---
id: claim-free-licence
title: Claim a Free licence
sidebar_label: Claim a Free licence
---

A self-hosted install runs unlicensed until you give it a licence. Free is a
real tier in both deployments, and you can claim one for your install from the
HQ portal.

## What a licence is

A signed file. It carries the instance UUID it belongs to, the tier, the server
allowance, feature toggles and an expiry. The control plane verifies the
signature locally — checking a licence never contacts HQ, and a running instance
does not need HQ to be reachable.

Signing happens in exactly one place, in HQ. The control plane can only verify.

## 1. Find your instance UUID

In the control plane, go to **Settings → Licence**. The instance UUID is shown
there. It is the identity your licence binds to.

## 2. Link the install to your HQ account

1. Sign in at [Vantage HQ](https://vantage-hq.hostxtra.co.uk). If you have no
   account, see [Accounts and signup](../hq/accounts-and-signup.md).
2. Choose **Link an instance**.
3. Paste the instance UUID and give it a name you will recognise.

Linking claims the UUID for your account. A UUID already linked elsewhere is
refused with a conflict rather than silently moved.

## 3. Claim Free

With the instance linked, choose **Claim Free** on it. HQ issues a Free licence
bound to that UUID and hands it back.

:::info One Free per account, per deployment
The limit is enforced per account **and** deployment, so a Free cloud instance
does not stop you claiming Free on a self-hosted install. Both the friendly
pre-check and the issuer apply the same rule — deliberately, because a
pre-check stricter than the issuer would refuse something that would actually
have worked.
:::

## 4. Install the licence

Download the licence from HQ and paste it in the control plane at
**Settings → Licence**.

The instance validates the signature, checks the UUID matches its own, and
starts reporting the tier, allowance and expiry.

:::warning Cloud instances cannot paste a licence
On a cloud instance `POST /license` answers `409 cloud_managed`, and the UI
hides the form entirely. A cloud licence is written directly by HQ. This is not
a restriction the injection path has to work around — it writes to the database,
not through the endpoint.
:::

## Renewing

Free licences are renewable from HQ within a renewal window near expiry;
outside that window the renew call refuses. See [Free tier](../hq/free-tier.md).

Pasting a licence keeps working while the current one is expired — that endpoint
is exempt from the licence check, because it is the way out of degraded mode.

## Moving the install to new hardware

Rebuilding produces a new instance UUID, and a licence binds to a UUID. Use
**Relink** in HQ to move the licence across. The number of relinks per term is
capped; the portal shows how many you have left.

## Next

- [Licensing and entitlements](../hq/licensing-and-entitlements.md)
- [Buying a paid self-hosted licence](../hq/self-hosted-instances.md)