# Purchasing a License

> Part of the NocoDB documentation (Self-hosting). Index of all pages: https://nocodb.com/llms.txt. Any docs page is available as Markdown by adding `.md` to its URL.

URL: https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/purchase-license
Last updated: 2026-10-03

Purchase a Business or Scale plan license for your self-hosted NocoDB instance through NocoDB Cloud.

NocoDB has self-serve licenses for self-hosted deployments. You buy **Business** and **Scale** plan licenses directly in your NocoDB Cloud account. To activate a license on your instance, you paste the license key. You do not need manual provisioning or the sales team. The NocoDB Sales team makes Enterprise plans for the requirements of your organization and provisions them.

## Prerequisites

To activate a license, your NocoDB instance must use Postgres as its database. If you use SQLite or MySQL, you cannot activate the license. Migrate to Postgres before you continue.

You need:

* A self-hosted NocoDB instance running on **Postgres**.
* A [NocoDB Cloud](https://app.nocodb.com) account to buy and manage licenses.

## Purchasing a license

### 1. Navigate to Self-Hosted Licenses

1. Log in to your [NocoDB Cloud](https://app.nocodb.com) account.
2. Click your avatar in the bottom-left corner.
3. Select **Account Settings**.

<img alt="Account Settings menu" src={__img0} placeholder="blur" />

4. In the account settings sidebar, open **Self-Hosted Licenses**. If you have no licenses yet, the page is empty:

<img alt="Self-Hosted Licenses empty state" src={__img1} placeholder="blur" />

5. Click **Buy Your First License**. The plan selection opens. If you already have licenses, click **Buy New License** in the list view.

<img alt="Self-Hosted Licenses list" src={__img2} placeholder="blur" />

### 2. Select a plan

Select your billing period and plan.

<img alt="Plan selection" src={__img3} placeholder="blur" />

* **Billing period.** Toggle between **Monthly** and **Annually**. Annual billing has a discount.
* **Business.** A self-serve plan billed per editor, from **1 seat**. It includes SSO, table- and field-level permissions, teams, external-app sync and single-provider AI. To go to checkout, click **Select Business**.
* **Scale.** A self-serve plan for growing teams, billed per editor with a **3-seat minimum**. It includes all of Business, and also unlimited workspaces, audit logs, row-level security, team hierarchy and multi-provider AI. To go to checkout, click **Select Scale**.
* **Enterprise.** Made for your organization. It includes all of Scale, and also SCIM, airgapped installation, a staging environment, priority support and invoice-based payments. To contact the NocoDB team, click **Contact Sales**.

For both self-serve plans, NocoDB bills automatically for editor (and above) seats that you add after activation. The bill uses your actual usage.

### 3. Complete payment

A Stripe embedded checkout form opens.

1. Enter your payment details.
2. Click **Subscribe**.

### 4. Copy your license key

After a successful payment, the confirmation screen shows your license key.

<img alt="Payment success" src={__img4} placeholder="blur" />

Click **Copy License Key** to copy it to your clipboard. You can also see all your licenses and get the key later in the **Self-Hosted Licenses** list.

To activate the key on your instance, follow [License Activation](/docs/self-hosting/license-activation).

## Manage billing

You can open the Stripe billing portal from two places:

* **From your instance.** When a license is active, the second card on the **Admin Panel → License** page changes to **Manage License**. Click it to open the billing portal.
* **From NocoDB Cloud.** Go to **Account → Self-Hosted Licenses → Manage Billing**.

In the billing portal, you can:

* View current subscriptions and next billing dates
* Update or add payment methods
* Update billing information
* View invoice history
* Cancel a subscription

<img alt="Manage billing, subscriptions view" src={__img5} placeholder="blur" />

<img alt="Manage billing, payment methods and invoices" src={__img6} placeholder="blur" />

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## Related pages

- [Self-Hosting](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting.md): Self-host NocoDB on your own infrastructure and keep full control of your data.
- [Environment Variables](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/environment-variables.md): Set environment variables to configure a self-hosted NocoDB instance: database, storage, authentication, cache, rate limits and more.
- [Activating a License](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/license-activation.md): Activate a self-hosted NocoDB license with the standard, airgapped or fully offline method.
- [White Label](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/white-label.md): Replace the NocoDB branding on your self-hosted instance with your own product name, logos, favicon, brand color, email branding and support contact.
- [Troubleshooting](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/troubleshooting.md): Find and fix common problems with self-hosted NocoDB: startup, network, SSL, database, attachments and login.
- [Migration Guide](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/migration-guide.md): Migrate a self-hosted NocoDB instance from a non-Postgres database to PostgreSQL so you can activate a paid license without losing data.
- [License](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/license.md): The NocoDB Sustainable Use License (SUL), its Fair-Code principles, and when you need a commercial license.
- [FAQs](https://nocodb.com/docs/self-hosting/FAQs.md): Answers to common questions about self-hosted NocoDB: what the Community Edition includes, upgrades, shifted timestamps and instance details.