Yes. Previews and RC's expire. You need to upgrade to the current supported version (newer preview or final) even if its a free edition.
SQL 2025 release candidate - 180day expiration too for (free edition) express version?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(28.799999999999997, 10%, 12%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Salka, Milan
21
Reputation points
SQL 2025 release candidate - 180day expiration too for (free edition) express version?
SQL Server Database Engine
1 answer
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(211.20000000000002, 61%, 30%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EBS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Bruce (SqlWork.com) 79,526 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2025-08-27T17:39:03.3433333+00:00