The Unity Hub is the preferred method for activating a Unity license. The command line is an alternate method for activating a Unity license. If those methods fail, you can activate your license manually if you have a serial key.
Note: The manual activation method works only with plans other than Unity Personal. To activate a license for Unity Personal, log in to the Unity Hub. To return a Personal license, log out of the Unity Hub.
Important: Manual license activation requires internet connectivity. However, the manual activation method requires internet connectivity for only one part of the process, and you can do that part on any connected computer; not necessarily the same computer where you’ll use Unity.
There are two options for manually activating a license:
Submit a license request using the command line and browser:
If you manually activate a license, you can’t return it by using the other license management methods; you’ll need to contact support to assist with the return.