# License Activation Types We define a license activation as the process of binding a license to a device. ### Ways to Activate a License In LicenseSpring, there are 3 different activation strategies for licenses: * Online * Offline * Air-gapped ### Which Activation Process to Choose? #### When to Use the Online Activations Online activations are pretty straightforward and are usually the least cumbersome for the end user performing the activation. We make available a license API, and maintain a fairly comprehensive set of wrappers. In most cases, we would suggest to use online activations. The general process for activating licenses online is that the end user would enter their license key (or email/password) into the app and initiate the activation process. This will send a request to LicenseSpring via http, which will include the license, product code, and device identifier (typically generated by the SDK). If successful, the server will return the license entitlements in a JSON, which are then parsed by the SDK (if the app is using it), allowing the software to be configured according to the license agreement. {% hint style="info" %} Even if a license is activated online, you can still perform offline license checks. The SDKs can be configured to update a local license file upon every successful license check. {% endhint %} #### When to Use the Offline Activations Activating licenses sometimes cannot be done over the internet. For this situation, we maintain an offline license portal, where the SDK generates a request file. The user uploads that file on our offline portal, which will return a license file. This license file can only be used to activate by the device that specifically generated the request. The portal can be found at [**offline.licensespring.com**](https://offline.licensespring.com/). If the client machine activating the software license will not have access to the internet, then you can activate the license using this process. {% hint style="info" %} License files can be updated and sent to the end user after activation, without the end user needing to generate a new request file. {% endhint %} #### When to Use Air-Gapped Activations Some customers have an additional requirement that once their applications have been deployed, files cannot leave the network, so they cannot use the offline activation mechanism described above. The air-gapped license activation process entails that license policy files are deployed at the same time as software application binaries. Through a series of code exchanges generated by the LicenseSpring server and the client machine (initialization code, activation code, confirmation codes), one of the license policies can be activated for that device. This is somewhat of a cumbersome process, so we only recommend using it to deploy software for customers that have the most stringent security requirements and where offline activations are not acceptable. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.licensespring.com/license-entitlements/license-activation-types.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.