Anaconda licensing is the set of terms under which Anaconda, Inc. makes available the Anaconda Distribution and the package repositories behind it, Anaconda Core, the Anaconda Platform and the products it has added more recently, Kilo and Enkrypt AI. The central document is the Anaconda Terms of Service. It makes use of the “Platform” free for some users and requires a paid subscription for others, and it measures paid use in Users, a term that covers people and automated systems alike.[1] The question that matters most to a software asset manager is not which installer was downloaded but who is using Anaconda’s repositories and for whom.
Background
Anaconda’s package manager, conda, is open source, and the packages hosted in community channels such as conda-forge are provided by others. What Anaconda sells and restricts is its own curated Distribution, its maintained repositories (the main channel and related channels under repo.anaconda.com) and the platform services around them. Anaconda’s legal FAQ says the Terms of Service changed to a commercial model on April 30, 2020, and that downloading packages from the repository after that date requires a commercial licence for an organization of more than 200 employees or contractors, counting Affiliates, unless a free-use route applies.[2] In July 2025 Anaconda rewrote its terms. The Legal page describes the aim as clarity about who the terms apply to and introduces the principle that a product with an Offering Description falls under the Terms of Service, while products with separate terms are listed on its legal site.[2][3]
Editions
Anaconda’s pricing page presents four separately priced products rather than one ladder.[4]
| Product | Plans named on the pricing page | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Anaconda Core (secure Python package management) | Free; Starter at $15 per user per month; Business at $50 per user per month; Custom[4] | Per user |
| Anaconda Platform | One plan, flat per-organization pricing, no tiers or feature gating; managed cloud, self-hosted cloud or on-premises[4] | Per organization, by quote |
| Kilo (agentic coding) | Free and open source; Teams at $15 per user per month; Enterprise custom; separate inference options including Kilo Pass from $19 per month[4] | Per user plus usage credits |
| Enkrypt AI (AI security) | Explore at $0; Launch at $149 per month; Scale at $1,499 per month; Enterprise custom[4] | Per plan, with monthly credits |
The catalog records each as a SKU, for example Anaconda Core Business, Anaconda Platform, Kilo Teams and Enkrypt AI Launch. Product-level detail is in Anaconda Platform, Core, Kilo and Enkrypt AI plans. The pricing page carries a licensing note that users within organizations with 200+ employees or contractors, including Affiliates, require a paid Business licence, and that academic and non-profit research institutions may qualify for exemptions.[4] The Terms of Service themselves say “more than 200”, so the boundary case of exactly 200 is free under the Terms.[1]
Metrics
| Anaconda term | Catalog row | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| User | User | Any party, human or non-human, that downloads, installs, accesses or uses the Platform or an Offering[1] |
| Unidentified User | Unidentified User | Each instance of download, access or use without a username-based account or identifier[1] |
| Active User | Active User | A User with activity in the last 12 months[1] |
| Employee or contractor count | Total employees or contractors (including Affiliates) | The eligibility test for free use |
| Seat | Seat | A subscription seat an administrator assigns to a member |
The Terms count non-human Users explicitly: system or service accounts, agentic processes and AI agents, automated systems, CI/CD jobs, serverless processes and third-party connecting services.[1] The detail of counting is in Anaconda Terms of Service and User counting.
Counting and floors
Free use applies to an individual using the Platform for personal, non-commercial purposes, to use on behalf of an Eligible Academic Institution or an Eligible Non-Profit and Research Organization, and to a for-profit organization with 200 or fewer total employees or contractors, counting all Affiliates. A Business Plan subscription is required for a for-profit organization with more than 200 total employees or contractors that does not otherwise qualify.[1] Anaconda may request proof of eligibility.[1] The rules are recorded as Free use covers individuals, eligible academic and non-profit users and organizations of 200 or fewer and A Business Plan is required above 200 employees or contractors.
