Preview & License Lifecycle
GraphnAI ships with a self-serve Public Preview, a 30-day trial that starts at your first directory sync. This guide covers the license lifecycle, what happens at expiry, and how to apply or renew a license.
Related: Licensing & Plans, License Management & Feature Gating, Usage Reporting
Tiers
| Tier | Description |
|---|---|
| Preview | Self-serve 30-day trial with an activation window |
| Design Partner | A guided engagement with GraphnAI. No activation window. It expires only at the license date. |
| Enterprise | Paid license. No activation window. |
| Community | Free plan. No activation window. It may set an identity cap and a directory source limit. |
The lifecycle
Issued ──deploy + first sync──▶ Active ──effective expiry──▶ Read-only ──apply license──▶ Active
(idle) (clock running) (data intact) (resumed)- Issued to Active. A preview license sits idle until the platform finishes its first successful sync. That sync starts the trial clock, so time spent deploying never counts against your evaluation.
- Active. The whole product works. As expiry nears, a banner counts down: yellow from 7 days left, red from 3.
- Effective expiry. A preview expires on the earlier of two dates. One is the end of its activation window, 30 days after the first sync. The other is the license's own end date.
- Read-only. At expiry the platform turns read-only. It never shuts off, so you can still show your leadership the graph, dashboards and findings.
Other tiers count down too: yellow from 30 days left, red from 7.
What read-only means
Read-only limits what you can do. It doesn't change your data: nothing is deleted, hidden or covered up.
Still works:
- Signing in and out, and browsing the whole graph, the dashboards, findings and inventory.
- Users and identity-provider settings, so you can add colleagues to view the posture and keep sign-in working.
- Applying a new license. The upgrade path is always open.
- Undoing an action you already ran, and the automation kill switch, so you can unwind a change or stop automation during an incident.
- Support access, diagnostics and the support bundle, so renewal problems can be troubleshot.
Paused until you renew:
- Collection: bridge syncs, scheduled Entra ID syncs and telemetry ingestion stop. An expired install doesn't keep using your resources or growing its storage.
- Changes: Select Fire™ actions, simulations, and edits to rules and settings.
With collection paused, the banner shows a Posture as of {date} chip with the data's age in days. After a week, it adds "Accounts, permissions, and attack paths created since {date} are invisible." The longer you wait, the older your data gets. Apply a license and sync again to catch up.
The banner offers Apply license to an Admin. Everyone else sees "Contact your administrator to restore full access."
Controls you can't use stay visible but disabled. Their tooltip reads "Read-only until a valid license is applied. An administrator can apply one on the License page."
Installs with no license
A new install with no license applied is read-only from the start. The banner reads "No license applied. Import your license file to start collection." An Admin selects Import license to open Admin > License. Source reads "No license applied" until you upload a file.
Applying or renewing a license
An Admin can apply a license from Admin > License, with no restart and no support ticket, even while the platform is read-only.
- Open Admin > License.
- Under Apply a license, select Choose your license file, or drag the file onto the box.
- Select Apply.
The banner clears and locked controls unlock at once. Collection resumes at the next sync.
A new license can give you less: it removes a feature, expires sooner, or lowers your identity limit. Then the Apply a smaller license? dialog lists exactly what changes. Select Apply anyway to continue, or Cancel to keep your current license.
The applied license survives restarts.
License status
Admin > License shows your tier, activation date, expiry date and days left. It also shows identity and directory source usage, where the license came from, and which features it includes. For a preview, Days left is a meter of the days left in the 30-day window. Every signed-in user can read the license status, so the banner shows the right state on every page.
FAQ
Does the trial clock start when you download the bundle? No. It starts at your first successful sync, so deployment time doesn't count against you.
Does your data disappear when the preview ends? No. Everything stays intact and read-only. When you apply a license, collection resumes where it left off.
Do you need to restart after applying a license? No. It takes effect at once.
Does a new preview for the same tenant get a fresh 30 days? No. A preview reissued for the same tenant keeps the original activation date. Ask about a Design Partner or Enterprise license to extend your evaluation.