The Adobe Value Incentive Plan (VIP) and VIP Marketplace are Adobe’s volume licensing programs for organizations that buy subscription licenses for Creative Cloud, Acrobat, Adobe Stock, Acrobat Sign, Substance, Captivate, Presenter and Firefly.[2] Both are governed by a single agreement, the Adobe Value Incentive Plan Terms and Conditions (published and effective 15 July 2024), which describes VIP and VIP Marketplace as membership programs with License Terms. Section 4 of that agreement applies only to products licensed through VIP Marketplace.[1] The programs do not define license metrics of their own. They sell the Named User licenses, device licenses and Consumables described in Adobe Named User licensing, and add a calendar (the Anniversary Date), volume discount levels, multi-year options and ordering rules.
VIP Marketplace differs from VIP mainly in its ordering mechanics. Annual licenses renew automatically, the grace period for licenses added in the Admin Console is seven days instead of 14, and resellers order through a partner online ordering experience.[1][2] Some customers buy VIP Marketplace licenses directly from Adobe. Adobe calls this VIP Marketplace Direct, and in that case its Help pages treat the Adobe Account Manager as the reseller.[2]
Editions
Adobe describes four license term options. The table below summarizes the VIP Marketplace version. The VIP version is the same, except that VIP extends to four years only for educational institutions.[5][10]
| Option | License term | Minimum | Payment | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | 1 year | 1+ licenses | Upfront | Discount level possible from 10 licenses |
| Extended paid-upfront subscription | Up to 36 months; 48 for education and government | 1+ licenses | Upfront | Member selects the Anniversary Date before the first order; renews as annual |
| Term License | 3 years, non-renewing | 1+ licenses | Upfront | Named-user license without services or product updates |
| 3-year commit | Up to 3 years, through 2 renewals | 10+ licenses | Annually | Set discounted partner pricing for the term |
The Term License is sold as a 36-month extended term. Once activated it can be used offline for the length of the term, and it cannot be combined with the 3-year commit.[9] Adobe gives Acrobat Pro 2024 as an example. Sold as a term license, it does not include paid Document Cloud services.[5][9]
Metrics
The default VIP Marketplace offering is a named-user license. The Member must buy one license for each person, and only one user may use each license. Each named-user license allows two activations. The exception is Feature Restricted Licensing products, which activate on one device and include no Services.[9] The catalog records these as the Named User and Computer metrics.
Adobe calls some products Consumables: offerings that are “purchased, used, and then more may be purchased again”. In VIP Marketplace they include Acrobat Sign Transactions, Adobe Stock Subscription, Adobe Stock Credit Packs and Document Cloud Services APIs.[9] The corresponding catalog metrics are Transaction and Document Transaction. Discount levels are counted on named-user license quantity. Acrobat Sign Transactions have their own tiers, which are calculated independently.[3]
Counting / floors
Anniversary Date and proration
The Anniversary Date is the date by which licenses must be renewed. It falls twelve months after Adobe accepts the Member’s initial order (rule, VIP Terms §3.4.1).[1] Every license bought during the term co-terminates on it, and it is the basis for proration. Licenses added after the initial order are prorated for the time left until the next Anniversary Date (rule). With an extended paid-upfront term, the Member selects the Anniversary Date before placing the first order.[6]
Grace periods
Administrators can add and deploy products in the Admin Console before an order exists. Adobe must then receive an order within the Grace Period, which is 14 days for VIP (rule) and seven days for VIP Marketplace (rule).[1] If no order arrives, VIP stops the Member from adding more products until the added ones are paid for. VIP Marketplace removes the added products. Adobe’s VIP Marketplace Help states the same seven-day limit from the reseller’s side (rule).[8]
Discount levels
A VIP Marketplace organization that buys 10 or more licenses in a license term becomes eligible for a discount level (rule).[3]
| Discount level | Named-user licenses | Acrobat Sign Transaction tier | Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-9 | 1 | 1-999 |
| 2 | 10-49 | 2 | 1,000-2,499 |
| 3 | 50-99 | 3 | 2,500-4,999 |
| 4 | 100+ | 4 | 5,000-15,000 |
| 5 | 15,000-49,999 | ||
| 6 | 50,000-99,999 | ||
| 7 | 100,000+ |
Consumables do not count toward discount levels (rule).[9] Adobe also lists offers that do not count toward discount levels or the 3-year minimum, including Acrobat Pro 2024, Acrobat Sign Solutions Subscription for Government, Adobe Express for Education, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop Elements 2025, Premiere Elements 2025 and AI Assistant for Acrobat. Firefly, the Creative Cloud for enterprise All Apps K-12 School Site License and Creative Cloud Pro Plus for Students receive no volume discount at all.[3]
Under VIP the equivalent threshold is called VIP Select. A Member qualifies with a single order of 10 or more licenses, or through an automated look-back. Thirty-one days before the Anniversary Date, Adobe tallies the licenses bought during the term, and that total sets the discount level for the renewal (rule).[11] In VIP Marketplace the level at renewal depends on the qualifying license count on the Anniversary Date.[7]
