Licensing

In this document, we covered the fundamentals of our licensing model—including how to activate your license based on its type, check license's details and share them with your team members.

Here, you can learn how to:

• Activate your licenses Named | Computer | Floating | In Bulk

• Add and activate servers Lumina | Teams | License server

• Check license details or modify them

• Download your license files

• Invite team members

Licenses overview

License types

In Hex-Rays, we offer two basic license types for IDA products, that are suitable for individual users:

• Named licenses, that are assigned to specific individuals.

• Computer licenses that are assigned to specific devices.

There is also an additional type, called floating licenses, that allow a set number of concurrent users but are not assigned to specific individuals or devices.

How many licenses should I have?

Beside the license for IDA product, you need also a separate active license for each server available in your subscription.

The components of your subscription that require their own license:

• Base IDA license (e.g., IDA PRO Expert 4)

• Teams server for Teams add-on

• Lumina server for Lumina add-on

• License server for floating licenses

Example: You've purchased IDA PRO Expert 4 Plan with Teams and Private Lumina, along with floating type of license with 6 seats. In this case, you’ll need to activate the following four licenses:

1. License server license

2. Private Lumina server license

3. Teams server license

4. IDA PRO Expert 4 license

What's a license file?

The .hexlic license file contains your license ID and other data, and is required to make your IDA instance fully operative after installation (or your Lumina, Teams or License server). You can download your license files from My Hex-Rays portal, after their activation.

License activation

To complete the installation, you need an active IDA license with an assigned owner (for a named license) or a MAC address (for a computer/floating license). Without activation, you cannot download your license file.

What is needed to activate my license?

• for named licenses: the email address of the owner,

• for computer licenses: the MAC address of a specific device

• for floating licenses: the MAC address of the device where the license server will be running

Where can I activate my license?

From the License tab in My Hex-Rays portal, you can initiate the activation process and open the License activation dialog from several locations:

• Under the Actions column, click the three dots and then Activate License from the dropdown menu (1),

• Click on the desired license to open its detail view, then click Activate License (2), or

• Select multiple licenses of the same type by ticking their checkboxes, then click Bulk Activation (3).

Named licenses activation

1. Go to My Hex-Rays portal and navigate to the Licenses tab.

2. Locate the license ID you want to activate. Ensure it has the Pending activation status.

1. Open the License activation dialog, select decompilers and click Next.

2. Assign the ownership of the license: set the email address for this IDA instance user (it can be yours) and click Activate license.

Your license is now active.

You can check the license details and modify it if needed. If all details are correct, you can download your license key.

Computer licenses activation

1. Go to My Hex-Rays portal and navigate to the Licenses tab.

2. Locate the license ID you want to activate. Ensure it has the Pending activation status.

1. Open the License activation dialog, select decompilers and click Next.

2. Add the MAC address of the machine where this IDA instance will be installed and running (it can be yours) and click Activate license.

Your license is now active.

You can check the license details and modify it if needed. If all details are correct, you can download your license key.

Download the license files

If you are sure that all of the license details are correct, you can go ahead and download your license hexlic file. You will need it to complete the installation process.

1. Go to the License tab in My Hex-Rays portal.

2. Under the Actions column, click the three dots and then Download hexlic from the dropdown menu (1), or, alternatively, in the license detail view, click Download hexlic.

1. To download multiple license files at once, select the desired licenses by ticking their checkboxes, or click Select all. Then, click Download License Files (2). You’ll receive an email with a link to download all license files and a CSV.

What's next?

Now you are ready to install your IDA instance.

Floating licenses activation

To use floating licenses, you need to activate:

• A license for your license server

• A base IDA Pro license linked to that server Both licenses can be activated and linked in a single step, as described below.

1. Navigate to the Licenses tab and look for your IDA license with Floating label. Ensure it has the Pending activation status.

2. Open the License activation dialog, select decompilers and click Next.

3. Assign a license server. If you added the license server before, select the Use existing server option and then tick the server from the list. If you haven't done it yet, you can add and activate a license server now—select Add new server option, type the MAC address and click Add.

1. Add tags if needed, and click Activate license to finalize.

2. Your license(s) is now active.

You can check the license details and modify it if needed.

If all details are correct, you can download your license key and license files for the license server.

Bulk activation

If you have multiple licenses of the same type (for example, ten IDA PRO Expert 2 licenses), you can activate them all in a single batch operation. All licenses activated in bulk will share the same configuration details, decompilers set, and add-ons, while allowing for unique owner email addresses and MAC addresses.

