Co-termination
All licenses in an organization share one dynamically calculated expiration date.
- New Dashboard organizations default to co-term, but Cisco recommends Subscription for new and renewing customers.
- Best fit for existing, simple, static estates that value one predictable organization-wide renewal date.
- Co-term has no Amber Mode; after its 30-day grace period, unresolved non-compliance can shut down the organization.
Subscription
Network-bound subscriptions with product-class entitlements and feature tiers.
- The MERAKI-SUB ordering SKU (Meraki Subscription ATO) reaches end of sale on November 19, 2026; Cisco lists CISCO-NETWORK-SUB (Cisco Networking Subscription) as its migration. Existing MERAKI-SUB subscriptions can be renewed or added to until November 19, 2028 and are supported through November 30, 2029.
- Terms run from 12 to 84 months, with customer-selected start and end dates; C9350 and C9610 smart switches and Secure Router SD-WAN licenses need at least 36 months.
- Hardware-agnostic SKUs can cover multiple devices within a product family; a network binds to one subscription at a time.
- Network product classes default to Essentials when bound until an administrator selects another entitled tier.
- Unified licenses add management-mode choice for supported next-gen wireless and switching hardware; availability varies by product class.
- Compliance is 1:1 per device and isolated by product class; eligible non-compliance receives a 30-day grace period.
- After grace, affected devices or networks lose Dashboard management but continue forwarding traffic; over-consumption uses last-in, first-out, and automatic grace requires the prior 45-day compliance window.
Per-device licensing
Device- or network-specific licensing remains available to existing PDL organizations; new conversions are closed.
- Cisco no longer accepts conversions into PDL and directs new planning to co-term or subscription.
- Existing PDL estates retain per-device expiration, renewal, and license-movement workflows.
- A PDL-to-subscription conversion requires Meraki Support and is permanent.