Meraki License Renewal Guide | Cisco Meraki Licensing

A plain-language guide to Cisco Meraki licensing: how each licensing model works, what happens when a Meraki license expires, how to check your dates, and how to renew without a gap.

Every Cisco Meraki device needs an active license to stay managed from the Meraki cloud dashboard. When that license runs out, the consequences range from losing dashboard control to a network that stops passing traffic, depending on which licensing model your organization uses. Hydrasat is a Cisco Partner that quotes, sells and tracks Meraki license renewals, so this guide sums up what Meraki’s own documentation says, with links to the source pages so you can check the details yourself.

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The three Cisco Meraki licensing models

Meraki currently supports three licensing models. Each dashboard organization uses exactly one of them, so the first step in any Meraki license renewal is knowing which one you have.

Co-termination (co-term) licensing

Co-termination gives every licensed device in an organization one shared expiration date, no matter how many licenses you bought or when you bought them. Meraki calculates that date by averaging the time on all active licenses across the organization’s license limit. Add licenses mid-term and the co-term date moves to reflect the extra time. Licenses are organization-wide rather than tied to a serial number, and switch (MS) and security appliance (MX) licenses are model-specific: an MX64 license will not cover an MX64W, for example. Wireless access point (MR) licenses cover any MR model.

Subscription licensing

Subscription licensing is Meraki’s newer model and is available to all customers. Licenses are bound to networks rather than the whole organization, so different networks can sit on different subscriptions and feature tiers. Subscription SKUs are hardware-agnostic within a product family, so a hardware upgrade does not automatically mean a new license. You choose a term from 12 to 84 months with your own start and end dates, and a subscription is claimed once: later changes and renewals show up in the dashboard without claiming new keys.

Per-device licensing (PDL)

Per-device licensing assigns a license to an individual device, so devices can carry different expiration dates and be renewed one at a time. Meraki no longer accepts new conversions to PDL. It remains only for organizations that already use it.

Can you switch? A co-term organization can move to subscription licensing through its Meraki partner. Meraki states the co-term licenses must expire first. PDL organizations can move to co-term or subscription. Once an organization is on subscription licensing it cannot go back to co-term or PDL.

What happens when Meraki licenses expire

Meraki gives a 30-day grace period in both the co-termination and subscription models, but what happens after the grace period is very different:

Co-termination: once the co-term date passes, the organization enters a 30-day grace period during which clients do not notice a difference. If it is not brought back into compliance, the organization is shut down until proper licensing is applied, and Meraki states that devices will no longer pass traffic to the Internet. After a co-term organization has expired, the only way back into compliance is to buy new licensing for all active devices. The same 30-day grace period applies if you add more devices than your license limit covers.
Subscription: after a subscription’s end date, the networks bound to it get a 30-day grace period. After that, those networks move to a disabled-management state. Devices keep their last compliant configuration and continue to forward traffic, but you lose configuration, monitoring and firmware updates through the dashboard and API, and Meraki support for those devices. Only the affected networks are impacted, not every subscription in the organization.
Per-device licensing: only the devices whose licenses have expired, or that have no license, are shut down. Correctly licensed devices keep working.

Meraki also notes that its licenses include enterprise-class support, so letting licensing lapse can affect your access to Meraki support as well as to the dashboard.

How to check your Meraki license expiration date

You need full organization administrator permissions to add or change licenses. In the Meraki dashboard:

Co-termination organizations: go to Organization > Configure > License info. The page shows your licensing status, the co-term expiration date, and your license limit compared with your current device count for each model. Anything out of compliance is shown in red. The License Calculator on the same page shows how a new license would change your co-term date.
Subscription organizations: go to Organization > Subscriptions & license info, select a subscription and open View details to see its end date and the Subscription ID your partner needs for a renewal. Meraki states that subscription customers do not get email reminders. Expiration notices show in the dashboard up to 120 days before the end date.
Per-device organizations: go to Organization > Licensing & inventory and open the Devices tab to see each device’s expiration date.

Menu names can change as Meraki updates the dashboard. If you cannot find these pages, contact us and we will check them with you.

