>
    Strata Copilot
    What Happens When Licenses Expire?
    Focus
    Download PDF
    Focus
    1. Home
    2. VM-Series
    3. What Happens When Licenses Expire?
    Download PDF
    VM-Series

    What Happens When Licenses Expire?

    Table of Contents

    What Happens When Licenses Expire?

    Find out what happens when one of your Palo Alto Networks firewalls expires.
    Where Can I Use This?What Do I Need?
    • VM-Series deployment
    • VM-Series 10.x or above
    • Panorama running PAN-OS 10.1.x or above versions
    • Customer Support Portal (CSP) account with one of the following user roles:
      • Superuser, Standard User, Limited User, Threat Researcher, AutoFocus Trial Role, Group superuser, Group Standard User, Group Limited User, Group Threat Researcher, Authorized Support Center (ASC) User, and ASC Full Service User.
      • Superuser access to the VM-Series firewall
    Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewall licenses and subscriptions provide the firewall with added functionality and/or access to a Palo Alto Networks cloud-delivered service. When a license is within 30 days of expiration, a warning message displays in the system log daily until you renew the subscription or it expires. Upon license expiration, some subscriptions continue to function in a limited capacity, and others stop operating completely. Here you can find out what happens when each subscription expires.
    The precise moment of license expiry is at 12:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) of the expiration date. For example, if your license expiration date is December 20, 2024, functionality will cease at 12:00 AM GMT on December 20, 2024. All license-related functions operate on GMT, regardless of the configured time zone on the firewall.
    (Panorama license) If the support license expires, Panorama can still manage firewalls and collect logs, but software and content updates will be unavailable. The software and content versions on Panorama must be the same as or later than the versions on the managed firewalls, or else errors will occur. For details, see Panorama, Log Collector, Firewall, and WildFire Version Compatibility.
    LicenseExpiry Behavior
    VM-Series
    You can still:
    You can continue to configure and use the firewall you deployed prior to the license expiring with no change in session capacity. The firewall won't reboot automatically and cause a disruption in traffic.
    However, if the firewall reboots for any reason, the firewall enters an unlicensed state. While unlicensed, a firewall supports a maximum of 1,200 sessions. No other management plane features or configuration options are restricted.
    Threat Prevention
    Alerts appear in the system log indicating that the license has expired.
    You can still:
    • Use signatures installed at the time the license expired, unless you install a new Applications-only content update either manually or as part of an automatic schedule. If you do, the update will delete your existing threat signatures and you will no longer receive protection against them.
    • Use and modify Custom App-ID™ and threat signatures.
    You can no longer:
    • Install new signatures.
    • Roll signatures back to previous versions.
    DNS Security
    You can still:
    • Use local DNS signatures if you have an active Threat Prevention license.
    You can no longer:
    • Get new DNS signatures.
    Advanced URL Filtering / URL Filtering
    You can still:
    • Enforce policy using custom URL categories.
    • Enforce policy using PALO ALTO NETWORKS-DB categories that were in your local cache when the license expired.
    You can no longer:
    • Get updates to cached PAN-DB categories.
    • Connect to the PAN-DB URL filtering database.
    • Get PAN-DB categories of uncached URLs.
    • Analyze URL requests in real-time using Advanced URL Filtering.
    WildFire
    You can still:
    • Forward Portable Executable (PE) for analysis.
    • Get signature updates every 24-48 hours if you have an active Threat Prevention subscription.
    You can no longer:
    • Get five-minute updates through the WildFire public and private clouds.
    • Forward advanced file types such as APKs, Flash files, PDFs, Microsoft Office files, Java Applets, Java files (.jar and .class), and HTTP/HTTPS email links contained in SMTP and POP3 email messages.
    • Use the WildFire API.
    • Use the WildFire appliance to host a WildFire private cloud or a WildFire hybrid cloud.
    AutoFocus
    You can still:
    • Use an external dynamic list with AutoFocus data for a grace period of three months.
    You can no longer:
    Cortex Data Lake
    You can still:
    • Store log data for a 30-day grace period, after which it's deleted.
    • Forward logs to Cortex Data Lake until the end of the 30-day grace period.
    GlobalProtect
    You can still:
    • Use the app for endpoints running Windows and macOS.
    • Configure single or multiple internal and external gateways.
    You can no longer:
    • Access the Linux OS app and mobile app for iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Windows 10 UWP.
    • Use IPv6 for external gateways.
    • Run HIP checks.
    • Use Clientless VPN.
    • Enforce split tunneling based on destination domain, client process, and video streaming application.
    Support
    You can no longer:
    • Receive software updates.
    • Download VM images.
    • Benefit from technical support.

    © 2026 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.