Akamai Technologies licensing is the set of contracts and billing methods under which Akamai Technologies, Inc. and its Affiliates sell content delivery, application and network security, enterprise access and cloud computing services. Most of the portfolio is not licensed as installed software but provided as services. The Akamai Terms & Conditions grant a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right, during the Term of a Transaction Document, to access and use the Services solely for the customer’s internal business purposes.[1] The commercial detail sits in two layers. Each Transaction Document (an order form, quote or statement of work) names the Services, fees and Term.[1] The Services Page, incorporated by reference, holds the service descriptions, service-specific terms, billing methodologies, usage requirements and related licence provisions.[1] Akamai publishes that Services Page as a set of PDFs: Professional Services and Support, Service Billing Methods, Service Descriptions and Service Terms of Use, plus a page of software licence and use policies.[5] Akamai Cloud, the former Linode platform, follows a different model: self-service accounts sign a separate Master Services Agreement and pay hourly list prices.[8][10] For the general models, see subscription and consumption licensing.
Editions
Akamai does not sell editions in the sense of a software price list. It sells named services, each with its own description and billing method, ordered line by line in a Transaction Document. The Service Descriptions cover the full catalog, including Akamai Cloud compute and non-compute services, App & API Protector, API Security, Bot Manager, the Guardicore Security Platform and Prolexic.[3] The table groups the main lines by how they are measured.
| Product family | Examples named in Akamai documents | Typical unit of measure |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery and media | Ion, Dynamic Site Accelerator, Adaptive Media Delivery, Download Delivery, NetStorage[3] | 95/5 Mbps or GB delivered, Hits or Page Views, per Digital Property[2] |
| Edge compute | EdgeWorkers, EdgeKV, Akamai Functions[2][3] | EW Events by resource tier; EdgeKV reads, writes, deletes, lists and GB stored[2] |
| Application and API security | App & API Protector, AAP Hybrid, API Security, Bot Manager, Account Protector[3] | Traffic or requests under a Usage Commitment; per Digital Property[2][3] |
| Network security | Prolexic Routed, IP Protect, Network Cloud Firewall, Prolexic On-Prem[3] | Committed Information Rate (95th percentile); appliance subscription[3] |
| Enterprise security | Guardicore Segmentation, Enterprise Application Access, Enterprise Threat Protector, Enterprise Defender[2][3] | Agents and Management Servers; users in the identity store; locations[2][7] |
| Cloud computing | Shared, Dedicated, High Memory, Premium and GPU Linodes; LKE; Object and Block Storage[3][9] | Instance hours up to a monthly cap; GB stored; network transfer overage[10] |
Delivery services are covered in Akamai delivery billing and commitments, security products in Akamai security products licensing and the cloud platform in Akamai Cloud pricing and billing.
Metrics
The Services Billing Terms are the closest Akamai document to a metric booklet. They define the billing methods that Transaction Documents refer to.[2]
| Akamai term | Catalog row | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 95/5 | 95/5 | The 95th percentile of usage over five-minute intervals, for Services billed in Mbps, Gbps, concurrent users or GB stored.[2] |
| Usage in MB, GB or TB | GB delivered | Total use or its uncompressed equivalent as measured by Akamai, including Midgress Traffic.[2] |
| Hit | Hit | An HTTP request to an Akamai server to access an object, including redirects and error responses.[2] |
| Page View, MPV | Page View | Delivery of a text/html file, excluding 301/302 redirects and 404 pages; MPV is a million Page Views.[2] |
| Digital Property | Digital Property | A separately configured Site of at most one domain name and ten hostnames; the default unit for fees in a Transaction Document.[2] |
| User | User (connection); Enterprise user | By default a unique source and destination IP and port combination; for Enterprise Defender and Enterprise Threat Protector, users registered in the identity store.[2] |
| Agent | Agent | The Guardicore component installed on virtual machines, physical servers, endpoints, workstations or containers.[7] |
| Hourly rate and monthly cap | Instance hour | Akamai Cloud services accrue at an hourly rate, rounded up, until they reach the monthly cap.[10] |
The word “User” therefore has two different meanings in the same document. Under the default definition it is a network connection, not a person, while the enterprise security products count people in a directory.[2] A licence manager should check which definition the Transaction Document uses before comparing Akamai counts with an identity inventory. See named user licensing and concurrent and device licensing.
Counting / floors
Commitments. For a Direct Order the fees in the Transaction Document are committed for the Term and payable regardless of actual use.[1] Catalog: Committed fees are payable regardless of actual use. The commitment is therefore a floor: unused volume is not refunded.
Overage. One-time fees are billed in advance, monthly recurring fees monthly in advance, and overage monthly in arrears. If the Transaction Document sets no overage rate, the usage rate also applies to overage.[2] Catalog: Overage is billed monthly in arrears, at the usage rate if no overage rate is set. For Services billed in bits per second, an extra Superbursting charge applies to usage above twice the commitment in the top 5% of five-minute intervals.[2] Catalog: Superbursting charge above twice the commitment.
Scope of a line item. Unless otherwise indicated, every fee is per Digital Property, and a Digital Property may cover at most one domain name and ten hostnames.[2] Catalog: Fees are per Digital Property of one domain and up to ten hostnames. Adding an eleventh hostname or a second domain can therefore require another Digital Property even when traffic stays inside the commitment.
User true-ups. Customers on User-Based Billing report their actual Users every 180 days and pay overage per User. Akamai may audit the reported numbers no more than once in any 12-month period.[2] Catalog: User-Based Billing: report Users every 180 days, audit once a year. See true-up.
