TIA Portal Free Trial and Licences Explained (and What PLCSIM Needs)

Siemens offers a TIA Portal free trial: as a registered customer you can download STEP 7, WinCC and S7-PLCSIM V21 and test them for 21 days. S7-PLCSIM, the simulator that lets you practise with no hardware, is part of the same trial. We found no free permanent TIA Portal licence for individuals on Siemens' own pages.

Checked 26 September 2026 on Siemens' support and education pages, linked under this post.

What the TIA Portal trial includes

Siemens' V21 trial download entry covers:

• STEP 7 Basic and Professional, with STEP 7 Safety, for programming SIMATIC controllers.
• WinCC Basic, Comfort, Advanced, Professional and Unified, for HMI screens.
• S7-PLCSIM Standard V21, the simulator. Siemens notes that the PLCSIM V21 installation includes PLCSIM Advanced V8.0.

The downloads are large. The main setup image is 8.1 GB, a second image with hardware support packages and tools is 3.1 GB, and PLCSIM is 2.5 GB. Start the download well before the evening you plan to begin.

How the trial licence works

Siemens' installation notes for TIA Portal V20 set out the rules. When you start TIA Portal without a valid licence key, it tells you it is running in non-licensed mode and offers a one-time option to activate a trial licence. That licence expires after 21 days. After that, TIA Portal only runs with restrictions, and on a PC that has never been licensed, no licence-based actions can be performed at all.

Two practical consequences follow:

1. Activate it when you are ready to use it. There is one activation, so do the theory first and start the 21 days when you will open the software most evenings.
2. Archive your projects before day 21. Your project files stay on your disk, but you cannot keep working in them without a licence.

TIA Portal Cloud

Siemens also offers TIA Portal Cloud as a way to test TIA Portal free of charge for 21 days without downloading or installing anything. It is worth a look if your own PC is short of memory or disk space. We have not tested its limits, so read Siemens' current Cloud terms before you rely on it.

Is there a free TIA Portal licence?

Not for individuals, as far as Siemens' own pages show. Siemens' page for trainees and students offers free trial software, and for full licences it says your educator can order them for you through the Siemens Industry Mall. Commercial licences are bought from Siemens or its distributors.

Be wary of sites offering "free" or cracked TIA Portal licences. That is not licensed software, and installing tools from unofficial sources is a security risk on any laptop you might later connect to a plant network.

What PLCSIM needs

PLCSIM runs your program on your PC as if it were a real controller. For the S7-1200 exercises in our courses you need:

• TIA Portal with STEP 7, where you write and compile the program.
• S7-PLCSIM, from the separate PLCSIM image in the same trial entry.
• A valid licence. During the trial, the trial licence covers it.

In V21, installing PLCSIM Standard also installs PLCSIM Advanced V8.0. In V20, Siemens noted that PLCSIM Advanced was not included and had to be downloaded separately. For a first S7-1200 program, the standard PLCSIM is all you need. Our Factory I/O virtual commissioning course uses PLCSIM Advanced later on.

Will my PC run it?

Siemens' V20 installation notes list a minimum of an Intel Core i3 at 2.3 GHz or comparable, 8 GB of RAM, 20 GB of free disk space and 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, with some Windows Server editions also supported. The recommended specification is 16 GB of RAM or more and an SSD with at least 50 GB free. Every operating system Siemens lists is a Windows version.

Treat the minimum as a minimum. With 8 GB of RAM, close everything else while TIA Portal and PLCSIM are running.

Download and install, step by step

1. Sign in or register with Siemens. The trial is offered to registered customers.
2. Open the V21 trial download entry on Siemens' support site (linked in the sources below).
3. Download the setup image and the PLCSIM image. The second image holds hardware support packages and tools; for the S7-1200 exercises in our course you can start without it.
4. Check the checksums. Siemens publishes SHA-256 values next to each file, so you can confirm the download is complete and genuine.
5. Run setup and choose STEP 7, plus WinCC Basic if you want to build HMI screens.
6. Install S7-PLCSIM from its own image.
7. Activate the trial licence when you first open TIA Portal to start real work, not on the day you install.
8. Test it. Create a project, add an S7-1200 CPU and start simulation to confirm PLCSIM opens.

Plan your 21 days

Twenty-one days is enough for a beginner course if you use them well. What wastes them is installing on a Saturday, getting busy and coming back two weeks later with a week left.

• Do the theory before you activate. In our Siemens course, modules 1 to 3 need no software at all: what a PLC is, the scan cycle and 24 V DC wiring.
• Aim for most evenings. About an hour a night across the 21 days covers the software modules of a full beginner course.
• Save one project and keep adding to it. A single project that grows is easier to archive and show later than twenty test files.
• Take screenshots as you go, especially of programs running in the simulator. They are your evidence when the trial has ended.
• Save the final days for the capstone, not for catching up on lessons.

Common problems during install

• Security software. Siemens' installation notes list the antivirus programs they have checked for compatibility, and Windows Defender is on that list. If another product blocks setup, check that list before you disable anything.
• Disk space. The images alone are more than 10 GB before installation, so free up space first rather than halfway through.
• Administrator rights. Setup changes system components, so run it from an account with administrator rights, which is often not the case on a work laptop.

Which version should I use?

Our Siemens courses are built for TIA Portal V17 or later, so the current V21 trial is fine. Siemens still lists older trial entries, such as V20, if you are matching a version used at work or college.

If the trial runs out

• Keep learning the theory. The lessons, notes and final assessment in our courses do not need the software.
• Practise in CODESYS. Its development system costs €0 from the CODESYS Store and needs no licence, so you can keep writing IEC 61131-3 ladder and structured text with no deadline.
• Ask your college. If you study at a college or university, ask whether it holds Siemens licences through Siemens' education programme.

Trial or licence: which do you need?

If you are learning, the trial is enough. A beginner course, done steadily, fits inside 21 days of software time, and everything else can be done without it. You need a licence when you are doing paid work: commissioning a machine, maintaining a customer's program or building projects for an employer. At that point the licence is normally a cost for the business doing the work, not for you as a learner.

Learn TIA Portal free

Our Siemens TIA Portal course is planned around the 21-day trial: modules 1 to 3 need no software, so you activate the trial at module 4. The S7-1200 tutorial series is a shorter second route, and every Siemens course is listed under free Siemens courses. Learning is free in full. The optional certificate is a small one-off fee, from US$2.99 for a beginner course. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion with a verification code, not a Siemens qualification.

Take the free course

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

Siemens TIA Portal

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

Siemens S7-1200 with TIA Portal: The Tutorial Series

PLC programming · Intermediate · Free

Siemens TIA Portal Commissioning: Hardware, PLCSIM, Backups and Troubleshooting

PLC programming · Beginner · Free

CODESYS and IEC 61131-3 Programming