VS license expired

Hi @Jayam, Chiranjeevi ,

Thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your concern with us — I’m happy to help clarify this for you.

To avoid any confusion, I’d like to explain the difference clearly. Visual Studio Dev Essentials is a free Microsoft developer program designed to support individual developers. It provides access to learning resources, tools, and benefits to help you learn, build, test, and experiment with Microsoft technologies. However, it is not a Visual Studio subscription itself.

The good news is that you don’t actually need a paid subscription to get started with Visual Studio. Visual Studio Community is completely free to use. For Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise, Microsoft allows you to use them as a free trial — typically up to 30 days without signing in, or 90 days if you sign in (this applies once). After the trial period, a valid license or subscription is required to continue using those editions. You can review the available subscription plans via the official link to find the option that best fits your needs.

If you run into any issues during installation or have questions along the way, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment here or reach out through our live chat support — we’re always happy to assist.

I hope this helps clarify things for you. If you need anything else or have further questions, feel free to get back to me anytime. You’re also welcome to leave feedback on my support by interacting with this response.

Wishing you a wonderful day ahead!

Visual Studio Dev Essentials alone does not grant a paid Visual Studio IDE license. It only provides free tools, services, and benefits. If Visual Studio shows that the license is expired and there is no active Visual Studio subscription associated with the signed-in account, the IDE cannot be used beyond the trial period.

To continue using Visual Studio on this machine, one of the following is required:

1. Sign in with an account that has an active Visual Studio subscription
   • In Visual Studio, go to File > Account Settings.
   • Check the license information on the right side.
   • If there is another account with a valid Visual Studio subscription (for example, provided by work or school), select + Add under All Accounts and sign in with that account.
2. Unlock Visual Studio with a product key
   • Go to File > Account Settings.
   • Select License with a Product Key / Unlock with a Product Key.
   • Enter a valid Visual Studio product key obtained from a Visual Studio subscription.
3. Renew or purchase a Visual Studio subscription
   • If a previous subscription has expired, it must be renewed or a new subscription purchased before Visual Studio can be used beyond the trial.

If only a Visual Studio Dev Essentials benefit is visible in the subscriptions portal and no other Visual Studio subscription appears, that account does not currently have a license that unlocks the Visual Studio IDE.

References:

• Extend a trial version or update a license
• Update an expired license
• Access and authenticate the Visual Studio IDE
• You sign in to the IDE, but it still tells you that the trial will expire
• How to sign in to Visual Studio subscriptions
• What happens when your Visual Studio subscription expires?
• What happens when your Visual Studio subscription is removed?