Skip to main content
A Databunker Pro license controls two things: how many records the vault can hold and when the license expires. It does not gate features. Every capability — fuzzy search, format-preserving tokenization, multi-tenancy, file vault, record versioning, Shamir key shares — is available in every mode, including Trial.

​
What counts as a record

One user profile is one record, and everything attached to that profile is included in it:
  • Consents and legal basis
  • Application data
  • Sessions
  • The complete version history
Enabling record versioning does not multiply your record count. A value tokenized through the format-preserving tokenization API — a credit card, for example — also counts as one record. But a card stored inside a user profile is not metered separately: profile plus card is a single record. User profiles and format-preserving tokens draw on one shared pool. In practice, your record count is your user count.

​
How many licenses you need

A license is scoped to one deployment — that is, one database. The key is stored in the vault’s own database, so every Databunker Pro instance pointed at that database shares one license.
The sizing guide recommends running several stateless instances against a single database for large vaults. That is covered by a single license — you are not licensed per container.

​
Non-production environments

Development, QA, and staging deployments do not have to share your production license. Request a separate key for each in the Databunker Portal — no sales call needed. Each is issued with a three-month term, and you can request a new one from the portal when it needs renewing. This keeps test data out of your production record count, and means staging never has to point at the production vault.
A non-production key expires like any other. When it does, that environment degrades to read-only and writes return License expired — which will surface as failing integration tests or a broken staging sign-in rather than an obvious licensing error. Track the expiry date and renew before it lapses.

​
Modes and caps

Leaving the license key empty at setup runs Databunker Pro in Trial mode: up to 1,000 records, valid for 14 days from the moment the vault is initialised.
Trial mode expires 14 days after setup. When it does, the vault degrades to read-only and write calls return License expired. For anything longer than a two-week evaluation, get a trial key instead.
Apply or replace a key on a running instance at any time — see Update the license key. No restart is required.

​
When the record cap is reached

Four API calls create new records and are refused with 403 Record limit reached:
  • UserCreate and UserCreateBulk
  • TokenCreate and TokenCreateBulk
Everything else keeps working. Reading, updating, patching, and deleting records are unaffected, so an application at its cap continues to serve users normally — it just cannot add new ones.
The limit is checked once before a write begins, not per record. A bulk request that starts below the cap completes in full and can finish slightly above it. Treat the cap as the point at which new records stop being accepted, rather than an exact ceiling.

​
When the license expires

There is no grace period. Once the expiry date passes, the vault degrades to read-only: calls that store or modify data return 403 License expired, while reads, exports, and deletions keep working. This is deliberate. Your data is never held hostage by a lapsed license — you can always retrieve every record, and you can still honour erasure requests. Calls refused while expired Reads, searches, reports, audit access, bulk export, and all delete operations — including right-to-be-forgotten erasure — continue to work.
If your application uses Databunker Pro for session storage, note that SessionUpsert is on the refused list: an expired license stops new sessions from being written, which prevents users from signing in. Treat license renewal as a production dependency, not a billing formality.

​
Checking your usage

SystemGetSystemStats reports current usage against your license, so you can alert on it before hitting the cap:
The response includes three license fields:
Alert on totalnumrecords / licensemaxrecords crossing 80%, and on licensefinalexpiration coming within 30 days. Both failures are silent until a write is refused.

​
Next steps