Free evaluation and community licenses
Evaluation is free with no time limit; open-source projects, individuals, education and non-profits can use it free; production needs a license.
Classic consists of open packages and commercial components. Development and evaluation are free with no time limit; production use of commercial components requires a license, which the cases below can obtain for free. The commercial license is authoritative.
Ways to use Classic
| Path | Applies to | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| MIT packages | Core and ordinary extensions | Follow the package MIT license and third-party notices; usable in commercial and closed-source products; they do not include the complete Word product |
| AGPL packages | Classic shell, Canvas engine and View | Use under AGPL-3.0-only; closed-source use needs an agreement or a free key |
| Development, testing and evaluation | Commercial components | No time or feature limit, including local, CI and non-production staging environments; the interface shows an evaluation notice |
| Production | Commercial components | Requires an agreement, a free key, or the open-source value for open-source projects |
Commercial components do not lock features without a key, but unlicensed production use is still infringement. Do not hide the status bar, override styles or modify checks to remove evaluation notices; evaluation notices are never written into exported DOCX/PDF/OFD documents.
Open-source projects
Projects whose complete corresponding source, including the deployed version of any hosted service, is published under an OSI-approved license may use the open-source value in place of a key within that project, including in production. It removes the evaluation notices of commercial components, but is not a free key and grants no closed-source license for AGPL packages; the project itself uses the engine under the AGPL.
Free keys
The licensor may issue free keys case by case, for example to:
- individuals for personal, non-commercial use;
- schools and research institutions for teaching and non-commercial research;
- non-profit organizations for their non-profit activities.
Free keys are issued on request and are not an entitlement; each key states its permitted use, and the licensor may ask for reasonable evidence. Holders may also use AGPL packages closed-source within the key's permitted use. When a holder no longer qualifies, it has a 90-day transition, after which continued production use requires an agreement.
For other production use, see commercial use. For key setup and deployment checks, see license keys and deployment.