Register Aqua

Aqua offers the following activation options:

30-days trial — a 30-day trial period to test IDE's features.
Paid license — a paid subscription for commercial use.
Non-commercial use — a one-year non-commercial license for Aqua.

Activation options

Start a free trial

In the dialog that opens when you start Aqua, select the Start trial option.
Click Start Trial.
You will be redirected to the JetBrains website where you will see a confirmation that your trial has started.

After the trial version expires, you need to buy and register a commercial license or activate a non-commercial license to continue using Aqua. A new trial period will be available for the next released version of Aqua.

Activate a commercial Aqua license

Select Help | Register from the main menu or click | Manage License on the Welcome screen to open the Licenses dialog.
Select the Paid license option.
Choose how you want to register Aqua :
Log in to your JetBrains Account and get licenses that you have purchased.
If you don't have a JetBrains Account yet, click Register.
Aqua automatically shows the list of your licenses and their details like expiration date and identifier.
Provide an activation code and click Activate.
When purchasing a product license, you receive a code for its offline activation. You can always download available activation codes from your JetBrains Account.
Register using the Floating License Server or License Vault.
When performing a silent installation or managing Aqua installations on multiple machines, you can set the JETBRAINS_LICENSE_SERVER environment variable to point to the URL of the Floating License Server or License Vault.
Alternatively, you can set the URL of the Floating License Server or License Vault by adding the -DJETBRAINS_LICENSE_SERVER JVM option.
Aqua detects the system proxy URL during initial startup and uses it for connecting to the JetBrains Account, Floating License Server, and License Vault. To override the URL of the system proxy, add the -Djba.http.proxy JVM option. Specify the proxy URL as the host address and optional port number: proxy-host[:proxy-port]. For example: -Djba.http.proxy=http://my-proxy.com:4321.
If you want to disable proxy detection entirely and always connect directly, set the property to -Djba.http.proxy=direct.

After your paid license expires, you have a 7-day grace period, after which you will need to prolong the subscription to continue using Aqua.

Activate a non-commercial Aqua license

Select Help | Register from the main menu or click | Manage License on the Welcome screen to open the Licenses dialog.
Select the Non-commercial use option.
Agree with terms and conditions.
Log in with your JetBrains Account if necessary, and then click Start Non-Commercial Use.

After that, your free one-year license becomes activated.

Non-commercial licensing FAQ

What does qualify as non-commercial use?

Common examples of non-commercial cases include learning and self-education, any form of content creation, open source, and hobby development. For more information, refer to Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use.

What license should I choose if I started a new project?

If you plan to release the product and get commercial benefits from it, either now or in the future, you should use a commercial license. If your project is for non-commercial purposes, then a non-commercial license is valid.

However, if your intentions change over time, you’ll need to reassess whether you still qualify for non-commercial use. If you are unsure after considering your intentions, it is safer to choose a commercial license.

I don’t see the Non-commercial use option in my IDE. What should I do?

The most likely explanation for this is that you are using an older version of the IDE. Non-commercial license is not supported for any releases prior to Aqua 2024.1, so you need to update your IDE to the latest version.

How do renewals and upgrades work with a non-commercial license?

Non-commercial subscriptions are issued for one year and will automatically renew after that. However, the renewal will only happen if you have used the assigned license at least once during the last 6 months of the subscription period.

Can I generate an activation code for offline activation?

Acquiring an activation code for a non-commercial subscription is not possible. You can only activate a non-commercial license with your JetBrains Account while your computer is connected to the Internet. After a successful activation, you will be able to continue using Aqua when your computer is offline.

Does my IDE send any data to JetBrains?

The terms of the non-commercial agreement assume that the IDE may send JetBrains anonymized statistics (IDE telemetry) related to your usage of the IDE features. This information may include but is not limited to frameworks and file templates that you use, actions invoked, and other interactions with the IDE features. This information does not contain personal data. For details, refer to Section 4. COMPLIANCE MONITORING AND STATISTICS of the subscription agreement.

We appreciate that this might not be convenient for everyone, but there is unfortunately no way to opt out of sending anonymized statistics to JetBrains under the terms of the Toolbox agreement for non-commercial use. The only way to opt out is by switching to either a paid subscription or one of the complimentary licensing options.

Activation with JetBrains Account

JetBrains Account is a convenient option to manage your licenses and activate Aqua, and it is the only activation option for non-commercial use.

To link your JetBrains Account to your Aqua installation, click Log in... in the bottom left corner of the Licenses dialog. After a successful login, your JetBrains Account username will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the dialog.

Aqua will automatically log you into your JetBrains Account if you are using JetBrains Toolbox app to install JetBrains products and already logged in there.

If you use two-factor authentication for your JetBrains Account, you can specify the generated app password instead of the primary JetBrains Account password.

Change active user

Select Help | Register from the main menu or click | Manage License on the Welcome screen to open the Licenses dialog.
Click your name in the bottom left corner of the dialog and select Log Out.
After logging out, you can log in using another JetBrains Account.

Access to JetBrains Account: Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems when attempting to log in to your JetBrains Account, this may be due to one of the following reasons:

No free ports

Aqua waits for a response about successful login from the JetBrains Account website. If there are no ports available, Aqua will suggest logging in with an authorization token.

Unable to open JetBrains Account in your browser

When you click Log in to JetBrains Account, Aqua redirects you to the JetBrains Account website. If your system browser doesn't start, use the Troubles emergency button. Aqua will suggest logging in with an authorization token.

No access to JetBrains Account

The login process requires access to the JetBrains Account website. Aqua automatically redirects you to the website or lets you log in with an authorization token. If both options don't work and, you cannot access the website, contact your system administrator. Otherwise, it will not be possible for you to log in and start using Aqua.

Log in with an authorization token

An authorization token is a way to log in to your JetBrains Account if your system doesn't allow for redirection from the IDE directly, for example, due to your company's security policy. Aqua recognizes when redirection to the JetBrains Account website is impossible. It enables you to copy a link to generate an authorization token manually.

Click Copy link and open the copied link in your browser.
Log in to your JetBrains Account to generate an authorization token. After that, copy the token, paste it to the IDE authorization token field and click Check token. Once you've successfully logged in, you can start using Aqua.

Last modified: 24 January 2025