Authorize a domain to use POM AI
There are two ways a domain becomes authorized: automatically, when you save a key on that site, or manually, from your account. This page covers both, and the normalization rules that decide what counts as "the same" domain.
The automatic path
Saving a key on a site authorizes that site's own host in the same request. For most installations this is the only mechanism you ever use, and Activate a POM AI license is the whole procedure.
Use the automatic path whenever you can reach the site's administration. It guarantees that the host WordPress reports and the host the account authorizes are the same value.
The manual path
Authorize from the account when you cannot, or do not want to, save the key on the site first — preparing several sites in advance, or re-adding a domain you deactivated earlier.
- Sign in to account.pom.es.
- Open My Account → POM AI Management.
- In the Manage AI Domains card, select Add New Domain.
- Enter the domain or the full site URL.
- Select Authorize domain.
The domain then appears in the list, and the site can use POM AI as soon as its License tab holds the matching key.
The form accepts either form of input. https://example.com/shop/ and example.com produce the same authorization, because only the host is stored.
How a domain is normalized
Before anything is compared or counted, the submitted value is reduced to a canonical host:
- the scheme, path, query and port are discarded;
- the host is lowercased and a trailing dot removed;
- an internationalized domain is converted to its ASCII form;
- a leading
www.is ignored when matching.
So example.com, WWW.Example.com and https://www.example.com/about are one domain occupying one slot. A subdomain is not: shop.example.com is a separate domain from example.com.
Environments
Each authorized domain is classified when it is added:
| Class | Detected from |
|---|---|
| Local | An IP address, localhost, a hostname with no dot, or a name ending in .local, .localhost, .test, .invalid or .internal |
| Staging | A name containing staging, stage, dev, test, pre or sandbox as a distinct part |
| Production | Everything else |
Detection is conservative. A site can declare itself as staging or local when it would otherwise look like production, but it can never declare itself production when the host looks like staging or local.
Local and development hosts are only accepted when the plan permits them; other plans reject them with a clear message. IP addresses are refused on the same basis. Staging domains are always accepted and always count against capacity, exactly like production ones.
When authorization is refused
| Message | What happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The maximum number of authorized domains for this plan has been reached | Capacity is full | Free a slot or upgrade the plan |
| This domain is already authorized under another license | Another POM AI license already holds this host | Deactivate it there first, or contact support if it is not yours |
| Local and development domains are not allowed by this plan | The plan has no local-domain allowance | Use a production or staging host, or a plan that allows local |
| The submitted domain could not be parsed / must contain a dot / contains invalid characters | Malformed input | Re-enter the plain host |
| This domain is blocked for this license | The domain was blocked administratively | Contact support |
Troubleshoot license and domain errors has the complete list.
Re-authorizing a domain you removed
Removing a domain does not erase its history. Adding the same host back reactivates the original record rather than creating a duplicate, which keeps the activation history intact and does not double-count the slot.
The practical effect: removing a domain to free a slot and later adding it back is safe and repeatable.
Verify
After authorizing, confirm from both ends:
- On the account, the host appears in Manage AI Domains, with the environment label you expected.
- On the site, the License tab shows a valid status and the same host on the Domain line.
- One small AI operation succeeds from that site.
If the account shows the domain but the site still fails, the site is probably reporting a different host than you authorized — check for a www mismatch on a site whose canonical URL disagrees with reality, or a site URL that still points at a previous domain after a migration.
Keep the list clean
Review the authorized domains periodically and deactivate any that no longer exist. A slot held by a retired site is capacity you have already paid for and cannot use. See Remove an authorized domain and Understand domain authorization limits.