Price changes. Unless the Transaction Document says otherwise, its rates rise automatically by 3% on each anniversary of the Billing Effective Date. Published pricing, which applies to Services not priced in a Transaction Document, can change on 30 days’ notice.[1] Catalog: Contract rates rise 3% on each anniversary. The Billing Terms also let Akamai add Regulatory Cost Recovery charges and a Network Surcharge per GB for traffic served to certain high-cost network providers.[2]
Virtualization & partitioning
Akamai services run on Akamai’s own platform, so most of them have no processor or partitioning rules. Virtualization matters for the software components. The Guardicore licence counts Agents on virtual machines, physical servers, endpoints, workstations and containers alike, and it forbids pooling, multiplexing or “virtualization” techniques that reduce the number of servers, machines, Agents or users in order to exceed the License Scope.[7] Catalog: Guardicore prohibits pooling or multiplexing to reduce counted Agents. For Akamai Cloud, each Linode is billed as its own service, and a resize creates a new billable line item.[10] See virtualization and partitioning.
Cloud / BYOL
Akamai Cloud sells infrastructure, not licences, so there is no Akamai bring-your-own-licence program. Compute services are invoiced monthly in arrears, as set out on the cloud pricing page.[2] Customers running third-party software on Linodes remain bound by that software’s own licence; the Service Terms of Use make third-party tools and Marketplace components subject to the customer’s obligations and say Akamai is not party to transactions with those providers.[4] See cloud BYOL and Akamai Cloud pricing and billing.
Programs
- Committed fees. Direct Orders renew automatically for terms of equal length unless either party gives notice at least 60 days before expiry.[1] Catalog: Direct Orders auto-renew unless notice is given 60 days before expiry.
- Partner Orders. Services bought through a reseller, distributor or marketplace remain under the Akamai Terms & Conditions, but pricing, invoicing and payments are between the customer and the Partner.[1] Catalog: For Partner Orders pricing and payment are between customer and Partner.
- Overage Protection and DDoS Fee Protection soften overage charges; see Akamai delivery billing and commitments.
- Trial Services. Unless stated otherwise, a trial lasts up to 90 days from first use, and Akamai may extend, shorten or end it.[1] Catalog: Trial Services last up to 90 days unless stated otherwise.
- Professional services and support. Professional Services are charged hourly at the contract rate, or at Akamai’s then-current list price if no rate is set.[11] Standard Support is included with all Services unless the agreement says otherwise.[4]
Contract terms
Order of precedence. Where documents conflict, the Transaction Document wins for the Services it covers, followed by the body of the Terms & Conditions, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Data Processing Agreement and finally the Services Page.[1] Catalog: Transaction Document prevails over the Agreement and the Services Page. Licence agreements for software components are part of the Services Page, and any term in them that conflicts with the Terms & Conditions has no effect.[1]
Restrictions. The customer may not resell or sublicense the Services or enable third parties, including its own Affiliates, to use them through it; end users of the customer’s websites and applications are not caught by this.[1] Catalog: No resale or access by third parties, including Affiliates. The customer also may not bypass usage limits or use the Services for benchmarking or a competing product.[1] Affiliates may order Services by executing their own Transaction Documents, and each customer entity is responsible for the obligations under the Transaction Documents it or its Affiliates execute.[1]
Assignment. No assignment or transfer, including in a merger, sale of assets or change of control, is allowed without Akamai’s written consent, which may not be unreasonably withheld.[1] Catalog: Assignment, including on change of control, needs Akamai's consent. Where the Billing Terms’ Overage Protection language applies, an entity acquired after the Billing Effective Date may not use the Services under that Transaction Document without written agreement.[2] Catalog: Entities acquired after the Billing Effective Date are not covered.
Software components. Any API, SDK or other software component that Akamai provides for use with a Service is licensed, not sold, solely to access and use that Service, and may carry extra terms.[4] Catalog: Akamai Tools are licensed only to access the corresponding Services. Akamai lists separate agreements for products such as Guardicore, AAP Hybrid, API Security, the Enterprise Application Access and Secure Internet Access connectors, CloudTest, Prolexic On-Prem and several SDKs.[6]
Audits and compliance
The Terms & Conditions contain no general audit clause. Compliance is mostly enforced through metering: Akamai measures usage on its own platform and invoices overage.[2] Audit rights appear in specific constructs instead:
- User-Based Billing: one good-faith audit of User numbers per 12 months, at Akamai’s expense.[2]
- Aura LCDN: quarterly reconciliation of Workload Entitlements, which Akamai may audit quarterly.[2] Catalog: Aura LCDN Workload Entitlements are reconciled every quarter.
- Guardicore: an Installation Record of machines running the Software, Usage Audits with remote access, and invoicing of excess usage through the Channel Partner.[7] Catalog: Guardicore customers keep an Installation Record and accept Usage Audits.
Invoices must be disputed in writing within 60 days of receipt; undisputed amounts are then deemed accepted.[1] Because overage is billed in arrears from Akamai’s measurements, reviewing usage reports each month is the main control. For the general discipline, see software license audit and license compliance.
Out of scope
- Negotiated prices, discounts and custom units in individual Transaction Documents, which Akamai does not publish.
- Country-specific terms and the Data Processing Agreement.
- Consumer and small-business products such as Secure Internet Access SMB, and media SDK licences, which have their own agreements.
- Litigation. No court case about Akamai software licences, audits or licence scope was found in primary court records.