As part of the benefits of our SSA/Forward to Subscription conversion program, we are providing compatibility back to Archicad 13, by leaving converted perpetual licenses as Archicad 25 perpetual licenses in your hands.
If you are a customer who is already in the process of shifting from your SSA/Forward to a Subscription model, 30 days after your subscription purchase in the Graphisoft Store your existing key-based Archicad licenses need to be updated to be able to open projects with Archicad 25 or lower versions.
Update on 06/01/2025: The perpetual license downgrade period was extended to 90 days, starting in November 2024.
Updating your key-based licenses to Archicad 25 can happen via Archicad's automatic license update function or manually in the License Manager Tool.
License update in Archicad
If you have a single or NET1 key-based license(s) installed/plugged on your computer, after joining the conversion program, Archicad will automatically update your license without any intervention on your side.
What will happen?
- You start Archicad 25 or lower version and open a new project or browse an existing one.
- Archicad will check the available license updates, activate them, and display the Protection Key Update Successful dialog.
- If you open Archicad 26 or above versions, then your license will be updated in the background in the same way as above. However, this activated license (Archicad 25) is not compatible with Archicad 26 or above version, therefore the usual "Archicad License not found" dialog will be displayed.
- If you restart Archicad and log in with your Graphisoft ID user, who already has an assigned cloud license, Archicad will start as usual.
License update in the License Manager Tool
If you have a key-based license, after joining the conversion program, you can manually update your licenses in the License Manager Tool.
If you have already opened Archicad, then your single or NET1 key-based license(s) were already automatically updated by Archicad.
However, NET keys containing more licenses can only be updated manually in the License Manager Tool (regardless of whether Archicad was opened or not before).
What to do?
- Start the License Manager Tool. It will inform you that a license update is available for your protection key.
- Click on the For more information, switch to detailed view. button. The upcoming screen will show that your existing license will be updated to an Archicad 25 version.
- Click on Update Licenses. As soon as the license update is complete, a confirmation dialog will be displayed.
- After clicking on Close, the updated license list is displayed in the License Manager Tool.