# Activation

Fregata needs an active license — paid or trial — to record from
cameras and run detection. Activation itself happens once per Mac
and takes a few seconds seconds. After that, the app makes two
recurring background calls to our servers — a license heartbeat
every ~6 hours and a daily update check — both small,
both documented in detail at
[Privacy & telemetry](/reference/privacy-and-telemetry/).

## Paid license ($10 / year)

If you've purchased a license, you'll have an email from
`no-reply@fregata.3rdbitlabs.com` containing a key in the form
`frgt_XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX`.

1. Launch Fregata. The activation window appears.
2. Paste the **email address** you used at checkout.
3. Paste the **license key** from the email.
4. Click **Activate**.

![Fregata activation window on macOS, showing email and license-key fields for entering a paid license or starting the 30-day free trial.](/screenshots/activation-window.png)

Fregata talks to the licensing service, binds the license to this
Mac (via a privacy protecting one-way hash of the hardware UUID), and opens the main
app.

### What "valid until \<date\>" means

Your license is **valid for every version of Fregata released before
the expiry date**. Those versions keep running forever with the same
key, even after the license date passes. You only need to renew if
you want to update to a release published after your license expires.

In other words: nothing breaks the day your license expires. Your
recordings stay accessible, detection keeps running, your cameras
keep working.

## 30-day trial

If you don't have a key, click **Start a 30-day trial** in the
activation window. You'll be asked for an email; we mail the trial
key to that address.

When you click **Continue** in the activation window, the next
screen has your email pre-filled and a license-key field waiting.
Open the email, copy the key, paste it back, click **Activate**.

Trial keys have the same shape as paid keys (`frgt_…`) and unlock
the same feature set. Throughout the trial, the menu-bar tray
surfaces a one-click **Convert to Paid License** option that turns
the trial into a paid license — same key, no reinstall, the expiry
just bumps forward a year.

Two days before the trial ends, we email a heads-up with a
one-click convert link in case you've forgotten the date so Frigate does not stop unexpectedly.

## After the trial expires

A trial expiring is **not** like a paid license expiring. Paid
licenses keep working past their date — but a trial
that's run its course **stops Frigate**: recording and detection
halt cleanly until you buy or quit.

When the trial license expires, Fregata shuts down Frigate and presents a
modal explaining the trial has expired and that buying converts
the key in place. Four buttons:

1. **Buy for $10…** — opens
   [fregata.app/convert](https://fregata.app/convert) in the
   browser with your trial key pre-filled. After checkout completes,
   the trial flips to a paid license server-side.
2. **I've paid — check now** — re-runs activation against the
   licensing service. If the server now reports a runnable state,
   Frigate restarts immediately. Same key, no reinstall.
3. **Enter a different license key…** — for the rare case where
   you've bought a separate paid key. Opens the standard
   activation window.
4. **Quit Fregata** — terminates the app.

## Moving Fregata to a different Mac

A license is bound to one Mac at a time. To move it:

1. On the new Mac, sign in to
   [the license-management page](https://fregata.app/manage-license)
   with the email on the license.
2. Find the license card and click **Release from this Mac**.
3. Install Fregata on the new Mac and activate with the same email
   and key.

You can release a license up to **3 times in any 30-day window**.
Beyond that, reply to your license email and we'll bump it for you.

See [Moving & uninstalling](/guides/moving-and-uninstalling/) for the
full walkthrough including data migration.

## Running offline

Fregata is designed to keep working on a Mac with no internet, but
with two distinct behaviors worth knowing about.

### While the app is running

**Indefinite.** Once Fregata has started up with a **paid** license,
it keeps running offline as long as the app stays up. Recording and detection
continue uninterrupted.

### When you restart the app

**7 days.** On startup, Fregata verifies the cached license. If the license was successfully validated less than 7 days ago, Fregata starts as normal.

Beyond 7 days, the license is rejected at startup and the activation
window appears. Connecting to the internet, re-entering the same email and key reactivates the
same license as soon as you're online again — no new purchase
required.

In practice you'll never hit the 7-day limit unless you've
genuinely been offline for over a week *and* chosen to restart the
app or the Mac during that stretch.

## What gets sent during activation

The activation request includes:

- The license key and email you typed
- The Mac's app version (so we can check it's covered by your
  license's update window)
- A **hashed** machine identifier — `sha256(IOPlatformUUID)` — used
  only to bind the license to this Mac. The original UUID never
  leaves the machine.

Heartbeats after activation are smaller: just the rotating token, the
app version, and (unless you've opted out) a single block of
technical telemetry. The full list is on
[Privacy & telemetry](/reference/privacy-and-telemetry/).