License and domain authorization
One POM AI license key does three separate jobs: it identifies the account that owns the AI credits, it authorizes the current domain to spend them, and it authorizes private plugin updates. Most licensing questions become simple once you know which of the three is failing.
The two things a key controls
| Question | Answered by |
|---|---|
| May this site run AI operations and spend credits? | Domain authorization for the key saved on this site |
| May this installation download plugin updates? | The license used for updates, which on multisite is the network key |
On a single WordPress site these are the same key and the distinction never surfaces. On multisite they are deliberately different, and confusing them is the most common licensing mistake. See Configure POM AI on WordPress multisite.
Where to start
| If you want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Save a key and get a site working | Activate a POM AI license |
| Set up one ordinary WordPress site | Configure a single WordPress site |
| Understand the multisite model before touching anything | Configure POM AI on WordPress multisite |
| Let one subsite use AI | Authorize one multisite subsite for AI services |
| Get automatic updates working on a network | Understand the network license used for updates |
| Run several subsites from one subscription | Use one account across authorized subsites |
| Add a domain that is not the one you are logged in to | Authorize a domain to use POM AI |
| Know how many sites your plan allows | Understand domain authorization limits |
| Free a slot after retiring a site | Remove an authorized domain |
| Replace a key you think has been exposed | Rotate a license key safely |
| Decode a specific error | Troubleshoot license and domain errors |
Where the key lives
The key is stored on your site in the shared POM product-license registry, encrypted using a value derived from your WordPress security salts. After saving, the settings screen shows only a masked version — the first characters, then asterisks, then the last four.
Two consequences follow:
- You cannot read the key back out of WordPress. To see or copy it, use My Account → Licenses & Downloads on account.pom.es, where the owner can reveal it.
- Rotating your WordPress salts makes the stored key unreadable. The panel then asks you to paste it again. This is a designed safety property: a stolen database copy does not yield a usable key without the salts.
POM AI keeps no product-specific key option of its own, and it does not accept the retired public/private API key pair that earlier releases used. After the first successful validation on an upgraded site, that old option is deleted.
What happens when you save a key
Saving is not just storage. The key is validated against the account server first and stored only if the account accepts it. The same request activates the current domain, subject to the plan's capacity.
That ordering matters in practice: a typo can never destroy a working connection, because a key that fails validation is never written.
Credits belong to the account, not to the site
Every authorized domain draws from the balance of the account that owns the key it saved. Three sites sharing one key share one balance, and one busy site can consume what the others expected to use.
If that is a risk, set a per-domain spending limit in My Account → POM AI Management on account.pom.es. See POM AI credits.
When the account is unreachable
A validated license keeps working through short account outages. A transient network failure does not invalidate a site, does not clear the stored key and does not raise a warning notice. Only deterministic answers — an invalid key, an inactive or expired license, the wrong product, an unauthorized domain, a reached domain limit — mark a license as needing attention.
The practical rule: if AI stopped working and the License tab still shows a valid status, look at connectivity and credits before you look at the license.
Who can change what
| Installation | Who manages the license |
|---|---|
| Single site | Any administrator |
| Multisite main site and network | Network administrators |
| Multisite subsite | That subsite's own administrators |
Subsite administrators can manage their own site's service license because a subsite may belong to a third party. They cannot touch the network key, and nothing they do on their own site affects another subsite.