1. Go to My Hex-Rays portal and navigate to the Licenses tab.

2. Locate the licenses you want to activate with the Pending activation status. Select all of them by ticking the checkboxes on their left side.

3. In the top menu that appears after selection, click Bulk Activation.

1. In the new dialog, select decompilers (this action is done for all licenses in a batch) and click Next.

2. Depending on your licenses type, assign the license user's emails or set the MAC addresses. Optionally, you can add tags.

3. Click Activate Licenses.

You've noticed a mistake? No worries, you can still edit your selected licenses before downloading them.

Bulk download the license files

1. In the Licenses tab, select the licenses for bulk download and click Download License Files.

2. After confirmation, you'll get an email with link to download all license files + CSV.

License details

The License Details card provides a complete overview of the license, including assigned decompilers and users it has been shared with. You can edit access permissions and tags at any time, even for active and already downloaded licenses. To open the License Details view, in the License tab in My Hex-Rays portal, click on the desired license.

License editing

When you activate your license using one of the methods shown above, you can still make changes—such as modifying the decompiler set—as long as you have not downloaded the license file(s). Once the license file(s) are downloaded, further modifications will no longer be possible.

To edit the license:

1. Go to My Hex-Rays portal and navigate to the Licenses tab.

2. Locate the licenses you want to edit with the Active status. Under the Actions column, click the three dots and then Edit from the dropdown menu, or alternatively, in the license detail view, click Edit. If the Edit option is not visible, it means the license has already been downloaded and can no longer be edited.

1. Make changes and click on Next/Activate license to confirm.

Server licenses

If your subscription includes a server (for Private Lumina, Teams or floating licenses), you'll need to activate the corresponding server licenses to download the license files. To do so, make sure to add the relevant servers to your account.

Add servers

1. In My Hex-Rays portal, go to the Licenses tab and click on +Add server.

1. Select the type of server(s) you want to add and click Next. You may add multiple servers at one go.

1. Assign MAC addresses and click Create servers to finalize.

2. After that, your servers will appear in the Licenses list with an Active status, allowing you to download the server certificates and hexlic files.

1. If you are using floating licenses, you can now go ahead and activate your IDA licenses that uses the server.

Downloading the server license files

Once all IDA PRO licenses intended for use with your floating license server have been activated, you can proceed to download the server’s hexlic file and license certificate. Maintaining this order is crucial—the hexlic file contains essential details about the linked licenses, which are properly embedded only when the IDA license is associated with the specific floating license server.

License server installation for admins

Server installation for floating licenses should be done by the administrator. Check our Admin Guide for details.

How can I start using IDA as a floating license user?

Once your administrator installs a license server, adds particular license seats to the pool, and hands over the credentials, you are ready to install your IDA instance.

You don't need to download a license file/key to your local machine while using the floating licenses server. New to the floating licenses? Check our Floating Licenses User Guide.

Floating licenses check-out

Every time you launch IDA, you'll see the License Manager pop-up window. As long as there are free seats, you can check-out one of the available licenses and start using IDA.

Add-ons servers' licenses

Private Lumina server activation for admins

Each of our add-ons, Teams and Private Lumina, requires an active license to work properly. To proceed with Lumina installation and setup, an active server's license is required.

1. Add server in your account (activate the license).

2. Locate your server license on the Licenses tab and download the following files:

• lumina server certificate

• .hexlic file (license key)

You'll need both files to continue with the server installation and setup.

Private Lumina server installation for admins

Server installation for Private Lumina should be done by the administrator. Check our Admin Guide for details.

Teams server activation for admins

Each of our add-ons, Teams and Private Lumina, requires an active license to work properly. To proceed with Teams installation and setup, an active server's license is required.

1. Add server in your account (activate the license).

2. Locate your server license on the Licenses tab and download the following files:

• teams server certificate

• .hexlic file (license key)

You'll need both files to continue with the server installation and setup.

Teams server installation for admins

Server installation for Teams should be done by the administrator. Check our Admin Guide for details.

Grant access to manage licenses

You can invite your teammates to view and activate licenses via their own My Hex-Rays account. To grant access:

1. Select license(s) you want to share and click Grant Access (1).

2. Add the email address of your teammate and click Confirm (2).

3. Your team member will receive an email invitation to log in to the portal and access the shared licenses.

The License Details view allows you to review who currently has access to the license, remove users, or grant access to new ones.

Key points:

• Once a license has been downloaded, it cannot be modified.

• Multiple licenses of the same type can be activated in bulk.

• You can grant the access to manage licenses to other teammates, while the ownership of the license remains the same.