Subject: n8n Upgrade Guidance Required – Business License Expired / Renewal in Progress

[Raghavendra908]

Hello Support Team,
Our n8n Business license has expired, and the renewal/procurement process is currently under Legal review within our organization.
Meanwhile, we need to upgrade the n8n platform to address identified security vulnerabilities.
Could you please confirm whether we can proceed with the n8n upgrade while the Business license is expired? Additionally, please advise whether there are any licensing or technical restrictions that could affect the upgrade or our existing workflows, credentials, configurations, or Business features.
If upgrading with an expired license is not recommended, please advise on the appropriate approach while the renewal is being completed.
Regards,
Raghavendra P

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[n8duck]

@Raghavendra908

Our n8n Business license has expired, and the renewal/procurement process is currently under Legal review within our organization.
Meanwhile, we need to upgrade the n8n platform to address identified security vulnerabilities.
Could you please confirm whether we can proceed with the n8n upgrade while the Business license is expired? Additionally, please advise whether there are any licensing or technical restrictions that could affect the upgrade or our existing workflows, credentials, configurations, or Business features.
If upgrading with an expired license is not recommended, please advise on the appropriate approach while the renewal is being completed.

Hey @Raghavendra908 this is Dan with n8n support, let me breakdown your question below:

Can you upgrade n8n with an expired Business license?
Yes - a version upgrade is technically independent of your license status. The n8n application itself can be updated to a newer version regardless of whether your Business license is active or expired. Your upgrade should proceed without issue from a technical standpoint.

What happens when the Business license expires?
This is the important part. According to our docs, when a license isn’t renewed, all licensed (Business/Enterprise) features are disabled until the license is renewed again.

This means:
• Core n8n functionality continues (workflows run, credentials are intact, configurations are preserved)
• Your data (workflows, credentials, settings) is not lost or affected
• Business-tier features (e.g. SSO/SAML, Projects, Environments, advanced RBAC) will be inaccessible until the license is renewed

Essentially, the instance falls back to Community edition behavior, but nothing is deleted.