Because the headcount test includes Affiliates, it is an organization-level test, not a count of the people who use Anaconda. A parent with several subsidiaries counts the people of every entity that controls it, is controlled by it or is under common control with it.[1] A pilot team inside a large company therefore sits on the paid side of the threshold. Once an organization needs a licence, paid use is capped by the quantity on the Order, and more Users than the Order lists may be charged at Anaconda’s then-current pricing.[1]
What is and is not covered
| Item | Position stated by Anaconda |
|---|---|
| Anaconda Distribution installer and repo.anaconda.com channels (main, r, msys2) | Subject to the Terms of Service and the payment requirement[2][8] |
| Miniconda | Own EULA; no commercial licence needed to install, but one is needed when used to reach package updates from Anaconda repositories above the threshold[2][7] |
| conda-forge and other user-uploaded channels on anaconda.org | Payment requirements do not apply, although the Terms of Service apply as to hosted third-party content[2] |
| Miniforge and Mambaforge | Not provided by Anaconda; no commercial licence required[2] |
| conda itself | No licence required; the Distribution installer is separate software[2] |
Anaconda Distribution, Miniconda and conda channels works through these cases and the Terms of Service plugin.
Virtualization and partitioning
Anaconda publishes no virtualization or partitioning rule of the Oracle or VMware type. The nearest provision is the scaled enterprise deployment restriction, which requires additional payment for compute clusters, high-performance computing systems, supercomputers, burst compute frameworks, serverless computing and other dynamic scaling frameworks.[1] Because a User is counted per identified account or per unidentified download or use, the number of hosts or cores is not itself the metric.
Cloud and BYOL
The Platform can be deployed as managed cloud, self-hosted cloud or on-premises, and Anaconda describes cloud-based Offerings and on-premises Offerings in the licence grant, both limited to Internal Use.[1][4] No bring-your-own-licence mapping to hyperscaler instance types is published. Embedding Anaconda content in a product sold to third parties needs a separate Embedding licence.[1]
Programs
Anaconda for Education gives eligible higher education institutions free Starter Plan access for non-commercial, educational use, and the Non-Profit and Research Program gives eligible organizations free Free-Plan access and a 50% discount on a Business Plan.[5][6] See Anaconda academic and non-profit programs. Partner products that include Anaconda software are covered by an Embedded End User License Agreement, which authorizes use only within the partner offering.[13]
Audit and compliance
The Terms of Service let Anaconda verify the number of Users against the Order and require customers to keep accurate usage records for the Subscription Term and twelve months afterwards, supplied on request with reasonable notice.[1] On termination Anaconda may require evidence, such as a system scan report, that use has stopped and Anaconda content has been removed.[1] Anaconda’s documentation also describes registering conda clients with an organization token, which it says gives organizations visibility of use to help align it with licence agreements.[12] The command-line Terms of Service plugin records acceptance when conda reaches a channel that needs it.[8]
Anaconda has also enforced its terms in court. In August 2024 it sued Intel Corporation in the District of Delaware for copyright infringement over the Anaconda Distribution and associated packages; the complaint states that Intel had paid for licences that then expired.[11] The case is covered in Anaconda v. Intel.
Newer products with separate agreements
Kilo and Enkrypt AI are governed by their own agreements, not the Terms of Service. The Kilo Code Enterprise Services Agreement licenses use of the Kilo platform for the customer’s internal business purposes and bills Credits at the current per-token pricing of the applicable model unless agreed otherwise.[9] The Master Enkrypt Subscription Agreement licenses use for internal business purposes within the Authorized User and other limits of the Order Form.[10] The Terms of Service index lists both under separate terms.[3]
Out of scope
This overview does not cover the licences of the open-source packages distributed through Anaconda, which keep their own terms, or conda-forge’s own governance. It does not cover privacy, data processing or security attestation documents. It does not interpret how a contract with a reseller or an enterprise agreement with different wording would apply. See open source software licensing for the wider picture.