.
For licenses that are renewed automatically, these warnings only start on the last day, as a renewal is normally on its way.
When a license expires
Until the end of the grace period, everything keeps working, and the log warns that the license expired and until when the grace period lasts.
After the grace period:
- Axoniq Framework
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The application stops.
- Axon Server
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Axon Server keeps running, but refuses to store events and to dispatch commands, with the error
License is not valid!. It accepts them again as soon as it receives a valid license.
When there is no license
- Axoniq Framework
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An application that uses commercial modules and has no license gets 24 hours to obtain one. During that time the modules work normally, and the application logs an error every minute with the time left. If no license arrives within 24 hours, the application stops.
The 24 hours start when the application starts without a license, or when its sources no longer provide one. An application that loses its connection to Axoniq Platform keeps the license it has; the 24 hours do not start until that license itself has expired.
An application that is not configured to connect to Axoniq Platform, and finds no license elsewhere, requests a development permission instead. See Without a license.
- Axon Server
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Axon Server 2026.0 and later that is not configured to connect to Axoniq Platform, and has no license file, runs for 12 hours and then shuts down.
When it is configured to connect to Axoniq Platform but has not received a license yet, it keeps running and logs a warning every hour until the license arrives.