Knox licenses

Samsung offers a variety of Knox Suite licenses to support your device management needs. If you’re new to Knox services, check out the recommended licensing workflow and the Knox license overview to help you find the license that works best for your enterprise.

This page also provides answers to some of the following licensing questions you might have:

• Recommended workflow
• License overview
• Server-based licenses
• Device-based licenses
• Can any Knox services be used for free?
• Which Knox services offer trial licenses?
  • Knox Suite trial license
  • Other Knox service trial licenses
• How do commercial Knox licenses work?
  • Staggered licenses
• Which commercial licenses can I get, and where?
• Where can I manage my existing licenses?

How to get a Knox license

You can use a trial Knox license to get started with Knox services, and then procure a commercial license for your entire fleet of devices:

1. Generate a trial license for the service you want to use on the Knox Admin Portal. When you get approved for it, a trial license is automatically added to your account in the Knox Admin Portal.

2. Test the service by enrolling a device. If you have a Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan trial license, you can also try the other Knox cloud services included with the plan.

3. When you’re ready, contact your local Knox reseller to purchase a commercial license. The reseller will share a license key with you.

4. Enter your license key in the Knox Admin Portal to start using Knox services on your full device fleet. Your reseller can also add licenses to your account on your behalf.

About Knox licenses

Knox licenses are used to activate Knox services on a device. Each license is associated with a license key, an alphanumeric string that acts as an identifier and allows devices to use a Knox service.

When you start a trial of a Knox cloud service, you’re given a trial license key. Intended for testing and development purposes, these trial keys are valid for 3 months and support up to 30 devices. When you’re ready to deploy to your full device fleet, commercial license keys can be purchased from a local reseller, with various expiry dates and license quantities based on what your enterprise needs. After you purchase a commercial license, your reseller can add it to your account for you, but you can also enter the license key in the Knox Admin Portal.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one device management experience, the Knox Suite Plans include multiple Knox cloud services. Some standalone licenses are also available if you only want to use individual services. If you’re not sure which license works best for your enterprise yet, you can replace certain standalone licenses with a Knox Suite Plan anytime. The reverse also applies.

The following tables provide information on the available Knox services, including the license keys they support and where to get a trial license if a service offers it.

Server-based Knox licenses

Server-based licenses include both cloud and on-premises services. To start using these Knox services, enter cloud license keys on the Knox Admin Portal, and enter on-premises license keys directly on the service console.

Device-based Knox licenses

Enroll your devices with a device-based license by registering it through an EMM. Certain services, such as Knox Capture, allow you to enroll individual devices by entering a license key directly in the app.

Can any Knox services be used for free?

Some Knox services are free to use, but you may still need to generate a license to use them.

• Knox Mobile Enrollment — No license required.
• Knox Platform for Enterprise (Knox Service Plugin) — Requires a free, device-based Knox Platform for Enterprise Premium license. You can activate this license through your EMM.
• Knox Mobile Enrollment Direct — Requires a free, on-premises Knox Mobile Enrollment Direct license. You can generate one from the Knox Mobile Enrollment Direct download page.

Which Knox services offer trial licenses?

Trial licenses are intended for testing purposes, and support up to 30 devices for 3 months. You can generate trial licenses for the following Knox cloud services on the Knox Admin Portal:

• Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan trial license, which includes:

  • Knox Mobile Enrollment (Advanced settings)
  • Knox Manage
  • Knox E-FOTA
  • Knox Asset Intelligence
  • Knox Remote Support
  • Knox Capture
  • Knox Authentication Manager

  For steps on how to generate a Knox Suite - Enterprise Plan trial license key, see Manage Knox licenses.

• Knox Guard

• Knox Configure

After your trial ends, your devices and data remain in your account. You can continue using Knox Suite by purchasing a Knox commercial license from your local reseller and replacing your trial license.

How do commercial Knox licenses work?

A commercial Knox license lets you use Knox services across your entire device fleet, and is obtained through your local Knox reseller. If you don’t have a reseller yet, see the Knox reseller directory to find one near you.

When you purchase a license from a reseller:

• You can decide how many seats the license must have, which ideally equates to the number of devices you want to activate concurrently on the service.
• The reseller gives you a license key, which you’ll need to enter on the Knox Admin Portal to register the license.

Once a license is assigned to a device, the service you’re enrolling in consumes a seat on the license. For example, if your reseller provided you with a 200-seat Knox Configure license, you can have a maximum of 200 devices enrolled in Knox Configure.

Each license has an expiry date, after which the license can’t be used with Knox services anymore. The exception to this rule is staggered license keys, which allow you to use the service even after the license expiration date, until the service period ends. To add more seats to your license or renew an existing license, contact your Knox reseller.

Staggered licenses

Some services, like Knox Configure, Knox Guard, and Samsung Care+ for Business, offer staggered licenses, which allows devices to use a service even after the license expires. These licenses have an activation period, which dictates when you can enroll new devices. Once a device is enrolled, its service period starts, which is how long the device can use a service for. The service period typically remains active after the activation period ends and the license expires.

However, if you purchase more seats on the license before the activation period ends, you can continue to enroll devices for a year past the new purchase date. Let’s say you purchased 100 seats on a license in January 2023, which means you can enroll 100 devices until January 2024. If you purchase an extra 100 seats in August 2023, you’re now able to enroll all 200 devices with that license until August 2024.

Which commercial licenses can I get, and where?

The following table lists each Knox service, its license type, and the licenses it supports. Each service name is also linked to its respective documentation, where you can get license information specific to that service.

Where can I manage my existing licenses?

Depending on the service, you can manage your licenses from different locations throughout the Knox Admin Portal, individual services, and your EMM console.

The following table outlines where you can find license information for each Knox service.

Additionally, see Manage Knox licenses to learn how to replace licenses, free up license seats, as well as delete a license.

How can I use more Knox cloud services on my existing license?

If you’d like to use additional Knox cloud services that are currently not supported by your license, you will need to purchase a Knox Suite Plan that covers those services. Contact your reseller and request for a license upgrade.

Currently, you can upgrade the following licenses to the Knox Suite – Enterprise Plan:

• Knox E-FOTA
• Knox Asset Intelligence
• Knox Suite - Essentials Plan