Licensing, Seats, and Telemetry
Free vs Paid Features
The Data Explorer, SQL Console, and connection management are always free — no account required. An account and subscription are needed only for running streams.
Evaluation mode
When you create an account, you start in evaluation mode — no payment required. Evaluation gives you access to the full product with the following limits:
| Resource | Limit |
|---|---|
| Seats (devices) | 3 |
| Load data | 500 MB (lifetime) |
| CDC runtime | 48 hours (lifetime) |
Your current usage is shown in the Evaluation Usage section of the Account page, with progress bars for both load data and CDC runtime. When either limit is reached, stream operations are blocked until you upgrade.
What happens when you upgrade
Upgrading to a paid Streams subscription removes the load data and CDC runtime limits. Your seat limit changes to the number of seats purchased during checkout — you can increase seats at any time from the Stripe customer portal.
Seats and Devices
Subscriptions are priced per seat, where a seat corresponds to an active device bound to your account.
How Device Binding Works
- Each device is identified by a stable
X-Install-IDheader sent with API requests. - When a new device first uses a valid API key, it is bound to your account (if seats are available).
- If binding a new device would exceed your seat limit, the request is rejected until you deactivate a device or increase seats.
- Deactivated devices are rejected for stream operations until reactivated.
Managing Devices
Device (seat) management is available from the Seats & Devices section of the Account page. From there you can:
- See how many seats are used out of your limit (e.g. "1 / 3")
- View each bound device with its label, status, and last-seen timestamp
- Rename a device for easier identification
- Deactivate a device to free up a seat
- Reactivate a previously deactivated device (if seats are available)
Required API Headers
All API-key-authenticated requests require two headers:
| Header | Purpose |
|---|---|
X-API-Key | Account authorization |
X-Install-ID | Per-device identity for seat enforcement |
Telemetry
DBConvert Streams collects minimal, non-PII telemetry to improve the product and enforce licensing.
What Is Collected
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
install_id | Random per-installation identifier (not personally identifiable) |
event_type | install or runtime |
deployment_type | docker, desktop, or server |
version | Streams version |
os | Operating system (linux, darwin, windows) |
arch | CPU architecture (amd64, arm64) |
distro | Linux distribution and version when available |
When Events Are Sent
- Install event — sent once during installation. No user identity is attached (anonymous).
- Runtime event — sent on first authenticated API usage. Links the install ID to your account for seat enforcement.
Install ID
The install ID is generated automatically on first launch. Both the API key and install ID are visible on the Account page in the app.
For Docker deployments, the install ID is set via the STREAMS_INSTALL_ID environment variable.