Meraki Licensing Cost 2026: Prices, Renewal and Expiry

A Cisco Meraki MX does not run without a valid licence, and Meraki publishes no price list. On 2 November 2026, European resellers listed an MX67 Advanced Security licence at about €440 to €505 for one year and an MX85 Advanced Security licence at about €1,490. What the licence protects you from, and what a missed renewal costs, depends on the licensing model you are on.

This page covers what happens at expiry, the three licensing models, the MX licence editions, current European prices, a three-year cost-of-staying example and when renewing is the right call.

What happens when a Meraki licence expires

Under co-termination and per-device licensing, Meraki allows 30 days of grace, after which the hardware becomes non-operational and stops passing internet traffic. Under subscription licensing, the appliance keeps forwarding traffic on its last configuration after the same 30 days, but configuration, monitoring, firmware updates and support stop.

Meraki's documentation is blunt about the first case: "Meraki hardware on Co-Term and PDL models will be non-operational", and "your network products will no longer allow traffic to pass to the Internet". During the grace period nothing changes for users, and the dashboard sends reminders. After it, the dashboard only lets you claim new licences. For subscription, Meraki describes organisations past the grace period as continuing to "function and forward data traffic", in a disabled management state.

That difference matters more than the price list, because it decides how much leverage you have at renewal.

Meraki licensing models compared

Meraki sells three licensing models. Co-termination is the default for new organisations. Per-device licensing is closed to new conversions. Subscription is available to everyone, but a Meraki partner has to switch the organisation over, and co-termination and subscription cannot be mixed in one dashboard organisation.

Source: Cisco Meraki documentation (General Licensing FAQs, Co-Termination Licensing, Per-Device Licensing Overview, Subscription License Compliance).

Co-termination also has a side effect that catches many teams out. The shared expiry date is a weighted average of every licence in the organisation, by term and by price. Meraki's own worked example shows one appliance added on a three-year licence pulling the expiry date of fifteen devices on five-year licences forward by more than eight months. Adding a device on a short term moves the date for everyone.

The hardware side of the story, including which MX models reach end of support when, is in the Meraki MX end-of-support article.

MX licence editions: Enterprise, Advanced Security, Secure SD-WAN Plus

Every MX needs one licence of one edition, licences are tied to a specific appliance model, and a warm-spare pair needs a single licence.

Source: Cisco Meraki documentation, MX/Z Security and SD-WAN Licensing.

Meraki does not publish prices, but its own conversion rules show the relative weight of each edition. Converting an organisation from Enterprise to Advanced Security cuts the remaining licence time in half. Converting from Enterprise to Secure SD-WAN Plus cuts the remaining time by 60 to 75 percent, depending on the model. In practice, Advanced Security costs about twice as much as Enterprise. An organisation on Enterprise licences cannot mix editions; mixing requires Advanced Security. The SD-WAN guide explains what the SD-WAN Plus features add.

What Meraki MX licences cost in 2026

Meraki and Cisco sell through partners and do not publish a price list. These are listings from European resellers and price comparison sites on 2 November 2026, for Advanced Security, the edition most mid-market MX sites run.

Source: reseller listings, 2 November 2026. Some listings include VAT and some do not; partner quotes differ, and the price you pay depends on volume and term.

Two patterns stand out. Longer terms cost less per year: an MX85 Advanced Security licence lists at about €1,120 per year on a five-year term against €1,490 on a one-year term. And list prices are a ceiling, not a guide: US street prices for MX67 and MX75 licences sit 37 to 50 percent below the list prices the same resellers show.

For a wider view of what managed firewalls cost per site, see managed firewall pricing in 2026.

Not renewing is not a saving: what each model does to your network

Skipping a Meraki renewal does not save money under co-termination: 30 days after the shared date, every device in the organisation stops passing internet traffic. Under subscription the network keeps running but becomes unmanaged and unpatched. Under per-device licensing only the lapsed appliance stops. Check which model you are on before the renewal quote arrives.

The consequence per model, side by side:

• Co-termination: the whole organisation is shut down after 30 days, and the dashboard only lets you claim new licences. Exceeding the licence limit has the same effect, so one device added without enough licence capacity can put every site out of compliance. Meraki sends reminder emails 30, 21, 14, 7 and 1 days before shutdown.
• Per-device licensing: only the appliance whose licence lapsed stops, and the 30-day grace applies only to licences of one year or longer.
• Subscription: the devices keep forwarding traffic on their last configuration, but nobody can change that configuration, and the devices receive no firmware updates and no support. Meraki sends no reminder emails for subscriptions; the dashboard shows notices from 120 days before expiry.

The dashboard's License Info page shows which model the organisation uses and the current expiry date. Subscription is the gentlest model when a renewal slips, but an edge device that cannot be patched is not a safe state for long either.

Licences and hardware lifecycle together

Licence terms and hardware dates rarely line up, and the gap is where money leaks.

• A long term on old hardware. Buying a five-year licence for an MX64 makes little sense when the MX64 reaches end of support on 26 July 2027. The licence outlives the support for the hardware it is tied to.
• Renewal keys. Meraki asks for one renewal key that covers every device in production. Claiming several renewal keys one after another overwrites the previous one and leaves the organisation short of licences.
• Refreshes reset the maths. New appliances need new licences on their own model, and adding them on a different term moves the shared co-termination date again.

Meraki will renew licences for appliances past end of support, according to the MX end-of-support article, but a renewal does not bring back hardware replacement or firmware fixes for that model.

Three-year cost of staying

The useful question is not the price of one licence, but the cost of keeping the estate running for the next three years. Take a common mid-market setup: three small sites on an MX67 and one hub on an MX85, all on Advanced Security under co-termination.

