As of mid-2026, VMware (now Broadcom) has completely moved away from perpetual licensing. . Perpetual License Keys: Do not work with ESXi 9.
Unlike previous versions, Broadcom has not released a perpetual free tier for ESXi 9.0 Subscription Model: Licensing is now primarily bundled into VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) subscriptions Why GitHub License Keys Are a Red Flag vmware esxi 9 license key github updated