Three-year commit
In a VIP Marketplace 3-year commit, the Member agrees that a set number of licenses, the Minimum Commitment, will auto-renew on its first and second Anniversary Dates. In return, Adobe offers set discounted partner pricing for the term. The Minimum Commitment must be at least 10 licenses (rule).[4] If the invitation is accepted before the committed quantity has been bought, an order that meets it must follow within 30 days. Otherwise the account is not enrolled (rule). For commercial and government customers, accepting the commit moves discount level 2, 3 or 4 to level 12, 13 or 14. Licenses added during the term get the set price but do not raise the Minimum Commitment. Sign Transactions and named-user licenses are committed and tracked separately.[4]
The option is not available with Linked Membership or with an extended paid-upfront subscription, unless the customer is in the last 365 days of its extended term (rule).[5] During the commit term, returns may not take the Member below its Minimum Commitment.[8] Under VIP, if the committed quantity is not renewed by the Anniversary Date, licenses bought at the commit discount may be returned, the membership reverts to Level 1 and all commit discounts end (rule).[11]
Consumables
Most Consumables must be used within a single License Term and expire on its last day (rule).[1] Stock Credit Packs are an exception. Unused credits expire 12 months after the order date, which may differ from the Anniversary Date (rule).[9] Members on an extended paid-upfront subscription have a separate Sign Transactions Reset Date. It falls 12 months after the first Sign Transactions order, and every 12 months after that, or on the Anniversary Date if that comes first.[6]
Renewal, true-up and returns
In VIP Marketplace, annual licenses renew automatically on the Anniversary Date at Adobe’s partner price for the qualifying discount level. This happens unless the licenses are changed or cancelled with Adobe at least three days before that date (rule, VIP Terms §4.2).[1] Resellers may set a longer change period. Promotional pricing reverts to standard pricing at renewal. Unassigning users in the Admin Console does not stop a renewal: the Member has to ask the reseller to place a smaller order (rule). If the Admin does not say which licenses to drop, Adobe removes licenses that were never assigned first, then the most recently assigned ones. Licenses that are not renewed are removed from the account and need a new order to reactivate.[7]
Neither the VIP Terms nor the VIP Marketplace Help pages describe a retrospective annual true-up of the kind used in enterprise agreements. Instead, licenses deployed before an order must be ordered within the Grace Period, and additions are prorated to the Anniversary Date.[1][6] Once a product is installed or accessed, it cannot be returned. Return requests must reach the Account Manager within 14 days of the original order (rule).[1] VIP Marketplace accepts returns only for licenses not in use. A Consumable cannot be returned once any part of it has been used. Migrating from VIP to VIP Marketplace waives return rights on VIP orders.[8]
License compliance
Members must keep records of installed and deployed copies, and must retain them for two years after the agreement ends. Adobe may audit installation and deployment no more than once a year, on 30 days’ written notice (rule). If the audit shows non-conformity, the Member must buy the necessary licenses within 30 days (rule). If material concerns remain, Adobe may conduct an onsite audit after ten business days’ notice.[1] The general process is described in Software license audit.
Regional deployment
VIP Marketplace Members must buy for the country where their users live. For this purpose, EU member countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK count as one country, “Europe”. Organizations with locations in three or more countries qualify as Global Customers. They may buy all licenses centrally from a reseller authorized in every region, or have each country buy under its own VIP Marketplace ID (rule). Licenses bought outside Russia and Belarus may not be deployed there.[8] Under VIP, products for use in the People’s Republic of China require a separate VIP Agreement (rule).[1] Device-based licenses are not sold in the PRC (rule).[10]
Programs
The catalog records the following program rows for Adobe:
- VIP and VIP Marketplace, the membership programs.
- VIP Marketplace 3-year commit and VIP Select, the commitment and discount overlays.
- VIP Marketplace Linked Membership. This lets affiliated organizations buy and manage licenses separately while combining their volumes for the discount level.[2]
- Extended paid-upfront subscription.
- ETLA, the enterprise alternative. Its contract terms are not public.
Out of scope
- Pricing. Adobe states that specific pricing is always set between the reseller (or Account Manager) and the Member.[2]
- Virtualization, partitioning and cloud BYOL. The VIP documents set no virtualization or cloud rules. The Computer definition, including counting each virtual environment as a separate Computer, is in Adobe Named User licensing.
- Education and government eligibility (VIP Terms Exhibit A) and the offerings specific to each segment.
- The 2025 retirement of VIP for commercial customers. This is described in an archived article. The current Adobe pages cited here still document both VIP and VIP Marketplace.
- ETLA contract mechanics. No public ETLA contract was found.