Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Sign licensing covers two related but separately licensed product lines. Adobe Acrobat is Adobe’s PDF application, sold to organizations as Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Pro and Acrobat Studio subscriptions for teams and for enterprise. It is licensed per Named User.[1] Adobe Acrobat Sign is Adobe’s e-signature service. It is licensed either per user, with a default Transaction allowance, or per Transaction purchased in advance.[4] Acrobat subscriptions include e-signature features, some of them “powered by Adobe Acrobat Sign”. Adobe’s terms nonetheless state that an Acrobat or Document Cloud entitlement does not include an Acrobat Sign entitlement.[2][3]
Acrobat is governed by the Document Cloud Product Specific Terms (18 June 2024) for customers under Adobe’s General Terms of Use. Enterprise customers use the Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Substance 3D PSLT (2023v1).[2][3] Acrobat Sign has its own documents: the Acrobat Sign Product Specific Terms (18 June 2024), and the enterprise Acrobat Sign PSLT (2023v2).[4][5]
Editions
Adobe’s business pricing page describes three Acrobat subscription tiers:[1]
| Edition | Positioning on Adobe’s plans page | Catalog SKUs |
|---|---|---|
| Acrobat Standard | Basic PDF tasks such as editing, converting, password protection and requesting signatures | for teams, for enterprise |
| Acrobat Pro | Everything in Standard, plus PDF comparison, redaction, bulk send of signature requests, brand customization and more | for teams, for enterprise |
| Acrobat Studio | Everything in Acrobat Pro, plus PDF Spaces, Acrobat AI Assistant and Adobe Express Premium | for teams, for enterprise |
Adobe positions the teams plans for small and midsize teams, and the enterprise plans for large organizations that need enterprise-level control, “with or without embedded e-signature capabilities”.[1]
VIP Marketplace also sells Acrobat Pro 2024 as a three-year Term License. It is paid upfront as a 36-month extended term, includes no services, product updates or paid Document Cloud services, and does not count toward discount levels or a 3-year commitment (rule).[6][7]
Acrobat Sign is sold as Acrobat Sign Solutions, as Licensed Transactions, and as an Acrobat Sign Solutions Subscription for Government.
Metrics
Acrobat is counted in Named User licenses. Acrobat Sign uses the Transaction. Adobe’s two Sign documents give the same size limits. The Acrobat Sign Product Specific Terms define a Transaction as each time an Electronic Document, or collection of related Electronic Documents, “up to 10 MB or 100 pages” is sent to an End User.[4] The enterprise PSLT uses “up to 100 pages or 10 MB”.[5] The Acrobat Services (PDF Services API) product uses a different unit, the Document Transaction, which is counted per API operation.
Counting / floors
Acrobat Sign per user and per Transaction
Acrobat Sign is sold on two models:[4]
- Named-user licenses. Unless the sales documentation sets another limit, each licensed user may send up to 150 Transactions in each 12-month license period. The allowance is aggregated across all licensed users in the account and does not carry over (rule).
- Transaction licensing. Transactions used beyond the Licensed Transactions must be purchased in advance. The Licensed Transactions quantity is defined as the customer’s planned usage for the term (rule).
VIP and VIP Marketplace describe the same arrangement as a good-faith estimate. If actual usage exceeds the licensed Transactions during the Subscription Period, the Member “has the right to place an order for additional Transactions”.[6]
Acrobat Sign in VIP Marketplace
In VIP Marketplace, Sign Transactions are Consumables. They expire at the end of the Subscription Period (rule) and cannot be returned once any have been used.[6] Transactions have their own discount structure, independent of the named-user discount level. It runs from tier 1 (1-999 Transactions) to tier 7 (100,000 or more), and includes levels for a three-year commitment.[7] Members on an extended paid-upfront term have a separate Sign Transactions Reset Date, every 12 months from the first Sign order or at the Anniversary Date if earlier. Transactions expire and renew on that cadence until the extended term ends.[8]
Acrobat Sign for Government
Under a Gov Subscription, any licensed user in the organization may use the Transactions, up to the maximum for the subscription level in the sales documentation. Notwithstanding the VIP Terms, the Transactions are aggregated across all licensed users (rule).[4] Adobe’s VIP guide states that this subscription is not a Consumable offering (rule).[9] It also does not count toward VIP Marketplace discount levels.[7]
E-signature inside Acrobat
Adobe’s plans page describes Acrobat Pro as including “a subset of Acrobat Sign Solutions features”: Fill and Sign, requesting signatures, signature status tracking and reminders, reusable signable templates, and signable web forms (rule). Acrobat Sign Solutions adds integration with business systems, advanced signer authentication, industry-specific compliance certification and workflow automation. According to the page, Acrobat Standard and Pro “do not offer the same level of compliance” as Acrobat Sign Solutions.[1]
The contract documents separate the entitlements. The Document Cloud Product Specific Terms state that Adobe may use Acrobat Sign to deliver some Document Cloud capabilities. They add that the Services entitlement “does not include any direct access to, or use of, Acrobat Sign”, which “must be purchased separately” (§4.3).[2] The enterprise PSLT says the same thing for enterprise customers (rule, §36).[3] Inventory and entitlement reviews therefore treat Acrobat seats and Acrobat Sign seats or Transactions as separate positions.
Restrictions on Acrobat Sign
The enterprise Acrobat Sign PSLT (2023v2) contains three rules that affect deployment:[5]
- User license transfers. Per-user Acrobat Sign may be deployed only to individual employees or contractors through a unique login ID. Shared, floating, generic, leased or shift deployment is prohibited, and a transfer requires deactivating the previous user’s account (rule, §11).
- Embed use case. A customer may not build Acrobat Sign into its own products so that its customers can send documents or administer Sign accounts. This “Acrobat Sign Embed Use Case” requires a partner agreement with different terms and pricing (rule, §12).
- Throttling. Without a jointly agreed plan for demand spikes, Adobe may throttle or queue the customer’s Transactions (§13). The Acrobat Sign Product Specific Terms contain the same clause.[4]
Virtualization & partitioning
Acrobat desktop software follows the Named User activation rules and the Computer definition described in Adobe Named User licensing: two Computers per Named User, not used simultaneously, with each virtual environment counted as a separate Computer. For enterprise customers, the multi-user access rule in the PSLT (2023v1 §1.1) also applies to Acrobat installed on shared or virtual desktops. The licensed quantity must cover every User able to access the software.[3]
Generative AI in Acrobat
According to Adobe’s generative credits FAQ, the Acrobat Pro single-app plan for individuals includes 25 monthly generative credits for standard features. Acrobat Pro for teams also includes 25.[10] Acrobat Studio is one of the “Shared Credit Products” whose Operations may be pooled with the Shared Credit SKU.[11] AI Assistant for Acrobat is a separate offer. It does not count toward VIP Marketplace discount levels.[7] See Adobe generative credits.
Programs
Acrobat and Acrobat Sign are bought through VIP, VIP Marketplace (including the 3-year commit, which tracks Sign Transactions separately from named-user licenses) and the ETLA. See Adobe VIP and VIP Marketplace.
Out of scope
- List prices. Adobe’s plans page renders prices dynamically by region, so no price list date is recorded.
- Acrobat Sign partner (embed) agreements, the Acrobat Sign India addendum, and Business Associate Agreements for HIPAA use.
- Acrobat Services (PDF Services API) metering, apart from the Document Transaction metric linked above.
- Cloud / BYOL. Adobe publishes no BYOL rules for Acrobat.