---
title: "License expiration and renewal"
description: "Track Calico Enterprise license expiration through tigerastatus and license agent Prometheus metrics to keep observability and management features available."
product: "Calico Enterprise"
version: "3.23 (latest)"
section: "Operations"
canonical_url: "https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/operations/license-options"
---

# License expiration and renewal

## Big picture

Review options for tracking Calico Enterprise license expiration.

### FAQ

### How long does it take to get a new Calico Enterprise license?

After you submit a sales purchase order to Tigera, 1-2 days.

### Is there a grace period?

Yes, there is a grace period of 30 days (as of April 2022).

### Does the web console display license expiration?

Yes. The license indicator in the web console (top right banner) turns red when the license expires.

![expiration](https://docs.tigera.io/assets/images/expiration-8dbd59696e3a85c6e108f665ae473ca6.png)

### What happens when a license expires or is invalid?

Data plane traffic continues to flow without interruption — policy enforcement, Egress Gateways, cluster mesh, Ingress Gateway, and Envoy keep running as configured. Observability and management features are degraded:

| Area                                                | Behavior after expiration                                                                                                                                                      |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Calico Enterprise resources                         | Read-only. The Tigera API server rejects create and update requests; get, list, and delete on existing resources still succeed. Calico Open Source resources are not affected. |
| Flow, DNS, and audit logs                           | Stopped. Fluentd is scaled down and logs are no longer forwarded to Elasticsearch.                                                                                             |
| Prometheus metrics for Calico Enterprise components | Stopped. The Operator removes the Calico Enterprise ServiceMonitor so metrics are no longer scraped.                                                                           |
| Web console                                         | Service Graph, Kibana, Alerts, and Compliance remain visible in read-only mode; attempts to create or modify resources are not saved.                                          |

We recommend that you proactively manage your license to avoid disruption to observability and management workflows.

### Do licenses cover free upgrades in Calico Enterprise?

Yes.

### How can I check license status from the command line?

Run:

```bash
kubectl get tigerastatus
```

The Tigera Operator reports license condition in `tigerastatus`, including a warning while you are inside the 30-day grace period.

### How do I monitor my license?

- [License metrics and alerts](#license-metrics)
- Use `kubectl get tigerastatus` to view license condition reported by the Tigera Operator
- Use `kubectl` to get [license key information](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/reference/resources/licensekey.md#viewing-information-about-your-license-key)

## License metrics

Calico Enterprise provides license metrics, such as the number of days until license expiration, through the **License Agent** component and Prometheus. For details on deploying the license agent and creating expiration alerts, see [License metrics](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/operations/monitor/metrics/license-agent.md).

To route license alerts, see [Configure Alertmanager](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/operations/monitor/prometheus/alertmanager.md).

## Additional resources

- [LicenseKey resource](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/reference/resources/licensekey.md)
- [Configure Alertmanager](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/operations/monitor/prometheus/alertmanager.md)
- [Configure Prometheus](https://docs.tigera.io/calico-enterprise/latest/operations/monitor/prometheus/configure-prometheus.md)