Collibra licensing is the set of terms under which Collibra sells its data governance and catalog platform, together with data lineage, data quality and observability, data marketplace, privacy, AI governance and related capabilities. The documentation center lists the product areas as AI Command Center, AI Governance, Control Tower, Data Access, Data Catalog, Data Lineage, Data Marketplace, Data Notebook, Data Quality and Observability, Stewardship, Usage Analytics and Workflow Designer, and publishes separate material for Collibra Platform Self-Hosted and for Data Quality and Observability (self-hosted).[10]
Collibra describes the Master Collibra Agreement (MCA) as “the underlying agreement that applies to all Collibra products, services and offerings purchased by customers”.[2] The MCA covers both the hosted Service and downloadable Software, bundled together as the Offerings. It is made with Collibra Inc. if the shipping address of the Order is in North America (the United States, Mexico and Canada), and otherwise with Collibra UK Limited.[1] Catalog proof: Collibra Inc. contracts for North America; Collibra UK Limited elsewhere; The MCA applies to all Collibra products, services and offerings purchased by customers.
The quantity a customer may use is set by its Order, not by a public price list. The MCA defines Usage Limits as the authorized scope of use in the Order, which “may include limits on users, copies, columns, instances, CPUs or consumption units, fields of use, or other metrics”.[1] In practice the documentation shows four families of limits: named users by licence type, the contents of a licence key, data quality jobs, and Collibra Units. They are covered in Master Collibra Agreement and policies, Collibra user licenses and seats, Collibra Units and AI features and Collibra Data Quality, self-hosted and public sector licensing.
Editions
Collibra’s public documents name packages but do not list their contents in one place. The Collibra Units factsheet refers to a “V3 & Standard/Premiere Package” and a “V4 Ultimate Package”, with included allowances of 70,000 and 100,000 Collibra Units per contract.[5] The Data Quality documentation uses a “Premier license (500 jobs)” as its example.[7] The licence key carries the package: it “contains package details such as included users by type, asset allowance, and product and capabilities included or purchased additionally”, and the Package page of the product lists the enabled products and capabilities.[4] Catalog proof: The licence key carries users by type, asset allowance and enabled products.
| Offering | How Collibra licenses it | Deeper article |
|---|---|---|
| Collibra Platform (cloud) | Users by Viewer, Contributor and Creator licence; licence key with asset allowance and products; Collibra Units for AI features[3][5] | Collibra user licenses and seats, Collibra Units and AI features |
| Data Quality and Observability (cloud) | Jobs allowance from package plus purchased bundles[7] | Collibra Data Quality, self-hosted and public sector licensing |
| Data Quality and Observability (on-prem) | Licence under the DQ Addendum within a Scope of Use[11] | same |
| Premium Support | Annual subscription with 24x5 support[8] | Master Collibra Agreement and policies |
Metrics
| Unit | Catalog row | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Viewer, Contributor, Creator licence | Viewer license, Contributor license, Creator license | Users of the platform in the new licence model |
| Read-only, Standard licence | Read-only license (legacy), Standard license (legacy) | Users in the legacy licence model |
| Collibra Unit | Collibra Unit (CU) | AI-powered features such as Copilot and description generation |
| Data quality job | Data quality job | Data Quality and Observability |
| Asset allowance | Asset allowance | Licence key; no figures are public |
| User; Scope of Use | User (Master Collibra Agreement), Scope of Use (on-prem Data Quality) | Contract definitions |
The MCA defines a User as “any employee or contractor of Customer or its Affiliates that Customer allows to use the Offerings on its behalf”, and says only Users may access or use the Offerings.[1] The documentation adds that users are determined “on a named user basis rather than on a concurrent user or shared user basis”.[3] Catalog proof: A User is an employee or contractor of Customer or its Affiliates; Users are counted on a named-user basis, not concurrent or shared.
Counting / floors
No circumvention. The MCA prohibits circumventing Usage Limits, “including restrictions on number of authorized Users, whether through the use of APIs or other means”, and prohibits using the Offerings on behalf of third parties.[1] Catalog proof: Usage Limits may not be circumvented through APIs or other means; No access for, or use on behalf of, third parties.
