Canvas Docs

What Happens When A License Expires

The first thing to know about a Canvas license expiring is what does not happen: your live site does not change. Every page keeps rendering exactly as it did, premium blocks included, because a site you built is yours to keep serving. What expiry pauses is the ongoing relationship, updates, support and further premium editing, until you renew. This page walks through each effect, and the difference between expired and never licensed, which are two different states.

What Keeps Working

The front end, in full. Visitors see no difference on the day the license lapses or after it: premium blocks render, demos you imported keep working, and nothing on the site depends on the license being current to display. You also keep editing everything non premium, and your content is never touched.

What Pauses

Three things stop until renewal, and each has a reason:

  • Updates. New Canvas releases still show on Dashboard > Updates, so you can see what you are missing, but the packages are withheld. The Canvas Core row says so: "Activate your Canvas license to enable one-click updates."
  • Premium editing. Inserting new premium blocks and editing existing ones is locked in the editor. What those blocks already do on the page continues; what changes is your ability to keep building with them.
  • Support and the demo library. Priority support ends with the license term, and importing new demos requires an active license.

In the admin, a License Expired notice opens the Canvas > License screen, and its Renew License button opens the billing area of your Canvas account at https://dashboard.canvaswp.com/billing, where you are asked to sign in first. Below the notice the card shows the Expired badge with how long ago the term ended. The same notice follows you onto every other admin screen, where it also offers Manage License and can be dismissed; dismissing snoozes it for fourteen days per user, after which it returns while the license is still expired. Wherever a premium feature is locked you meet the same wording, and when it opens as a dialog it lists what renewing restores: editing premium blocks and patterns, one-click demo site imports, AI generate and enhance in the editor, automatic theme and plugin updates, and priority support.

Note

The grace period is not expiry. Active (grace period) means the licensing service was unreachable and Canvas is deliberately keeping everything working in the meantime. It resolves on its own; expiry does not.

Expired Versus Never Licensed

An expired license means Canvas has verified this site before, and the site keeps its render forever on the strength of that. A site where Canvas was never activated is in a different state: premium output is gated until a license is activated. The practical consequence: deactivating a license, or importing a database into a fresh install without its activation, is not the same as letting a license expire.

Renewing

Renew in the billing area of your Canvas account, which is where the Renew License button takes you, then open Canvas > License and select Check now to pick the renewal up immediately rather than waiting for the next background check. Everything paused resumes at once: updates become installable, premium editing unlocks, and nothing needs rebuilding, because nothing was taken down. Refunds And Renewals covers the terms.

Pitfalls

The site looks fine, so the expiry seems harmless. The visible site is fine by design, and that is exactly what hides the cost: security and compatibility fixes stop arriving, and the gap grows with every release you cannot install. Treat the renewal date as maintenance, not as a paywall on your own site.

A premium block refuses to open its settings. The license on this site is expired or missing, and premium editing is what expiry locks. The block's content is intact; renewing, or running Check now after a renewal, unlocks it in place.

The renewal notice came back after being dismissed. Dismissal is a fourteen day snooze per user, not a permanent hide, and it reappears while the license remains expired. Renewing is what removes it.

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