About licenses for GitHub Enterprise

If you deploy GitHub Enterprise Server in addition to using GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you can synchronize your license usage between deployments, and use a license file to unlock each GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

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If you created a trial of GitHub Enterprise Cloud on or after August 1, 2024, you use usage-based billing to pay for your licenses. With usage-based billing, you pay for the number of licenses you use each month. You do not need to buy a predefined number of licenses in advance. See, "About usage-based billing for licenses."

Important

If you currently pay for your GitHub Enterprise licenses through a volume, subscription, or prepaid agreement, you will continue to be billed in this way until your agreement expires. At renewal, you have the option to switch to the metered billing model. See "Getting started with the new billing platform."

About licensing for GitHub Enterprise

GitHub Enterprise offers two deployment options. In addition to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, you can use GitHub Enterprise Server to host development work for your enterprise in your data center or a supported cloud. For more information, see "GitHub’s plans."

GitHub uses a unique-user licensing model. With the GitHub Enterprise plan, you're entitled to use both GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server. Your GitHub Enterprise Cloud allowance includes one deployment, on either GitHub.com or GHE.com.

GitHub determines how many licensed seats you're consuming based on the number of unique users across your deployments. Each user only consumes one license, no matter how many GitHub Enterprise Server instances the user uses, or how many organizations the user is a member of on your GitHub Enterprise Cloud deployment. This model allows each person to use multiple GitHub Enterprise deployments without incurring extra costs. To understand how GitHub bills you for consumed licensed seats, see "About per-user pricing." For more about the price of GitHub Enterprise licenses, see Pricing on the GitHub website.

To ensure the same user isn't consuming more than one license for multiple enterprise deployments, you can synchronize license usage between your GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud deployments.

In order to use a GitHub Enterprise Server instance, you must upload a license file that GitHub provides when you purchase, renew, or add user licenses to GitHub Enterprise.

About synchronization of license usage for GitHub Enterprise

For a person using multiple GitHub Enterprise environments to only consume a single license, you must synchronize license usage between environments. Then, GitHub will deduplicate users based on the email addresses associated with their user accounts. GitHub deduplicates licenses for the GitHub Enterprise plan itself, and if you use GitHub Enterprise Server version 3.12 or later, for GitHub Advanced Security. For more information, see "Troubleshooting license usage for GitHub Enterprise." For more information, see "Syncing license usage between GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud."

About license files for GitHub Enterprise

When you purchase or renew GitHub Enterprise, GitHub provides a license file for your deployments of GitHub Enterprise Server. A license file has an expiration date and controls the number of people who can use your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. After you download and install GitHub Enterprise Server, you must upload the license file to unlock the application for you to use.

For more information about downloading your license file, see "Downloading your license for GitHub Enterprise."

For more information about uploading your license file, see "Uploading a new license to GitHub Enterprise Server" in the GitHub Enterprise Server documentation.

If your license expires, you won't be able to access GitHub Enterprise Server via a web browser or Git. If needed, you will be able to use command-line utilities to back up all your data. For more information, see "Configuring backups on your appliance" in the GitHub Enterprise Server documentation.

If you have any questions about renewing your license, contact GitHub's Sales team.

Further reading