For years, every FiveM setup guide had the same second step: go to keymaster.fivem.net, enter your server's IP, and generate a license key. If you are following one of those guides today, you are following an outdated map. Cfx.re moved license keys, purchased assets, and subscriptions to the Cfx.re Portal, and the official FiveM documentation now points there and only there.

Short answer: Cfx Keymaster is retired. FiveM server license keys are created and managed on the Cfx.re Portal, bound to your Cfx.re account. Generating a key takes one field, a display name, with no server IP required. The key still goes into server.cfg as sv_licenseKey, exactly where it always did. If you ran a server in the Keymaster era, sign in to the Portal with the same Cfx.re account and your keys are managed from there.

What Cfx Keymaster was

Keymaster was Cfx.re's server key management site; its sign-in page described it as the place to "manage your server registrations." It was where you generated the license key that FXServer requires to start, where paid assets from the Cfx.re ecosystem were granted to your account, and where Element Club perks connected via Patreon. Its defining quirk was the registration form: generating a key meant entering your server's public IP address up front, which confused first-time owners who had not rented a host yet and annoyed anyone whose IP changed.

What changed, and when

The transition happened in stages, all announced on the official Cfx.re forum:

  • December 2, 2024:Cfx.re launched the Portal, described as a web experience to "better manage your FiveM/RedM servers, creations, and subscriptions," and announced that Keymaster "will be gradually deprecated as part of this rollout." New Patreon memberships stopped being accepted the same day.
  • October 15, 2025: the Assets and Grants pages inside Keymaster were deprecated; Cfx.re stated that all future FiveM/RedM asset management should take place on the Portal.
  • December 1, 2025: support for existing Patreon-based Element Club subscriptions ended; subscriptions now run through the Portal directly.

Today the server manual at docs.fivem.net has one instruction on the subject: "register a free license key on the Cfx Portal." Keymaster is not mentioned in the setup flow at all. The old keymaster.fivem.net address still serves a sign-in page as of this writing, but it is a leftover, not a workflow: keys, assets, and subscriptions are managed on the Portal.

How FiveM license keys work on the Portal

The model is account-bound. Your server registration keys live under your Cfx.re account on the Portal, alongside any purchased assets and your subscription, instead of being spread across separate tools. Creating a key follows the steps from Cfx.re's own support article:

  • Sign in at portal.cfx.re with your Cfx.re account.
  • Open the Servers section and go to Registration Keys.
  • Select Generate Key.
  • Enter a display name for your server and confirm.
  • The new key appears in your list of server registration keys.

Using the key is unchanged. It goes into server.cfg on the sv_licenseKey line, as the FiveM server manual shows: sv_licenseKey "licenseKeyGoesHere". FXServer reads the value at startup, so restart the server after you paste it in. If you are building your first server and want the full sequence around this step, our step-by-step server guide covers hardware, FXServer, txAdmin, and frameworks in order.

Migrating an existing key or server

If your server predates the Portal, the migration is mostly an account sign-in, not a rebuild. The Portal and Keymaster hang off the same Cfx.re account, and Cfx.re published support articles to guide the transition when the Portal launched. The practical checklist:

  • Sign in to portal.cfx.re with the same Cfx.re account you used for Keymaster.
  • Open Servers, then Registration Keys, and confirm your server's key is listed there.
  • Leave server.cfg alone if the key is present and the server starts: a working sv_licenseKey line does not need to be touched just because the management site changed.
  • If a key is missing or behaving oddly, generate a fresh one on the Portal (it takes one field) and swap the value in server.cfg.

While you are in migration mode, check the rest of your update hygiene too: an old server that predates the Portal usually also runs old server artifacts, and updating FiveM server artifacts is the companion chore. Our lesson on artifacts and txAdmin walks through that side in the FiveM Coach school.

IP changes and dynamic IPs: what actually breaks now

Under Keymaster, the IP field in the registration form made owners assume their license was tied to their address, and IP changes triggered key panic. On the Portal there is no IP field to keep in sync, so a new VPS, a host migration, or a home connection with a dynamic IP is not a licensing event.

What an IP change still affects is reachability. Your endpoints in server.cfg bind to a port (30120 on TCP and UDP by default, per the FiveM server manual), your router forwards that port to a specific local machine, and your players connect to whatever address the server list last saw. Move addresses and it is those layers, port forwarding, DNS, firewall rules, that need attention, not the license key. If players cannot find you after a move, work through our server list troubleshooting guide before you touch the key.

The license key model moved from address-bound paperwork to account-bound access. If your server disappears after an IP change, the problem is reachability, not licensing.

Troubleshooting

The server rejects the key

Check the sv_licenseKey line first: the full key inside quotes, no leading or trailing spaces, no line breaks from a bad paste, and only one sv_licenseKey line in the file. If the line is clean and the key still fails, regenerate it on the Portal: open Registration Keys, pick the server entry, select Regenerate, and confirm. Cfx.re's support article adds the step people forget: "Do not forget to update your server configuration with your regenerated server registration key." Paste the new value into server.cfg and restart.

The server starts but never appears in the list

A valid key gets you a running server, not a visible one. Visibility depends on your endpoints and firewall: FiveM uses port 30120 on both TCP and UDP by default, and both must be open and forwarded for the server to be reachable from outside. The full checklist, including the settings that intentionally hide servers, is in the server list guide.

The map changed, the route is shorter

The Keymaster era added a step that tripped up first-time owners at the exact moment they had the least context. The Portal removes it: one account, one dashboard, a key in one field, and no IP paperwork. If you are setting up your first server around that key, the full launch guide takes you from empty VPS to first player in the right order, and the FiveM Coach membership exists for everything the guides cannot untangle alone.