Automation Anywhere bot licences are the user-based licences of Automation 360: Bot Creator, Citizen Developer, Attended Bot Runner and Unattended Bot Runner. They are assigned to users of a Control Room, the web application that manages bot development and execution and “provides an automated mechanism for tracking and controlling the use of licensed software across Bot Creators and Bot Runners”.[1] Licences are distributed from Automation Anywhere’s cloud license server, which consolidates “all licenses purchased by the customers … into a shared pool”.[2]
Editions
The user-based licence types are defined in the Automation 360 licenses overview.[1]
| Licence | What the user can do | Catalog |
|---|---|---|
| Bot Creator | “develop, edit, schedule, and trigger automation for testing”; run bots on the local machine, and from the public workspace when a Run as user for an unattended Bot Runner is specified | Metric, SKU |
| Citizen Developer | “create and run automations (including automations with triggers) on their devices” | Metric, SKU |
| Attended Bot Runner (run-time) | Run automations on their own devices and use event triggers tied to their account or role; “cannot run or schedule bots on another device” | Metric, SKU |
| Unattended Bot Runner (run-time) | Everything an attended user can do, plus “Control Room deployment, centralized scheduling, and API-based deployment” | Metric, SKU |
Further user licences are Process analyzer, Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users, Bot Insight user (purchased “on a per-user basis”) and Conversational Automation Co-Pilot User.[1] Catalog proof: Attended Bot Runners run automations only on their own devices.
Metrics
All four are user licences: each is assigned to a Control Room user through a role (Bot Creator role, Bot Runner role, Citizen Developer role). “The number of licenses you will need depends on the number of users who need to perform the above functions for all the Control Room instances owned by the customers.”[1] Unattended work runs as a Bot Runner user. When scheduling, an administrator may list several Bot Runner users and set how many to use, and the system “automatically selects the number of Bot Runner users that are available for the tasks”.[9]
Two trigger rules separate the runner types. Any trigger can be associated only with a user who has a Bot Runner licence, and “Only users with Unattended Bot Runner Run-time license can run event triggers on a device in a Disconnected state.”[1] Catalog proof: Only Unattended Bot Runners can run event triggers on a disconnected device.
When a user receives licences from several identity-provider groups, the Control Room resolves the conflict using a licence order preference set by the administrator.[11]
Counting / floors
The shared pool
Licences are counted per customer, not per Control Room. Each Control Room registers with the license server using its GUID, downloads entitlements “every 24 hours” (and whenever a GUID is installed, a licence is assigned or unassigned, or an administrator syncs manually), uses them to assign licences, and “sends aggregated license consumption information to the license server”.[2] The Licenses page shows, per product, the total available, the number “Used in this Control Room”, “Used in other Control Room” and the remaining licences.[4] In the Active state, users “can be assigned floating licenses when they log in, and licenses are released when users log out”.[3] Catalog proof: Control Rooms download entitlements from the license server and report consumption.
Over-consumption and fail-safe
A Control Room enters fail-safe when, for more than 48 hours, it cannot reach the license server or “The licenses are oversubscribed on the Control Room”.[3]
| State | Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Connected, within entitlement | All licence operations |
| Fail-safe (connectivity loss) | 2 days without connectivity | Licence allocation and de-allocation only; RPA operations continue |
| Fail-safe (over-consumption) | 2 days of over-consumption | Banner and error; RPA operations continue; remedy by releasing licences, syncing or renewing |
| Fail-safe-expired (suspended) | 30 days from fail-safe entry | Only admins can log in; RPA operations cannot continue |
Source: Control Room license fail-safe and expiry states.[3] The Cloud licensing FAQ states the overall limit: “After 32 days of continued lack of connectivity or overconsumption, the Control Room will be locked, and all automations will stop.”[2] The Manage licenses page calls this 32-day window a “resiliency period”, during which a local licence cache is used.[4] Catalog proof: Connectivity loss or over-consumption for 48 hours puts the Control Room in fail-safe.
Expiry
Expiry banners start 30 days before the licence end date and become red and non-dismissible in the last seven days; administrators receive emails at 30, 15, 7, 3, 2 and 1 day before, on the day and weekly afterwards. “After the license expires, the Control Room is unavailable.”[8] Catalog proof: When the Control Room licence expires, the Control Room becomes unavailable.
Virtualization & partitioning
Bot Runner licences are attached to users, not devices or processors. The licence definitions name users and run-as users only and set no virtualization, core or host rule.[1] Licence information is replicated within high-availability clusters and across disaster-recovery sites, “because synchronous data replication is configured between multiple Control Room servers”.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Cloud licensing
Cloud Control Rooms are provisioned with GUID licences automatically; On-Premises Control Rooms must be given their GUID at setup, and both need renewal GUIDs at renewal.[2] On-Premises Control Rooms connect out over HTTPS to the license server, which has a fixed IP address, optionally through a proxy (from v.30). The data exchanged is limited to the account name, the GUID, purchased licence types and counts, the Control Room URL and consumed user and volume counts, so that “no exchange of customer’s user or business-related information occurs”.[2] Document Automation, Enterprise Platform, Automator AI Base and API Task are not supported with file-based licensing.[2]
Offline licensing
For air-gapped sites, offline licensing replaces the live connection with a file exchange with the Customer Account and License Management (CALM) portal. It “is only for customers that have the air-gap need and is approved on an exception basis”, and only On-Premises Control Rooms on v.40 or later can use it.[5] The cycle is an enablement token, then a License File Request (LFR) uploaded to CALM, then an Offline License File (OLF) installed in the Control Room, which becomes “the Control Room’s sole source of license authority”. Usage is tracked locally “using an encrypted, tamper-proof” mechanism.[5] A new OLF is needed for renewals and entitlement changes; Automation Anywhere can issue it up to 90 days before the subscription end, and the LFR can be submitted up to 7 days before the new subscription starts.[6] Catalog proof: Offline licensing is exception-based, pre-approved and for On-Premises v.40 or later; A new Offline License File is needed for renewals and entitlement changes.
File-based licensing
File-based licensing, the legacy method, has been discontinued and will be phased out. Conversion to Cloud licensing is done by Automation Anywhere’s order management team, and “After transitioning to Cloud-based licensing, you cannot change to file-based licensing.”[2] Catalog proof: File-based licensing is discontinued and conversion to Cloud licensing is one-way.
Programs
License groups. Earlier, all of a customer’s licences sat in a single group, so departments and partners “could access and view all licenses, regardless of their allocated share”. License groups restrict access to the Control Rooms linked to a GUID: “License allocation, consumption, over subscription, and expiration are all restricted to the license group.”[7] The feature requires Enterprise Platform or Automation Platform Core.[7][10] Catalog proof: License groups need Enterprise Platform or Automation Platform Core.
License dashboard. The Automation Command Center’s License dashboard sorts users into Not used, Low, Medium and High usage categories, with drill-down and CSV export, which helps find under-used licences.[12]
Out of scope
Partner licence allocation, Agentic App Store licences and legacy Enterprise 11 and A2019 licence keys are not covered.