Hey,

License keys are only needed if you arr using enterprise features to my knowledge.

You'd log into n8n cloud, go to settings and there should be something regarding licenses where you can generate a new license. If you don't see any, it means you are not in the enterprise "plan".

I think when you deploy the n8n instance for the first time and create the owner account, at that time you will be popped up with an option to get the key. You should have received it over the email.

I receive a license key when I install a new N8N service with an email that hasn't been used before, try this.

That popup from your screenshot is exactly what I'm talking about and didn't get this time for some reason.

The license key can benefit people who are at lower tiers than enterprise. Even people on the hobby plan can benefit.

Someone way ahead of my understanding of n8n advised me to get the license key in place. I trust them and the popup itself indicates that you get paid features for free.

As stated in original post, I briefly set up a hobby plan on a different email address and got that popup and got the license key in place. I just decided it was better to use my work email for Railway/n8n so here I am doing this again...

Now I just can't find how to get the popup to show. That's what I'm trying to figure out here, is how to get my new license key sent to my the email I'm using on this new account like I did the last one.

I really don't understand why this is a problem this time

Thanks to everyone for help, but not resolved yet...

I installed the project https://railway.com/deploy/n8n-with-workers twice on different services, and the pop-up appeared both times. I used the same email address for both installations and received both emails normally. Could we be using the same template?

I'm using n8n with workers as well. No popup. As stated in OP I setup railway before and I did see the popup the first time I did this but not this time.

Even the first time I had problems with Railway. I saw the popup and signed up to get a license key but the email took days and days to get there. This was a known issue https://community.n8n.io/t/did-not-receive-activation-license-key-email-for-new-self-hosted-setup/231143

Now I didn't get the popup and can't even find where to sign up for the license key. My first experience with Railway was that something was broken and now I'm having even worse issues.

I really don't know what to do here. I want the license key in place, I'm not going to set up workflows until I know I have this. According to the course I'm taking the license key is necessary for some of what we're doing.

Again, help is GREATLY appreciated. This is incredibly frustrating. I'm spinning wheels before even getting started.

Thank you

Well, I really want to try to help you.

Based on what you sent now, ideally I would be able to access one of your N8N services, since you haven't configured workflows yet, I don't think that would be a problem.

If I can test your installation, I can see how it appears to me, according to the problem already known in the community, the problem may be related to Content Security Policy (CSP) or DNS/Network.

Testing here would be a good idea, since I don't have this problem in my installations.

When you go to settings -> usage and plan, and click Unlock, a modal opens to enter your email address. How does this work for you?

When researching this issue I keep seeing in multiple places that I'm supposed to go to "Usage and Plan" and find something there but on my account there is no "Usage and Plan" tab.

There is a "Usage" tab and a separate "Plans" tab. There is nothing that says "Unlock" or "Unlock selected paid features for free" or anything like that on either tab.

The interface isn't like that for me.

See attached image. I've showed what I see when the "Usage" tab is selected. Trust me, there's no unlock option on the "Plans" tab either.

Now I understand what's wrong.

Why are you looking for this on the Railway dashboard? The server has nothing to do with the N8N license key.

You should go to your N8N, Settings, Usage and Plans.

https://Your_N8N_URL/settings/usage

The key you need is managed by N8N, this has nothing to do with the Railway server.

That's it! Thank you! A head slapping newbie mistake.

Didn't remember exactly how I got it and the "Usage and Plan" tab vs "Usage" tab and "Plan" tab really threw me off.

Much appreciated. That's been driving me crazy.

I'm very happy to be able to help. Please mark my answer as "Accept answer" or "Mark as solved" so I can be rewarded for helping you solve this problem.

Done. Again, thank you!!!