Skip to content

Transferring a license

A TEC license can be moved from one person to another — for example, when you sell your computer with the software pre-installed, when a freelancer wraps up a project and hands off their tools to the client, or when an employee leaves a company and the studio keeps the license.

This page covers how to do that.

Who can request a transfer

Either party can start the conversation, but the current owner of the license has to confirm in writing. That's the person whose TEC ID the license currently lives in.

If you bought the license, that's you.

What you can transfer

  • Perpetual licenses (Moonshine, Starlight) — yes, fully transferable.
  • Subscriptions (Owlette) — yes, but the new owner takes over the billing too. They'll need to enter their own payment method at the time of transfer; otherwise the subscription cancels at the end of the current period.

What we ask before a transfer

Before we move a license between accounts, we ask both parties to email us so we have a written record:

  • Current owner emails support@tec.design from the email on the TEC ID, saying "I'd like to transfer my [Moonshine/Starlight/Owlette] license to [new owner's email]".
  • New owner replies (or sends a separate email) confirming they accept the transfer.

Once we have both confirmations, we do the move:

  1. We deactivate the license on the current owner's TEC ID.
  2. We attach it to the new owner's TEC ID (creating one if they don't have one yet).
  3. We email both parties to confirm.
  4. The new owner gets a fresh license key. (We rotate the key on transfer so the old owner can't continue to use it.)

The whole thing typically takes under a business day.

What happens to the activated devices

When we transfer the license, any devices currently activated against the old key are released. The new owner activates their own devices using the new key. The old owner's installations stop working at their next check-in.

If you're handing over the actual computer along with the license (you're selling a workstation with the software pre-installed, for instance), let us know — we can coordinate the transfer so the new owner can re-activate immediately without a gap.

How often you can transfer

We don't put a hard limit on transfers, but as a rule we don't transfer the same license more than twice per year. If we see a pattern that looks like a license being passed around to dodge per-seat pricing, we'll get in touch and we may decline future transfers.

If you're a reseller or a studio that legitimately needs to rotate licenses through clients more often, talk to us — we have a separate arrangement for that.

Transfer fee

There's no fee for personal transfers (selling your computer, gifting to a friend, leaving a job).

For commercial transfers — where the license is part of a larger sale or a business reorganization — we charge a small admin fee, usually $25 per license. We'll let you know up front if it applies to your case.

Bulk transfers (mergers, acquisitions, studio sales)

If your company has been acquired, merged, or sold, and you need to move 5+ licenses at once, contact us at support@tec.design with the details. We have a bulk-transfer process that consolidates everything into one ticket, with a single signed assignment document for your records (and ours).

What you can't transfer

A few things we can't move:

  • Purchase history and invoices — these stay attached to the original purchasing identity, for tax and audit reasons. They're not moved with the license. If the new owner needs an invoice in their name, we'll instead cancel and refund the original purchase and issue a new invoice at current pricing.
  • Trial licenses — trials are tied to the email that started them, and they're free anyway. The new owner can start their own trial if they haven't already.
  • Refunded licenses — once a license is refunded, it's no longer a valid product to transfer.