Activate and manage your SketchUp licence

Activation at a glance

Nowadays, you activate a SketchUp licence by signing in with your Trimble ID, not with a serial number. Open SketchUp, click Sign In, log in within the browser using your Trimble account, and SketchUp automatically links your subscription. You can use the licence on up to two devices at once.

Since SketchUp moved to subscriptions, your Trimble ID controls access. The old combination of a serial number and authorisation code only applies to classic, perpetual licences on older versions. Below, you'll learn how to activate, manage devices, handle assignments in the Admin Console, and what applies to classic licences.

Logging in with your Trimble ID

Activating a subscription is done entirely through your account.

1. Launch SketchUp on your computer.
2. Click Sign In at the top right or in the welcome screen.
3. A browser window opens where you enter your Trimble ID and password.
4. If required, confirm two‑step verification.
5. Return to SketchUp, which now recognises your subscription and unlocks the full version.

Always use the email address the subscription is registered to. If you work in a team, the administrator must assign your licence to your Trimble ID before you can sign in. Without an assignment, SketchUp won't detect an active subscription and you'll be stuck in the free or trial mode.

After your initial sign‑in, you normally stay signed in, even when you close SketchUp and reopen it later. So you don't need to enter your Trimble ID every time. SketchUp periodically checks in the background whether your licence is still valid, which requires an internet connection. If you work offline for a while, you may need to sign in again the next time you launch it.

Managing devices

With a subscription, you can be signed in on up to two devices at once – for example, a workstation at the office and a laptop at home. If you want to work on a third machine, you must free up a seat first.

• Sign out of SketchUp on one of the two active devices using the account menu at the top right.
• If you can't access that device, deauthorise it remotely through your Trimble account online.
• Then sign in on the new device.

This approach moves your seat without needing to buy an extra licence. If you lose a device or replace your computer, you remove the old activation via the deauthorisation step, freeing up the seat. Always sign out properly before you reinstall a PC or dispose of it.

The distinction between two devices and two concurrent sessions is important. You can install SketchUp on more than two computers, but you can only be signed in on two at the same time. The installation itself doesn't consume a seat; only signing in does. So you can, for instance, install it on an office machine, a home PC, and a laptop, and always sign in on whichever two you're working on at that moment.

Never share your Trimble ID with a colleague to save a seat. Multiple people on one account cause sign‑in conflicts and breach the terms of use. For teams, you purchase seats and assign them per person in the Admin Console.

Managing subscriptions in the Admin Console

Management of multiple subscriptions is shifting. Since April 2025, Trimble has been migrating administration from the Account Management Portal (AMP) to the new Trimble Admin Console. There you can view all your subscriptions, who they're assigned to, and how many seats are still free.

In the Admin Console, you assign a licence to an employee's Trimble ID. When someone leaves, you can reassign their seat to a new colleague. Bear in mind that you can reset an assignment once every 90 days, so don't swap users casually.

As an administrator, you also decide who gets admin rights themselves. You can appoint multiple administrators so that management doesn't stall when one person is absent. Each user needs their own Trimble ID, linked to a valid email address. Invite new colleagues through the console; after they create their account, you assign the seat.

The employee doesn't need to know anything about the console. Once you've assigned the licence, they simply sign in to SketchUp with their own Trimble ID and the full version works. As the administrator, you keep oversight, and signing in stays simple for the user.

Classic perpetual licence

Classic licences, also called perpetual licences, work differently. Trimble no longer sells them, but anyone who previously bought one can continue using the older SketchUp version it belongs to. These licences use a serial number and an authorisation code instead of a Trimble ID.

You activate a classic licence from the menu under Help then Licence, where you enter the serial number and authorisation code you received at the time. This activation is version‑specific: a perpetual licence for SketchUp Pro 2020 won't work on a newer yearly release. A classic licence can also be activated offline, which is handy on computers without an internet connection.

To update to recent versions, you switch to a subscription. The classic licence will continue to work on the version you bought it for, so you don't need to discard anything.

Keep your serial number and authorisation code in a safe place. If you ever need to reinstall the old version, for instance on a new computer, you'll need those details again to activate. Without the code, you can't put a classic licence back into use, and because Trimble no longer issues them, you can't simply retrieve a lost code.

Switching and renewing

A subscription runs yearly and you renew it through the Admin Console or the account page. Make sure your payment details are correct, because an expired subscription puts SketchUp into a limited mode until you renew. You won't lose your files, but you can only use the paid features again after renewal.

If you switch from a classic licence to a subscription, from now on you link everything to your Trimble ID and manage seats centrally. This makes moving between computers simpler, as you no longer need to type in codes.

• Before the expiry date, check whether you want to renew or switch.
• In teams, assign seats to the correct Trimble IDs in good time.
• Deauthorise devices you no longer use to keep seats free.

If you're unsure about paying yearly versus a one‑time purchase, weigh up how often you want new versions and whether you need central management. Working efficiently also saves time: read how SketchUp components and groups help you model faster, regardless of your licence type.

Education and trial licences

In addition to a normal subscription, there are education and trial versions that you activate in the same way with your Trimble ID. If you want to try SketchUp Pro first, you start a free trial. This gives you temporary access to all Pro features, including the CAD import that the free web version lacks.

For education, there are separate licences for students, teachers, and schools. These are assigned through an education account and are intended for teaching purposes, not commercial work. Activation is otherwise the same: sign in with the Trimble ID linked to the education licence.

• Trial version: temporary access to all Pro features to test.
• Student and teacher licence: linked to a verified education account.
• School licence: centrally managed by the educational institution.

When a trial or education licence expires, you switch to a paid subscription using the same sign‑in method. You won't lose your existing models; you just need an active licence again to keep using the Pro features.

Activation problems

If activation fails, work through these checkpoints.

If you work on a corporate network, a proxy or firewall sometimes blocks the connection to the Trimble licence server. In that case, try a different network or ask your system administrator to unblock the necessary addresses. If in doubt, check that your internet connection is stable, because activating a subscription requires online access.

Licence types compared

The table below compares subscription and classic licences, so you know which type you have and how to manage it.

If your software doesn't work as expected after activation, check whether your rendering plugin is compatible with the correct version – for instance, if Enscape doesn't work in SketchUp after an update. The latest management instructions are available in the SketchUp Help Center on licence management.