Licensing & Activation

Every feature, in every version

Onset Engine has one set of features, and the free Demo has all of them: timeline editing, cut editing on the beat, every effect, every format, DJ Mode, collections and must-use clips, rounds, Length, the energy arc, Learn my taste and the rest. What your license sets is the output: how much of the edit is rendered, at what size and frame rate, and whether it carries a watermark.

	Demo (free)	Studio ($79, one-time)
Features	All	All
Renders and drafts	The first minute of the edit	The whole edit
Resolution and frame rate	720p, 30 fps	1080p or 4K, up to 60 fps
Watermark	”Created with Onset Engine”	None
DJ Mode sessions	1 minute	Unlimited
Export to Premiere Pro / DaVinci Resolve	-	Yes
Activations	-	1 PC (email support for a second one, for a laptop, at no charge)

Studio is a one-time purchase, with no subscription, and includes every v1.x update.

What the Demo renders

• Every render and every draft is the first minute of your edit. It ends on the last cut before 1:00, so the video ends on a beat, and the music fades out with it. On the Demo the draft is rendered with every effect, like a render. When a draft or render finishes, the status bar says how much of the edit it covers (for example, 0:58 of 3:34).
• 720p at 30 fps, with the Onset Engine watermark. Re-crops to 9:16, 1:1 and 4:5 from Render Complete are 720p and carry the watermark too.
• The whole edit plays in the app. Click the waveform under the timeline: Onset plays your edit from that point, with the song, no render needed.
• Adding videos, building and editing the timeline work on the whole song, exactly as with a license.

Upgrading keeps your edit

1. Enter your key in the License & Activation window (see below).
2. Click Restart now when it asks.
3. Press 🎬 2. RENDER FINAL VIDEO again.

Your timeline is kept exactly as it was, and the new render is the whole edit, without the watermark, at the Quality you choose.

Core licenses

Core licenses are valid and have every feature. Core renders the whole edit without a watermark, in 1080p at up to 60 fps, on the PCs it is activated on. 4K and export to Premiere Pro / DaVinci Resolve are part of Studio.

Note

Drafts are 720p with every license. With a paid license they cover the whole edit, without effects, for the fastest preview; on the Demo they are the first minute with every effect.

How to Activate

To activate your license key:

1. Launch Onset Engine.
2. Click the license badge (DEMO · UPGRADE on the free Demo) in the upper-right corner of the window. Help → Enter license key… opens the same window.
3. This will open the License & Activation dialog.
4. Paste your license key into the input field and click Activate.
5. Click Restart now. Onset Engine saves your project, closes and opens again with your license active. (Later keeps working as you are; your license takes effect the next time you open the app.)

If the key isn’t accepted, the dialog says why and what to do: a key that wasn’t recognized, a key already active on another PC (deactivate it there first), or no internet connection.

Activating needs an internet connection: Onset Engine checks your key with our payment processor, Lemon Squeezy, and Onset’s license service then confirms it for this PC. Once activated, the software works offline. When you’re online, it re-checks the license in the background at most once a day.

Licenses activated with an earlier version

If you activated your license with an earlier version of Onset Engine, it is confirmed automatically the next time Onset Engine is online. There’s nothing to do.

If your PC stays offline until after December 31, 2026, the badge in the header shows CONFIRM LICENSE and Onset Engine runs as the Demo until your license is confirmed. Connect to the internet, click the badge, then click Confirm now. If it says the license is confirmed on another PC, deactivate it there (or email support@onsetengine.com) and activate it again here.

How to Transfer a License

If you need to move Onset Engine to a new machine:

1. Open the License & Activation dialog on your old machine by clicking the license badge.
2. Click the red 🛑 Deactivate for Transfer button. This will revert the old machine to Demo mode and free up your activation slot.
3. Install Onset Engine on your new machine and activate your license key as normal.

(Note: If your hardware changes unexpectedly, you can manage your activations online via your account.)