diff --git a/CHANGELOG-EE b/CHANGELOG-EE
index 679437d58afd11c6d3fa6248241aee4cbd1410f7..73c29115d3b7f218eaff942a438a32f35aa23014 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG-EE
+++ b/CHANGELOG-EE
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Please view this file on the master branch, on stable branches it's out of date.
 
 v 8.8.0 (unreleased)
+  - Use current active user count to determine whether license is valid
   - [Elastic] Database indexer prints its status
   - [Elastic][Fix] Database indexer skips projects with invalid HEAD reference
   - [Elastic] More efficient snippets search
diff --git a/app/models/license.rb b/app/models/license.rb
index 2278725562766c4ea45f40d62dfe59b8f3bc728d..5211199c1f59799f0f677894f5841793fcd82763 100644
--- a/app/models/license.rb
+++ b/app/models/license.rb
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ def active_user_count
     restricted_user_count = self.restrictions[:active_user_count]
 
     date_range = (self.starts_at - 1.year)..self.starts_at
-    active_user_count = HistoricalData.during(date_range).maximum(:active_user_count) || 0
+    active_user_count = User.active.count
 
     return unless active_user_count
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def active_user_count
     overage = active_user_count - restricted_user_count
 
     message = ""
-    message << "During the year before this license started, this GitLab installation had "
+    message << "This GitLab installation currently has "
     message << "#{number_with_delimiter active_user_count} active #{"user".pluralize(active_user_count)}, "
     message << "exceeding this license's limit of #{number_with_delimiter restricted_user_count} by "
     message << "#{number_with_delimiter overage} #{"user".pluralize(overage)}. "
diff --git a/spec/models/license_spec.rb b/spec/models/license_spec.rb
index cb952eb6e74ed7759ad807207e8dd1930161d794..75afba4adf8ac31603643fa0d2ec231c65d1d038 100644
--- a/spec/models/license_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/license_spec.rb
@@ -23,10 +23,13 @@
       end
     end
 
-    describe "Historical active user count" do
+    describe "Active user count" do
       let(:active_user_count) { User.active.count + 10 }
       let(:date)              { License.current.starts_at }
-      let!(:historical_data)  { HistoricalData.create!(date: date, active_user_count: active_user_count) }
+
+      before do
+        allow(User).to receive(:active).and_return(Array.new(active_user_count))
+      end
 
       context "when there is no active user count restriction" do
         it "is valid" do
@@ -39,34 +42,8 @@
           gl_license.restrictions = { active_user_count: active_user_count - 1 }
         end
 
-        context "when the license started" do
-          it "is invalid" do
-            expect(license).not_to be_valid
-          end
-        end
-
-        context "after the license started" do
-          let(:date) { Date.today }
-
-          it "is valid" do
-            expect(license).to be_valid
-          end
-        end
-
-        context "in the year before the license started" do
-          let(:date) { License.current.starts_at - 6.months }
-
-          it "is invalid" do
-            expect(license).not_to be_valid
-          end
-        end
-
-        context "earlier than a year before the license started" do
-          let(:date) { License.current.starts_at - 2.years }
-
-          it "is valid" do
-            expect(license).to be_valid
-          end
+        it "is invalid" do
+          expect(license).not_to be_valid
         end
       end