---
title: "Licensing & tiers"
description: "Trial, Free, and Paid tiers, what each unlocks, how to upgrade, deactivating a seat, and what happens during a license-server outage."
slug: guides/licensing-and-tiers
section: guides
canonical_url: https://cerevisor.com/docs/guides/licensing-and-tiers
last_verified: 2026-05-18
last_verified_version: "1.2.0"
updated_at: 2026-05-18T15:08:18.053416+00:00
---

Cerevisor uses a freemium model. Three tiers exist:

| Tier | How you get it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| **Trial** | Automatic on first install. Lasts 7 days. | Free. |
| **Free** | Trial expires without upgrade. | Free, with feature caps. |
| **Paid** | Buy a license at cerevisor.com. | Subscription via Lemon Squeezy. |

## Trial tier

When you install Cerevisor for the first time, you get **7 days of full-feature access**. The Trial Countdown Badge in the title bar shows days remaining.

Trial includes everything Paid includes, no caps, no nags. The intent is to give you a real shot at testing the product before you decide.

## Free tier

When the trial expires (and you haven't upgraded), Cerevisor drops to Free. Free is genuinely usable; most of the product works, but a few features and capacity limits kick in:

| Capability | Free cap |
|---|---|
| Workflows in a workspace | 2 |
| Workspaces (.cerevisor-world files) | 2 |
| MCP servers | Gated |
| Loop & Enhance | Gated |
| Scheduled runs | Gated |
| Cursor cloud runs | Gated |
| Per-agent provider overrides | Gated |
| Web search (Tavily/Perplexity/Linkup) | Gated |
| Chat builder | Gated |
| Skill Workshop editing | Gated (browsing OK) |

For each gated surface, you'll see an **Upgrade Card** in place of the feature, describing what it does and a "Start subscription" CTA.

The 2-workflow / 2-workspace caps don't delete what you've already built; existing data stays accessible. The caps prevent *creating* a 3rd one.

## Paid tier

Everything is unlocked. The Subscription tab in Settings shows:

- Your license key (masked, with copy button).
- Email associated with the license.
- Active device count.
- Activated-on date.
- **Deactivate this device**: frees your seat (useful when migrating to a new machine).
- **Re-validate**: forces a fresh check with Lemon Squeezy.

A license covers a fixed number of active devices (typically 2). Hit the cap → deactivate an old device → activate the new one.

## Grace tier (transient)

If Cerevisor can't reach the Lemon Squeezy license server (DNS, timeout, no internet, server down), you stay on your current tier in **Grace mode** for up to 14 days. The UI shows a small "License check pending" badge.

This is a hard architectural rule: a license-server outage cannot strand paying users on a broken tier. Only an **explicit `valid: false` response** from the server flips you to Free.

After 14 days of failed checks, the tier downgrades. Until then, you stay on Paid (or Trial, whichever you were on).

## Upgrading

Two paths:

1. **Settings → Subscription → Upgrade to Paid.** Opens cerevisor.com/pricing in your browser.
2. Any Upgrade Card on a gated feature. Same destination.

Buy a license. You'll receive an email with the license key. In Cerevisor:

**Settings → Subscription → Activate license** → paste the key. Cerevisor calls Lemon Squeezy to bind the key to this device.

## Deactivating a seat

To free a seat (e.g. you're getting rid of an old laptop):

**Settings → Subscription → Deactivate this device.**

Cerevisor calls Lemon Squeezy to release the seat. The device drops to Free immediately. The license still works for any other devices you've activated.

If you forgot to deactivate before wiping a machine, contact Cerevisor support; they can manually free the seat.

## What about updates?

**Updates always download, regardless of your license tier.** Trial, Free, Paid, and Grace users all get the same update stream. The auto-update path explicitly never checks license state. Paying customers cannot be stranded on a broken build by a license outage.

## Privacy

Lemon Squeezy gets the license key and the device-id Cerevisor generates. That's it. Cerevisor's own license-manager doesn't send your workflows, your memory, your usage, or anything else to Lemon Squeezy.

The device-id is generated locally and stored in your OS keychain. It's not your machine's serial number, not your MAC address, not anything you've shared with anyone else. It exists solely to bind a license to this machine.

## Two different keychain entries

For total clarity: Cerevisor uses your OS keychain for two unrelated identifiers:

1. **License device-id**: for Lemon Squeezy. Bind a license to a machine.
2. **Marketplace keypair**: for the future user-data marketplace (Phase 3, not active in v1).

These are stored under **different** keychain entry names and have **different** lifecycles. They are never conflated.

## When the trial ends

The first time you open Cerevisor after your trial expires, you see a notification: "Trial expired. You're on Free tier." Nothing destructive happens: your data stays where it is. You just see the Free caps and the Upgrade CTAs going forward.

You can continue using Cerevisor on Free indefinitely if Free covers your needs.