Free mode and the license
What a license changes, how long an unlicensed station runs, what stops when the window ends and what stays up, and how signing in widens it.
Every feature is always available; what a license changes is how long the runtime runs without a restart. An unlicensed station counts down a window and then stops the runtime: the embedded server, device communication, the Logic sweep and any recording (a running procedure is ended cleanly and its run sealed as aborted). The app itself and the agent endpoint stay up; every page except Account gives way to a paused notice, and every command that would change the station is refused with "Runtime stopped".
| Station | Window |
|---|---|
| Not signed in to a Ganter account | 1 hour |
| Signed in, without a license seat for this station | 2 hours |
| Signed in to an account whose subscription is Active or Past due, with a seat for this station | No limit |
- The status bar shows the countdown ("Free · 12:34") while the window runs. Five minutes before the stop a notification says so ("The runtime will stop in about 5 minutes. Sign in or add a license to remove the limit."), and a Windows notification repeats it if the window is hidden or minimized.
- After the stop, the band under the title bar offers Restart runtime: immediate, unlimited, and only on the station's own window, never from a browser, so the window cannot be reset from the network. A restart opens a fresh window; it never resumes or restarts a procedure.
- Becoming licensed restarts a stopped runtime on its own. Signing in mid-countdown widens the window without resetting it; signing out shrinks it, and the countdown starts over from that moment.
- Offline is not punished: the seat is granted by the server and cached with the subscription, and while the station's session lives the cached grant stands. A past-due subscription keeps working; only a canceled one falls back to the signed-in window.
Sign in and manage the subscription on the Account page; seats and their stations are under Subscription. Free mode is permanent, not a trial; see pricing for the license.