Altium licensing is the set of terms under which Altium LLC sells Altium Designer, its electronics and printed circuit board (PCB) design software, together with the Altium 365 cloud platform and related servers. Altium became a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation when Renesas completed its acquisition on 2024-08-01, and the press release states that Altium’s CEO also became head of Renesas’ Software and Digitalization.[8] The licence model has moved from perpetual licences with annual subscriptions towards term-based subscription plans that bundle Altium Designer with Altium 365.
Altium’s licensing documentation describes three licence types for Altium Designer: On-Demand, Private Server and Standalone.[1] A fourth, the Altium Designer Viewer licence, lets a user view designs without a full-feature licence.[1] The software is licensed under one of two agreements. The End-User License Agreement (EULA), whose current version is dated October 2025, governs software specified in an order that refers to it, and the Master Services Agreement (MSA) dated 2025-10-02 governs Altium Cloud Services, On-Premise Software and Desktop Software ordered under it.[3][4] The licensing page for Altium Designer Agile states that its on-demand use is governed by the MSA instead of the EULA.[2] The two agreements are compared in Altium End-User License Agreement and Master Services Agreement.
Editions
Altium sells its software as platform plans. The retrieved pages name three: Altium Develop, Altium Agile Teams and Altium Agile Enterprise.[5][6][7] Altium Develop includes one Altium Designer Author, one Altium 365 Workspace and unlimited Workspace users for review, commenting, task management and BOM access, and Altium says teams with more than five ECAD Authors should consider Altium Agile Teams.[5] Agile Teams and Agile Enterprise both state that they include Altium Designer and Altium 365.[6][7] Their prices are not published on the pages retrieved. Detailed notes are in Altium 365 workspaces and subscription plans.
| Plan or product | What the retrieved page says it includes | Pricing on the page |
|---|---|---|
| Altium Develop | 1 Altium Designer Author, 1 Workspace, unlimited Workspace users for review | Extra Authors USD 995 per year each, up to 4 more[5] |
| Altium Agile Teams | Altium Designer and Altium 365[6] | Not shown |
| Altium Agile Enterprise | Altium Designer and Altium 365[7] | Not shown |
| Altium Designer | Desktop software with On-Demand, Private Server or Standalone licences[1] | Not shown |
| Altium On-Prem Enterprise Server | Server licence plus client access licences for data management and a licence service | Not shown |
| Altium Infrastructure Server | Free server that serves Altium licences offline | Free of charge |
Metrics
Altium’s agreements use several overlapping units. The documentation defines the seat as the individual installation of Altium software running on a PC, and each seat must have access to a valid licence.[1] The EULA licenses by Authorized Users within a geographic scope, defined as employees, contractors or other authorised representatives of the licensee.[3] The MSA adds two explicit models. A Named User licence is assigned to one identified person and cannot be shared even if the people do not use it at the same time, and a Concurrent User licence is limited to a maximum number of simultaneous sessions regardless of who uses them.[4] The Altium Develop plan counts Altium Designer Authors and offers unlimited review users, and Altium 365 counts Workspaces.[5][10]
Counting / floors
The number of seats is set when the licence is purchased and shown in the Company Dashboard and the licence tile in Altium Designer.[1][9] More seats can be added from the Dashboard, and under the EULA more Authorized Users can be added at any time by paying additional fees at the applicable pricing, provided they do not use the software before payment.[3][9]
Counting follows the licence type. With an On-Demand licence a seat is held only while the user is signed in to an Altium Account, and each Altium Designer instance on the same machine keeps its own seat.[1] Licences can be over-subscribed, because a group allocation may contain more users than seats.[9] A Standalone licence is activated once and shows one of one seat.[1] The geographic scope is the other main dimension: Single Site, Continental or Global.[3] See Geographic licence scope.
Virtualization & partitioning
Altium does not use processor or host-based metrics. The EULA forbids modifying the software to circumvent the Altium Security System, including by “any virtualization method or any method not yet devised”.[3] The retrieved documents do not state separate rules for virtual desktops or remote sessions, and each instance of Altium Designer holds its own seat.[1] Cloud and on-premises licence servers distribute seats to installations rather than counting virtual machines.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
On-Demand licensing runs from Altium’s cloud licensing service and needs internet access to the Altium Portal. Firewalls may need to allow amazontrust.com.[1] For sites that must stay offline, Private Server licences run from a Private License Service hosted on an Altium Infrastructure Server or Altium On-Prem Enterprise Server.[1] Altium 365 Workspaces are hosted on the Altium platform and need a purchased level of Altium product access.[10] The retrieved documents do not describe a bring-your-own-licence model for third-party clouds.
Programs
- Geographic licence scope. Single Site, Continental or Global.[3]
- Roaming. Offline use of a seat for a specified time, with no grace period.[1]
- Altium Subscription Service. Upgrades, updates and support. Perpetual licences can no longer renew it, and expired ones keep working without the latest updates and cloud capabilities.[1][3]
- Trade Up. A perpetual licence with an expired subscription can be traded up to a one-year term licence.[9]
- Auto-renewal. A time-based licence with Auto-Renewal renews unless either party gives notice at least 90 days before the renewal date.[4]
- Evaluation, Academic, Student and Individual licences. Restricted classes with their own eligibility terms.[3][4]
- Private License Service. The offline licence service.[1]
Audits and compliance
Both agreements give Altium a verification right. Under the EULA, Altium may request within 30 days “sufficient documentation to support, and certification of” compliant use. Under the MSA, the licensee must provide documentation, information and any physical access reasonably necessary to determine compliance, also within 30 days.[3][4] Use beyond the licensed number of persons ends the EULA immediately, and use outside the geographic scope under the MSA is a material breach that may end a perpetual licence.[3][4] Altium may suspend access if use exceeds the scope of the licence.[4] The Company Dashboard provides real-time and historical usage reports that Altium itself describes as useful for auditing On-Demand use.[9]