OS AI Agent runs out of the box with no license key on a free tier. A paid license lifts the provider cap, enables your whole team, and covers commercial use. Licensing is enforced offline: the app never phones home.

Beta. OS AI Agent is in beta, and the license comes with the app: when we send the package we send a key for the beta with it, so a beta installation is not held to the free-tier limits while that key is valid. The tiers below are what the app enforces - the free tier is what remains if the key is removed or expires, and the paid tier is what a key grants, up to the counts written into it.

Free tier

With no license key configured, the app provides:

One configured provider.
One user - the seat.
One installation, for non-commercial use per the license agreement.

The seat is claimed by the first person a run is submitted for - a message in Chat, a | osai search, or the run-as user of an alert investigation; opening the app does not take it - and an administrator can set or change it on the License tab. The free tier never expires.

Paid

A paid license unlocks:

Multiple providers, up to the count in your license.
Every user holding use_os_ai_agent.
Commercial use.

What happens at the limits

Enforcement is designed to be predictable and never to lose your configuration:

Adding a second provider on the free tier is refused with a clear message, and the Add provider button says why. The provider you already have keeps working.
A second user on the free tier is turned away when they send a message; the refusal is recorded in the activity trail, and the License tab shows who holds the seat.
An expired paid license keeps working through a 14-day grace period, with a warning. After grace, the app enforces the free tier again - one provider, one user - until you renew. Nothing is deleted.
An invalid or mistyped key counts as no key: the app warns and runs as the free tier until you replace it.
Falling back to the free tier with several providers still configured - after the grace period, a removed key, or a mistyped one - does not pick one provider to keep serving. While more providers are configured than the tier allows, Chat and | osai are refused for everyone with a message that names both numbers. Renew the license, or remove providers on the Setup page until the count fits. Nothing is deleted for you.

Enter a license key

Open the Setup page and go to License. Press Add license, paste the key, and save. Line breaks and spaces an email client wrapped into the key are dropped on save. The tab then shows the current status: the license id, the number of providers and installations it allows, and the expiration date. Entering, replacing or removing the key, and setting the free tier’s seat, takes a full Splunk administrator (admin_all_objects; sc_admin on Splunk Cloud): the app’s own administrator role sees the License tab read-only. A key you enter or remove takes effect at once; a key that expires is noticed within 30 seconds.

To clear a license and return to the free tier, press Remove license. The key is stored in os_ai_agent.conf, is readable only by full Splunk administrators, and is never displayed again after saving. In a search head cluster it replicates to every member; the cluster counts as one installation.

Evaluate

During the beta the license comes with the app: contact sales@outcoldsolutions.com for the package and the key, and paste the key into the License tab as above. Once the app leaves beta, an evaluation license is requested the same way.