The rule in one line: serving your own computer is free; serving a network needs a paid licence and an API key. The server enforces this itself, in every deployment.
Which licence
| You want to… | You need |
|---|---|
| Use AI Suite apps with a server on the same computer | Nothing — Free |
| Serve other devices for personal, household, hobby or educational use | Pro Personal for the server |
| Serve a business, customers or an organisation | Pro Commercial, one per server (worker) |
| Put several servers behind one endpoint (AI Gateway) | Pro Commercial for each worker; the gateway itself needs no extra licence |
| Run AI Suite apps on other PCs against the server | Each app's own Pro tier on that PC |
| Call the server from your own code on another PC | Nothing on that PC — an API key from the server |
Prices and team packs are on editions and pricing.
Activate the Windows app
Subscribe in the app (Settings → Subscription, billed by Microsoft Store), or buy a licence key from the Software Tailor Store and enter it on the same page. The app licenses its own server; there is nothing else to do. A key bought from Software Tailor is linked to your email, so it can be resent and moved to a new PC.
Activate a container or a headless server
Give the server the key in one of three ways (the first that is set wins):
| Way | Use |
|---|---|
--license-key <key> | Quick tests. Visible in the process list. |
AISUITE_LICENSE_KEY=<key> | Development only. Visible in docker inspect and kubectl describe. |
AISUITE_LICENSE_KEY_FILE=/path | Production. A Docker secret or a Kubernetes Secret mounted as a file. |
kubectl -n aisuite create secret generic aisuite-license --from-literal=key=<licence-key>Set AISUITE_NODE_NAME to give each node a readable name in the licence fleet view. The log shows one licence line at start-up — activated, active from the cached lease, or the reason it failed. The key itself is never logged.
What activation sends
Activation and the weekly renewal go to registration.softwaretailor.com over HTTPS and send:
- the licence key;
- an installation id and a machine id (random identifiers created on the server);
- the node name you set, or the host name;
- the operating system family, and whether the node is an AI Gateway.
Never prompts, files, model outputs, usage records or API keys. Override the address with AISUITE_REGISTRATION_URL only if support asks you to.
The lease
Activation returns a signed lease. The server checks its signature against a public key built into the product before trusting it, so a modified licence server cannot grant a plan — it can only pass on leases we signed. The lease is cached in the data folder:
- A lease lasts 7 days and is renewed about every two days in the background.
- If renewal fails because our service cannot be reached, the server keeps serving for 7 more days: up to 7 + 7 days without a connection.
- A restarted container with its volume keeps serving on the cached lease without a network call.
- A key that is invalid, revoked or expired stops the server (exit code 4): you meant to serve, and quietly serving less would look like a broken install.
- If the plan changes while running — a renewal or upgrade — the server logs it and restarts on the new plan (exit code 5). Services and orchestrators restart it automatically.
Inference, API keys, governance and the dashboard never depend on the licence service.
How seats are counted
- A seat is a running worker. Restarts, rescheduled pods and container replacements reuse it; a stopped server hands its seat back.
- AI Gateway nodes use no seat. Up to five gateway nodes per key are allowed for high availability and rolling updates.
- Keys bought in the Software Tailor Store carry the number of seats you paid for. Activating more workers than that is refused with
seat-limit-reached; stop a node or add seats. - One key covers all of a customer's nodes — Windows, Docker, Kubernetes and the Azure and AWS marketplace deployments.
Without internet access
Servers that cannot reach the licence service at all are not supported today beyond the 7 + 7-day window. If your network blocks outbound access, allow HTTPS to registration.softwaretailor.com. Talk to us about other arrangements.
Questions
Our licence service is down — does our farm stop? +
No. Nodes with a valid cached lease keep serving and retry in the background, for up to 7 + 7 days.
Does the gateway need its own licence? +
It needs the same Commercial key so it can verify it, but it does not use a seat. Only workers count.
Can I move a licence to a new server? +
Yes. Stop the old server (it hands its seat back) and start the new one with the same key. A Microsoft Store subscription follows your Microsoft account.
Is the Microsoft Store subscription valid for Docker? +
No. A Store subscription licenses the Windows app. For containers and Kubernetes, buy a licence key from the Software Tailor Store; that key also works in the Windows app.