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+# Activate all GitLab Enterprise Edition functionality with a license **[STARTER ONLY]**
+
+To activate all GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) functionality, you need to upload
+a license. Once you've received your license from GitLab Inc., you can upload it
+by **signing into your GitLab instance as an admin**.
+
+The license has the form of a base64 encoded ASCII text with a `.gitlab-license`
+extension and can be obtained when you [purchase one][pricing] or when you sign
+up for a [free trial].
+
+NOTE: **Note:**
+As of GitLab Enterprise Edition 9.4.0, a newly-installed instance without an
+uploaded license will only have the Core features active. A trial license will
+activate all Ultimate features, but after
+[the trial expires](#what-happens-when-your-license-expires), some functionality
+will be locked.
+
+## Uploading your license
+
+The very first time you visit your GitLab EE installation signed in as an admin,
+you should see a note urging you to upload a license with a link that takes you
+straight to the License admin area.
+
+Otherwise, you can:
+
+1. Navigate manually to the **Admin Area** by clicking the wrench icon in the menu bar.
+
+    ![Admin area icon](img/admin_wrench.png)
+
+1. And then going to the **License** tab and click on **Upload New License**.
+
+    ![License admin area](img/license_admin_area.png)
+
+1. If you've received a `.gitlab-license` file, you should have already downloaded
+   it in your local machine. You can then upload it directly by choosing the
+   license file and clicking the **Upload license** button. In the image below,
+   you can see that the selected license file is named `GitLab.gitlab-license`.
+
+    ![Upload license](img/license_upload.png)
+
+    If you've received your license as plain text, you need to select the
+    "Enter license key" option, copy the license, paste it into the "License key"
+    field and click **Upload license**.
+
+---
+
+Once the license is uploaded, all GitLab Enterprise Edition functionality
+will be active until the end of the license period. When that period ends, the
+instance will [fall back](#what-happens-when-your-license-expires) to Core-only
+functionality.
+
+You can review the license details at any time in the License section of the
+Admin Area.
+
+![License details](img/license_details.png)
+
+## Notification before the license expires
+
+One month before the license expires, a message informing when the expiration
+is due to, will start appearing to GitLab admins. Make sure that you update your
+license, otherwise you will miss all the paid features if it expires.
+
+## What happens when your license expires
+
+In case your license expires, GitLab will lock down some features like Git pushes,
+issue creation, etc., and a message to inform of the expired license will be
+presented to all admins.
+
+In order to get back all the previous functionality, a new license must be uploaded.
+To fall back to having only the Core features active, you'll need to delete the
+expired license(s).
+
+## License history
+
+It's possible to upload and view more than one license,
+but only the latest license will be used as the active license.
+
+[free trial]: https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/
+[pricing]: https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/