Primavera P6 Professional is a high-performance, project management software. As the standard for CPM scheduling, P6 can handle all types of schedules and projects, regardless of their size, type, or sophistication. You can use Primavera P6 to organize multiple portfolios and projects at once – even those with up to 100,000 activities.

If you are thinking about implementing Primavera P6 Professional, it may be a good idea to trial the program first. Oracle allows you to download Primavera P6 for free as a trial version with up to 30 days of access. This can be especially helpful if you sign up for a P6 training course – you’ll be able to follow along and practice, even if you haven’t purchased the program yet.

With a free trial version of P6, you can choose to set up the program with either a SQL Server or a SQLite database. In a previous article, I went over these two types of databases in depth, but in short:

• SQL Server databases allow you to use Primavera P6 to collaborate with other users. Different users can use the same projects and data simultaneously. SQL Servers allow for the creation of users and security profiles within the program. For instructions on how to set up a SQL Server database for P6, please refer to this article here.

• SQLite databases only allow one user to use the projects and data within it. This database type comes prepackaged with P6 – meaning it will be set up for you when you download Primavera P6 as a standalone installation.

In this article, we will cover how to download Primavera P6 for free as a trial version. First, we’ll look at how to install the application. Then, we’ll cover how to set up the program with a standalone SQLite database.

Step 1: Downloading Primavera P6

In order to download P6 for free, you will need to first create or log in to an Oracle account. You can do this from Oracle’s e-delivery cloud website here.

If you already have an Oracle account, you can select Sign In on the home page and enter your credentials. Select Sign In again to log in.

If you do not have an Oracle account, you can quickly create one for free by selecting Create Account. Simply enter in your credentials and select Create Account to create a free account.

Once logged in, you’ll arrive at the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud home. In the search bar, type in Primavera P6 Professional and select Search.

Several items will appear in the list. Select the latest version of Primavera P6 Professional Project Management – this will generally appear at the top of the list. As of September 2025, this version was Primavera P6 Professional Project Management 24.12.0.0.0.

Once selected, the program will display in your delivery queue. Near the top of the screen, you can select View Items to make sure you selected the correct program. Then, select Continue.

The next screen will display the Download Queue. Here, you can view the items that you’ll be downloading along with the file sizes. You can select/deselect items to customize the installation, but we recommend keeping these settings as they are. Once again, select Continue.

The Oracle Standard Terms and Restrictions window will open. You will want to read the license agreement, and then check the box acknowledging that you have reviewed and accepted it.

Then, select Continue.

The next screen will open the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud Survey. You can choose to fill this out if you wish, but this is not mandatory. To exit out of the survey, press the Feedback button.

Now, you’ll be able to see the files included in the Primavera P6 Professional application download. These files include the application, the database setup tool, the Integration API tool, and documentation.

Keep all these folders selected. Select Download, and the files will automatically download to your computer.

Within your Downloads folder, you’ll now have access to an .exe file. Again, this file name will vary depending on the version of P6 downloaded. At the time of writing this article, this file is Oracle_SSN_DLM_11042111.exe. Open this file by double clicking on it in the Downloads section of your browser or your Downloads folder.

The Oracle Download Manager will open. First, choose a location to save the application files to. By default, your Downloads folder will be selected, but you can change this location by selecting Browse. Once you have a location selected, press Next.

The downloaded folders will appear in the Download Manager, along with their progress. Leave this window open until all the folders are completely downloaded.

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Once complete, select the folder button at the bottom of the Download Manager. This will automatically open the folder that you had saved the files to.

Step 2: Extracting the Application Folders

The next step is to extract the application folders. Four folders will download to your computer during the installation process. However, you will only need to extract two of them: the application folder and the database setup folder. To find these folders, double click on each zipped folder — this will let you view their contents.

First, look for the database setup folder. This folder will contain another folder within it named P6_R2012_Database (the numbers may vary depending on the version you downloaded). Once you identify the zipped folder that contains that folder, right click on it and select Extract All.

In the Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders window, choose a destination to extract the folder to. By default, the folder will save to the same location as the zipped folder. Then, press Extract.

Next, do the same thing for the zipped application folder. The application folder will contain a folder within it called P6_Pro_RD2012 (again, these numbers may vary). Once you locate that folder, right click on it and select Extract All.

This time, when choosing a destination to save the files, check the box to Show extracted files when complete. Then, select Extract.

The extracted folder will automatically open.

Step 3: Installing Primavera P6

With the extracted folder open, double click on the P6_Pro folder within it. Within that folder, there will be another named P6ProfessionalSetup. Double click on that folder as well.

Lastly, double click on the P6ProfessionalSetup.exe file.

The P6 Professional Setup window will open to help walk you through the installation process. 

First, choose how to install the program. To use the default installation settings, keep Typical selected and press OK.

Then, in the next window, select Install.

After the installation is complete, a prompt will ask you what to do next. You will now need to set up the SQLite database, so keep Run Database Configuration selected and press OK.

Step 4: Setting Up the P6 Database

The Database Configuration window will open. By default, the program will create a database called PMDB. Here, you can adjust settings about your database.

First, use the Driver Type dropdown and select P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite).

In the next screen, select Add a new standalone database and connection. 

Then, press Next.

The next screen will allow you to adjust the login credentials for your database. By default, the Login Name will be set to admin and your Personal Name will be set to your PC’s user name. You can adjust both of these fields if needed.

You’ll also need to set a password. It is important to remember this password, because if you forget it, you could lose all the data you created and will need to create a new SQLite database.  

Lastly, choose a Name, Symbol, and Abbreviation for the Base currency that you’ll be using in the database. You can always change these settings within the P6 application later on.

With this information entered, select Next.

The last screen will allow you to adjust the Database Location, which is the location on your computer you will save the database to. If you need to adjust this, select the ellipses to look for a new location. 

There is also an option to Load sample data. This will preload P6 with sample projects, resources, calendars, and other data. I find this data to be very useful, especially for new users, so I recommend keeping this option checked.

Select Save to save your database settings.

A popup will appear, indicating that your database alias saved successfully.

You can now close the Database Configuration window.

Now, you can open Primavera P6 Professional. The program should be available from your Windows toolbar. If you have trouble finding the program, you can use the Search in your toolbar to manually search for P6.

The P6 Professional login screen will open. Enter in your login information and select Connect.

Congratulations! You have successfully downloaded a free trial version of Primavera P6 with a standalone SQLite database.

Remember, you can only use the free trial version of P6 for up to 30 days. Once the 30 days are over, you will no longer be able to use the program without a license. If you are interested in purchasing a license of P6, you can do that right from our store here.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please use the comment section on the bottom of this page, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get more scheduling tips & tricks directly in your inbox!

Lauren Hecker is a Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, and Oracle Primavera Cloud Instructor who teaches onsite and virtual scheduling courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!