Canvas LMS is distributed in three ways: as source code published by Instructure under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPL-3.0), as Canvas Cloud, the hosted commercial subscription, and, since 2026-09-30, as Canvas Lite, a free hosted account for individual educators. The repository README says Canvas is “open-source”, “developed and maintained by Instructure Inc.” and “released under the AGPLv3 license”.[2] The LICENSE file in the repository is the AGPL version 3 text of 19 November 2007.[1] This article covers what each route permits and requires. The subscription terms are in Instructure Master Terms and user count verification.
Editions
| Route | Licence | Cost and support |
|---|---|---|
| Public source (instructure/canvas-lms) | AGPL-3.0[1] | Free; users may charge for copies or sell support under the licence[1] |
| Canvas Cloud | Commercial licence under the Instructure Master Terms[5][8] | Subscription on an Order Form; support by Instructure |
| Canvas Lite | Canvas Lite Terms and Conditions[6] | No-cost product; limits below[7] |
Instructure describes the first two as one codebase with two licences. In its words the model is “one source code tree, but offering two licenses”: the open-source licence is “out there for the world to audit, use and augment”, while “the commercial license is what we sell and support”.[5] The repository FAQ says Canvas “is commercially dual-licensed” and that Instructure licenses Canvas “via the AGPLv3 to the open source community” while also offering it “via a subscription to many of our clients”.[4]
Metrics
The AGPL has no counting metric: it does not limit users, servers, cores or instances. Section 2 of the licence “explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program”.[1] A self-hosting institution therefore has no Instructure licence count to manage for the unmodified build, only AGPL conditions.
Canvas Lite introduces one metric. The catalog row Eligible User (Canvas Lite) records the Terms’ definition: the service is available only to individual educators employed by or teaching for an accredited educational institution, individual educators in homeschool or other small-group, non-commercial settings, and “School Personnel”.[6] It is not available to employees, contractors or agents of for-profit businesses, not-for-profit organisations or government agencies acting in their professional capacity, unless they independently qualify as educators in the first two groups.[6] Accounts the educator creates or authorises for students or other participants are “Linked Accounts”, and the educator is responsible for them.[6]
Counting / floors
Canvas Lite has fixed limits rather than a counting rule: “500MB of data storage and five (5) active, published courses with a maximum of fifty (50) students enrolled per course”. Instructure may delete content that exceeds these limits, and the service does not include API token access.[6] Every teacher who signs up completes an identity check with a government-issued ID and a selfie, and students invited by a teacher do not.[7]
The licence grant is “personal, revocable, limited, non-exclusive, and non-transferable” and is for non-commercial, educational purposes. Paid training programmes, commercial content delivery and revenue-generating activity are prohibited and a material breach.[6] School Personnel may not use the service “for corporate training, employee onboarding, professional development unrelated to academic instruction, commercial course delivery, or any other purpose that is not directly related to teaching or learning within an educational setting”.[6] A district that wants a shared tenant, a larger course, API access or a business use case needs an institutional subscription; Canvas Lite “runs on its own domain, separate from the Canvas environments that institutional customers use”.[7] For software asset managers the practical point is discovery: a Canvas Lite account used by staff is not covered by, and does not reduce, an institutional Contracted User Count.
Virtualization & partitioning
The AGPL contains no virtualisation or partitioning terms. Section 2 lets a third party run the work for a licensee, provided those running it do so “exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your copyrighted material outside their relationship with you”.[1] A hosting provider running an unmodified self-managed Canvas for an institution can fit this wording, but each case depends on the facts and on the contract.
Cloud / BYOL
The AGPL differs from the GPL in section 13, which is the part that matters for hosted use. If you modify the Program, your modified version “must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version” at no charge.[1] An institution that customises Canvas and lets students use it over the network must therefore offer them that source. Other conditions include licensing the whole work under the AGPL when conveying modified source (section 5(c)) and conveying Corresponding Source with object code (section 6).[1] A violation terminates rights automatically, with reinstatement if the violation ceases, subject to a 60-day condition in section 8.[1] See GNU GPL, LGPL and AGPL obligations for the general analysis.
There is no bring-your-own-licence route between the two editions. The FAQ says Canvas “runs on the exact same code as we release to GitHub” but lists “plugins and extensions that we don’t open source right now”, among them New Quizzes, MasteryPaths, Plagiarism Platform, proprietary SIS integrations, migration tools for commercial LMSs, a chat tool, the SCORM import tool, Catalog, Canvas Data, DocViewer, New Analytics and QR login code generation.[4] The page was last edited on 2020-05-19; verify current availability before relying on the list. A self-hosted installation therefore does not include these features unless it obtains them separately. Instructure says the commercial licence is “the basis for the Canvas Cloud solution”.[5]
Programs
- Canvas LMS open source. Public AGPL-3.0 source. The repository README points to the repository wiki for installation instructions.[2]
- Canvas dual licensing. Instructure keeps the copyright so it can offer the commercial subscription as well as the AGPL. Pull requests need a signed contributor agreement: “In order for us to continue to dual-license our Canvas product to best serve all of our customers, we need you to sign our contributor agreement before we can accept a pull request from you.”[3] The FAQ explains that the arrangement requires Instructure to “retain copyright over the Canvas project”.[4]
- Canvas Lite. The free tier described above. Instructure may “suspend or end the Service at any time at our discretion and without notice”, and its liability to a user who has paid nothing is limited to 50 US dollars.[6]
Out of scope
- Canvas Cloud pricing and the quantity basis of its Order Forms. See the Master Terms article.
- Third-party components bundled in the Canvas repository and their own licences.
- Trademark rights in “Canvas” and “Instructure”, which the AGPL does not grant.
- Legal advice on whether a particular modification or hosting arrangement triggers AGPL section 13.
- Instructure’s contributor agreement text, which the CONTRIBUTING file links but which was not analysed.