Grace, expiry and limits

A key's dates

A key holds until the end of the period paid for: System → License shows it as Paid until, and the status as Active. A paid key then keeps its plan for 30 more days, its grace: Grace period. After that the installation is on Bee: Expired.

A trial has no grace: at the end of its 14 days it is Expired at once.

A renewed key, pasted or fetched at any time, puts its new dates in force. The grace covers a renewal that is late: Paddle's tries at a payment that failed, or a key emailed that is not pasted yet. A canceled subscription's last key runs out the same way.

On Bee, nothing stops

When a key runs out, nothing that runs is stopped, scaled down or deleted:

• apps and functions keep running, and can still be deployed and changed;
• users keep signing in, including with Google, Microsoft or OpenID Connect providers set up before;
• nodes stay in the swarm;
• previews stay, and are deployed again on new commits.

What changes is that nothing more of a kind can be added past Bee's limits. An installation with 35 apps keeps all 35, and can create another once there are fewer than 20. See What counts.

Bee comes the same way when the key installed is for another installation, cannot be verified, or was moved and its grace is over; and a lower plan's limits come the same way after a downgrade.

The clock

A key's dates are read against the installation's clock. A clock set back more than a day before the latest time HivePaaS has seen is not believed: that latest time is used instead. Setting a clock right by minutes changes nothing.

Banners

Whoever may read the System module sees a banner at the top of the dashboard when the license needs attention:

Banner	When	Hidden for
Hive trial: 3 days left.	during a trial	24 hours
The Comb license ran out on Oct 3, 2026: 13 days of grace left.	in the grace period	24 hours
The license has expired: this installation is on Bee.	expired	7 days
This license key now belongs to another installation.	moved, and still holding	24 hours
This license key now belongs to another installation: this installation is on Bee.	moved, and its grace over	7 days
The stored license key is for another installation: this installation is on Bee.	the key names another installation	7 days
The stored license key cannot be verified: this installation is on Bee.	the key cannot be verified	7 days
7 of 5 nodes: no node can be added.	more of a kind than the plan allows	7 days

Closing a banner hides it, in that browser, for the time in the table. A new situation shows again at once: another key, another date, another limit gone over. System → License says what the status banners say, so they do not show there.

There is no banner for a key that is about to run out: the renewed key arrives by itself, or by email.

When a limit is reached

A creation past a limit is refused, and nothing is created. Make room, by removing one of that kind, or upgrade: see Where each limit is checked.

In the dashboard

A refused creation opens a dialog that names the limit, such as No more apps on Bee: what the plan allows, what counts, what makes room, and how many there are now, such as Now 20 of 20 apps on Bee. Upgrade opens the portal's pricing page for this installation, and View license opens System → License. Someone who may not read the System module is asked to go to an administrator.

Clones and previews

A clone and a preview are made by a task. The request is checked, for an answer on screen, and the task checks again when it creates the app: two requests can both pass, and the second task is then refused.

• A clone refused fails its task, whose log says why. Its notification target is told, if it has one.
• A preview refused in its task, as one a pull request comment asked for, is reported on its pull request: HivePaaS comments there, such as Bee runs 2 previews at a time: close one, or upgrade. The app's notification target for failed deployments is told the same, as Preview refused. Close another pull request, whose preview goes with it, or upgrade, then comment /hivepaas deploy again.

Nodes

At the limit, HivePaaS gives no command to join a node. A server can still join with docker swarm join and the swarm's join token, which HivePaaS cannot prevent: it then shows a banner, such as 3 of 2 nodes: no node can be added., and does nothing else.

Through the API

A refusal is answered 412, with the code ERR_PLAN_LIMIT_REACHED:

{
  "status": 412,
  "code": "ERR_PLAN_LIMIT_REACHED",
  "title": "Precondition Failed",
  "detail": "The Bee plan allows 20 apps. Remove one, or upgrade.",
  "params": { "Limit": "apps", "Max": 20, "Plan": "bee" }
}

It is the one error whose body carries params:

Param	Holds
Limit	nodes, users, apps, functions, previews or sign-in-providers
Max	the most the plan allows; 0 for a kind the plan does not include, as Bee's sign-in providers
Plan	the plan in force: bee, comb, hive, colony or apiary

The CLI prints the message with its code and exits with 6. The MCP server tells the assistant not to try again, and to tell you.