Soft limits. The product documentation describes warnings before any enforcement. When an organization occupies more licences than the maximum in its contract, the administrator receives a warning and all users keep access, although exceeding the maximum “can have financial and legal implications”.[3] Contributor and Creator seats carry a 20% buffer, and assignments are restricted only when seats stay above 120% for more than 9 consecutive weeks.[4] Data quality jobs follow a similar 120% rule with a 10-week period.[7] Collibra Units are rate-limited at 100% and paused at 120%.[5] Catalog proof: Contributor and Creator seats have a 20% buffer; beyond 120% for 9 weeks blocks new assignments; Data quality jobs have a 20% buffer; beyond 120% for 10 weeks stops new jobs; At 120% of CUs all CU-powered consumption is paused until an add-on bundle is bought. These technical safeguards are separate from the contract: the MCA says that if the customer exceeds Usage Limits it “will pay Collibra for its past and ongoing excess use at the rates set forth in the applicable Order”.[1] Catalog proof: Excess use is paid for, past and ongoing, at the Order rates.
Verification. On written request, no more than once annually except for repeated violations, the customer certifies in writing that its use complies with the MCA including Usage Limits. Collibra may also verify through ongoing consumption tracking in the Offerings (Usage Monitoring), which the customer must not block.[1] Catalog proof: Customer certifies compliance in writing on request, at most once a year; Collibra may verify usage through ongoing consumption tracking.
Virtualization & partitioning
Collibra’s cloud metrics do not depend on processors, cores or virtual machines. The one place where the contract lists hardware-type metrics is the Usage Limits definition, which includes “CPUs” among possible limits, and the on-prem Data Quality Addendum, whose Scope of Use may include “any user, copy, instance, CPU, computer, field of use or other restrictions”.[1][11] The retrieved documents contain no processor core factor or hard-partitioning rule of the kind described in virtualization and partitioning. Catalog proof: Usage Limits may be set by users, copies, columns, instances, CPUs or consumption units; Scope of Use may include user, copy, instance, CPU, computer or field of use.
Cloud / BYOL
The Service is “Collibra’s proprietary software-as-a-service” hosted by Collibra, so no bring-your-own-licence rule applies to it. The Software is the object code of Collibra’s proprietary software “delivered in a downloadable format for use within Customer’s own on-premise environment, or environment hosted or otherwise managed by Customer and not Collibra”.[1] The Software licence is “non-transferable, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive” and limited to systems under the customer’s control for internal business purposes.[1] Catalog proof: Software licence is non-transferable, non-sublicensable and for systems under Customer control. The SLA applies to the Service and not to Software.[1][12]
Customers who buy through an authorized Reseller pay the Reseller instead of Collibra, with scope of use and fees as stated in the Order the Reseller places, and the Reseller cannot modify the MCA or make commitments for Collibra.[1] Catalog proof: Reseller purchases are paid to the Reseller on the Reseller Order.
Programs
- Evaluation Agreement trial. Trial use is governed by the Evaluation Agreement: 30 days for the Service and 20 days for the Software, non-production only.[9] Catalog proof: Evaluation Term is 30 days for the Service and 20 days for the Software.
- Collibra Units included allowance. Every contract includes a CU allowance, shared across its environments and reset each contract year.[5][6]
- Premium Support. An annual subscription for support 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, with 24x7 for Severity 1 Incidents.[8]
- Affiliate Orders. An Affiliate may enter its own Order, which creates a separate agreement incorporating the MCA.[1]
- U.S. public sector agreements. U.S. public sector customers buy through Collibra Public Sector LLC under a Master Cloud Agreement (FedRAMP/GSA) and an On-Prem End User License Agreement (GSA).[2]
Out of scope
This article does not cover Collibra’s price list, discounts or private offers, which are not published. It does not cover the data processing addendum, the security policy, Collibra Marketplace partner offerings (which the MCA treats as separate “Excluded Marketplace Offerings”), or Collibra University and professional services in detail.[1] The public pages do not define asset or connector counts as billable units, so this article makes no statement about how many assets or integrations an Order allows.