Meraki license renewal terms and how renewals work

Co-term and per-device terms: Meraki sells 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10-year licenses. Some models are not offered in every term. Meraki notes, for example, that MS130 Advanced is not available in 7 or 10-year terms. Licenses are not prorated. Time added mid-term is spread across the organization’s co-term date instead.
Renewing a co-term organization: Meraki recommends buying a single license key that covers every device currently in the organization for the number of years you want, then applying it in the dashboard with the Renew option. A renewal replaces your previous license limit with the devices on the renewal key, so a key that covers fewer devices can leave you out of compliance. Mistakes can be undone with the undo license claim tool, but only within 7 days.
Subscription terms: from 12 to 84 months, with a 36-month minimum on some newer products such as Cisco 9000 Smart Switches.
Renewing a subscription: renewals go through your partner. Automatic renewal can be turned on until 30 days before expiration and extends the subscription by one year with the same SKUs and terms. Manual renewal can be set up from 120 days before expiration and lets you change SKUs, feature tiers and payment terms, with a renewal term of 12 to 120 months. Either way, the Subscription ID stays the same and nothing needs to be claimed. Meraki’s subscription renewal documentation describes two separate time frames after a subscription expires. First, there is a 30-day grace period, during which the network keeps working as normal. Second, there is a 90-day window to manually renew (pay for) the same subscription and get it reinstated. If the renewal does not happen within that window, a new subscription is needed to bring the deployment back into compliance. These time frames are documented for subscription licensing only. For co-termination organizations, Meraki documents the 30-day grace period but no separate renewal window: once the co-term date has passed, compliance is restored by buying new licensing for all active devices.
Per-device renewals: devices, networks or device families can be renewed independently, at the same time or on different schedules.

How Hydrasat helps with Cisco Meraki licensing

Hydrasat is a Cisco Partner and a Fortinet Partner, headquartered in Covington, LA. We help organizations of every size keep Meraki licensing current, and we do it with our own engineers rather than a call center.

Renewal quotes that match your dashboard. Send us your License info page details or your Subscription ID and we will quote a renewal that covers the devices you actually run, so a renewal does not leave you over your license limit.
Co-term or subscription advice. We will walk you through whether to renew under co-termination or move to subscription licensing at your next renewal, and what the switch means for your organization.
Licensing tracked for you. With Managed Meraki Access, we track Meraki licensing alongside your hardware so renewals and co-termination dates do not slip.
More than Meraki. We also sell mainline Cisco licensing, including Cisco Catalyst, Cisco Secure Firewall, Cisco Umbrella and Duo, so one partner can handle renewals across your Cisco estate.
Hardware when you need it. If a renewal is a good moment to refresh hardware, browse the catalog or see our hardware sales service.

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Frequently asked questions about Meraki license renewal

Do I need a license for every Cisco Meraki device?

Yes. Meraki’s licensing FAQ states that every Meraki hardware component requires a cloud license to be managed. Devices that sit in your organization inventory without being added to a network do not need one. One exception worth knowing: an MX security appliance pair in a warm spare (high availability) setup needs only one license, while MS switches in warm spare need two.

Does waiting to apply a renewal key save me time on my Meraki license?

No. Under co-termination, Meraki documents that license time starts counting from the date the license was processed, not the date you add it in the dashboard, so holding a key gives you no extra time. Apply renewals as soon as you receive them.

What renewal terms are available for a Meraki license?

For co-termination and per-device licensing, Meraki sells 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10-year licenses (a few products, such as MS130 Advanced, are not offered in every term). Subscription licensing lets you choose a term from 12 to 84 months, with a 36-month minimum on some newer products, and a manual subscription renewal can be set from 12 to 120 months.

Can I mix co-termination and subscription licensing in one organization?

No. Meraki licenses each dashboard organization under one model. A co-termination organization can move to subscription licensing through your partner, but Meraki’s documentation says the co-term licenses must expire first, and a subscription organization cannot switch back.

Will my network go down the day my Meraki licenses expire?

Not on day one. Meraki documents a 30-day grace period after expiry, during which the network keeps working. What happens after that depends on the model. A co-termination organization is shut down until new licensing is applied. Subscription networks keep passing traffic but lose dashboard management, monitoring, firmware updates and support. For subscriptions there is also a separate 90-day window to manually renew and reinstate the same subscription. After that, a new subscription is needed.

Can Hydrasat renew licenses we originally bought somewhere else?

Yes. We can take over licenses you bought elsewhere and handle future renewals. Send us your Subscription ID or license details, and if Cisco needs an authorization form to move your account to Hydrasat, we’ll prepare it for your signature.

Sources

This guide summarizes Cisco Meraki documentation as of November 2026. Meraki licensing terms change, so check the current documentation or ask us before you buy:

Hydrasat is an independent Cisco Partner. This page is not published or endorsed by Cisco.

Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst, Cisco Secure Firewall, Cisco Umbrella and Duo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. Fortinet and FortiGate are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fortinet, Inc.

Cisco Meraki License Renewal Guide