Source: reseller listings, 2 November 2026. An order of magnitude, not a quote; VAT treatment differs between listings.

That figure covers licences only. If the MX67s are due for replacement in the same window, add the new hardware and new licences, because Meraki licences are per model and cannot move to a successor. An MX67 licence does not cover an MX75.

Renew, refresh or leave

Renew when the hardware has at least as much support left as the licence term, the team relies on the Meraki dashboard, and the sites need local SD-WAN between them. Choose the longest term the hardware can justify.

Five ways to lower a Meraki renewal

Before you accept a renewal quote, five levers are worth checking. None of them needs a change of vendor.

1. Count what is actually in production. Under co-termination the renewal key covers every device in the organisation. Remove appliances that are no longer in use from the dashboard first, so they do not end up in the count.
2. Use one licence per warm-spare pair. Two MX appliances in a warm-spare pair need a single licence. Check that the pair is configured as such before the quote is made.
3. Match the edition to the site. Advanced Security costs about twice Enterprise. A site that only needs Auto VPN and a stateful firewall may not need it, but an Enterprise organisation cannot mix editions, so the choice applies to every MX in the organisation.
4. Buy the longest term the hardware can carry. Five years costs less per year than one, as long as the appliance stays in support for those five years.
5. Ask for a quote below list. Reseller listings sit well below the list price, so a quote close to list leaves room to negotiate.

If several devices need replacement anyway, the renewal is also the natural moment to retire them properly; the firewall decommissioning checklist covers what to remove, revoke and keep.

Refresh when an appliance reaches end of support within the licence term you are about to buy. Price the successor hardware and its licence together, and align the term with the rest of the organisation.

Leave when most users work remotely or in the cloud, when the branch box mainly protects internet access, or when the licence model itself is the problem. The question to ask any alternative is the same one this article starts with: what happens to traffic and management when the contract lapses?

For a European mid-market organisation, the Jimber SASE platform delivers secure access, internet protection and SD-WAN from one console, with data handled in the EU and a predictable cost. The Meraki and Jimber comparison goes through the differences. Try Free before your next renewal date to compare in practice.

The case for renewing Meraki

A satisfied long-time Meraki customer would push back, and much of the argument is fair.

"The licence is the product." The licence includes 24x7 support, hardware replacement and every firmware update. Spread over the life of the appliance, that bundle is good value compared with a firewall support contract plus the time spent patching. True, as long as the hardware stays in support for the whole term.

"Co-termination is a feature." One date, one purchase order, no surprises during the year, and a partner who reminds you well in advance. Also true, provided nobody adds a device on a short term and nobody misses the date.

"Subscription removes the shutdown risk." Correct: under subscription the network keeps forwarding traffic. But an unmanaged, unpatched edge device is not a safe resting state either, and the switch to subscription still goes through a partner.

Conclusion

Meraki MX licences cost roughly €440 to €505 a year for a small appliance and about €1,500 a year for an MX85 on Advanced Security, less on longer terms. The bigger number is the dependency: under co-termination, a missed renewal stops the whole organisation after 30 days.

Before you renew, line up the licence term with the hardware support dates, check which licensing model you are on, and decide whether the branch still needs a box that the licence controls. Try Free to test the alternative on one site, or book a demo to walk through your renewal.

Frequently asked questions

What happens when a Meraki licence expires?

It depends on the licensing model. Under co-termination and per-device licensing, Meraki gives 30 days of grace, then the hardware becomes non-operational and stops passing internet traffic. Under subscription licensing, after 30 days the devices keep forwarding traffic on their last configuration, but configuration, monitoring, firmware updates and support stop.

How much does a Meraki MX licence cost?

Meraki does not publish prices. On 2 November 2026, European resellers listed an MX67 Advanced Security licence at about €440 to €505 for one year and €1,099 to €1,288 for three years, and an MX85 Advanced Security licence at about €1,490 for one year. Enterprise licences cost roughly half.

What is the difference between Enterprise and Advanced Security?

Enterprise covers Auto VPN, the stateful firewall, traffic shaping and client VPN. Advanced Security adds IDS/IPS, content filtering and malware protection. Meraki weighs Advanced Security at about twice Enterprise: converting an organisation from Enterprise to Advanced Security halves the remaining licence time.

What is Meraki co-termination?

Co-termination gives every licence in an organisation one shared expiry date, calculated as a weighted average of all licences by term and price. Adding a device on a shorter term pulls that date forward for every device. Co-termination is Meraki's default licensing model.

Can one unlicensed device take down the whole network?

Under co-termination, yes. Exceeding the licence limit puts the whole organisation out of compliance, and after the 30-day grace period all devices stop. Under subscription, only the excess devices are disabled, starting with the most recently added.

Can I move a Meraki MX licence to a new model?

No. Meraki MX licences are per model and cannot be transferred between appliance models, so replacing an MX67 with an MX75 means buying new MX75 licences. A warm-spare pair needs only one licence.

Can I still choose per-device licensing?

Only if your organisation already uses it. Meraki no longer supports new conversions to per-device licensing. New organisations start on co-termination by default and can move to subscription through a Meraki partner.

Can I mix co-termination and subscription?

Not in the same dashboard organisation. An organisation runs either co-termination or subscription licences, so a move to subscription covers the whole organisation at once.

Does a longer Meraki licence term save money?

Per year, usually yes. On 2 November 2026 an MX85 Advanced Security licence listed at €1,490 for one year and €5,600 for five years, about €1,120 per year. A long term only pays off if the hardware stays in support for the whole term.