Esri licensing

Esri licensing covers how Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri) licenses ArcGIS and its related software, data, online services and developer products. All of it rests on two published documents: the Master Agreement, Products and Services (E204), revised 2025-08-01, and the Product-Specific Terms of Use (E300), dated 2025-11-13, which attach numbered footnotes of scope-of-use rules to each product.^[1][2] E204 applies unless the customer has a signed license agreement that supersedes it.^[1]

Esri’s model has moved from installed desktop licenses toward people-based licensing. Access to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, and to ArcGIS Pro, is bought mainly through annual user types, which are Named User Licenses. Self-hosted server software is licensed by cores, ArcGIS Online consumption is metered in credits, and larger organizations often buy through a multiyear Enterprise Agreement (EA).^[5][3] For a software asset manager the key tasks are to reconcile user types against organization members, count server cores (physical or virtual) for ArcGIS Enterprise, track credit consumption, and manage the move away from the deprecated Concurrent Use license type.

Product families

E300 groups products into families, each with its own footnotes:^[2]

The catalog lists the vendor-named editions as SKU rows without prices, since Esri’s store shows prices only by region: ArcGIS Pro Basic, Standard and Advanced; ArcGIS Enterprise Standard or Advanced; ArcGIS Enterprise Workgroup; ArcGIS GIS Server Basic; ArcGIS for Personal Use; and the ArcGIS Online Creator and Professional Plus user types.

How each family is licensed

User types

“A user type is an annual license and the primary means of accessing ArcGIS Online apps and capabilities.” There are six: Viewer, Contributor, Mobile Worker, Creator, Professional and Professional Plus.^[5] An organization starts by licensing at least one Creator, Professional or Professional Plus. The ArcGIS Online pricing page shows 500 credits included with each of those three, 250 with Mobile Worker and Contributor, and none with Viewer.^[5]

ArcGIS Pro is not sold as a separate desktop product in this model. “The Creator user type includes an ArcGIS Pro Basic license”, Professional includes ArcGIS Pro Standard, and Professional Plus includes ArcGIS Pro Advanced and ArcGIS Pro extension products.^[5][6] The extensions included with Professional Plus cannot be reassigned to other user types.^[7] Detailed privileges per user type are in Esri ArcGIS licensing.

Named User, Single Use and Concurrent Use

E204 defines the license types that Ordering Documents apply to each product. Named User credentials “are for designated users only and may not be shared”, and a Named User License may be reassigned only when the former user no longer needs access (Named User credentials may not be shared; reassign only when the former user no longer needs access).^[1] Under E300 footnote 7, a Named User may sign in to ArcGIS Pro on up to three machines at once but use it on only one at a time (ArcGIS Pro Named User: sign in on up to three machines, use on one at a time).^[2]

A Single Use license lets one user install ArcGIS Pro on up to two computers and use one at a time (Single Use: one user, installed on up to two computers, one copy in use).^[7] The Concurrent Use license type and ArcGIS License Manager “were deprecated July 1, 2025” (Concurrent Use license type deprecated July 1, 2025; not valid for ArcGIS Pro 3.7).^[8]

Server licenses

A Server License is a license to install and use Software on any computer used as a server, and “may be subject to a limited number of server cores”. Where the software description includes failover rights, each Server License includes a Failover License (Server Licenses may be limited by server cores; failover rights where the Software description includes them).^[1] E300 footnote 31 grants failover for ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS GIS Server and the optional capability servers.^[2] Esri’s licensing white paper sets a four-core minimum per ArcGIS Enterprise deployment at a physical location, with additional cores in two-core increments (ArcGIS Enterprise: 4-core minimum per physical location, 2-core increments; hyper-threads not counted).^[10]

Edition limits come from E300 footnotes. ArcGIS Enterprise Workgroup is limited to 10 concurrent end users of non-Workgroup applications, a single server and SQL Server Express (ArcGIS Enterprise Workgroup: 10 concurrent end users of non-Workgroup applications; single server; SQL Server Express).^[2] Editing functionality “is not permitted for use with ArcGIS GIS Server Basic and ArcGIS GIS Server Workgroup Basic” (ArcGIS GIS Server Basic may not use editing functionality).^[2]

Online Services and credits

Online Services are licensed as subscriptions for a limited term (Online Services Subscription).^[1] Premium services such as feature storage, analysis tools and premium data consume ArcGIS Online credits. Under E300 footnote 103, consumption draws down allocated or pre-paid units, and Esri may restrict access when consumption reaches 100 percent (Consumption-based capabilities draw down allocated or pre-paid units; access may be restricted at 100 percent).^[2] An organization that uses all its credits “enters a restricted state”, in which some capabilities are blocked but administration remains possible.^[9] Two further E300 limits matter for large organizations: the Standard Feature Data Store may not exceed 500 GB (ArcGIS Online Standard Feature Data Store limited to 500 GB), and ArcGIS Image services may be used only for “interactive, non-programmatic access by Named Users” (ArcGIS Image services: interactive, non-programmatic access by Named Users only).^[2]

Special-purpose licenses

• ArcGIS for Personal Use is “Licensed for personal, noncommercial use only” (ArcGIS for Personal Use is for personal, noncommercial use only).^[2] Esri adds that the personal and student licenses exclude use for the benefit of any third party, including commercial, educational, governmental or nonprofit entities.^[6]
• Trial, evaluation and Beta products are “licensed for evaluation and testing purposes only and not for commercial use” and do not qualify for Maintenance (Trial, evaluation and Beta products are for evaluation only, not commercial use).^[1]
• Educational programs may be used solely for educational purposes, not Administrative Use, unless an Administrative Use license is acquired (Educational-program products may not be used for Administrative Use).^[1]
• ArcGIS Project Delivery Subscriptions for consultancies require “a separate ArcGIS Project Delivery Subscription for each Customer client” (ArcGIS Project Delivery Subscription: a separate subscription per client).^[2]
• Governmental and not-for-profit organizations may use server Software for revenue-generating website or Internet services “on a cost-recovery basis and not for profit” (Governmental and not-for-profit websites may use server Software on a cost-recovery basis).^[1]

Purchasing programs and agreements

• Master Agreement E204. The default terms for Esri Offerings and Services, including Software, Data, Online Services, Professional Services, Training and the Advantage Program.^[1]
• Enterprise Agreement E512S (Enterprise Agreement). A multiyear agreement to deploy EA Products up to the quantities in the EA Addendum for a fixed EA Fee, with maintenance included.^[3] Esri describes customized, programmatic (small and medium organizations) and specialty (education and nonprofit) EAs, with a standard commitment term of three years.^[12] See Esri Enterprise Agreement.
• Selling programs for ArcGIS Online. E300 lists Commercial Retail, EAs, Government, Education and Non-profit programs, each with its own footnotes on permitted use.^[2]
• Consultants and contractors may host and use Esri Offerings “exclusively for Customer’s benefit” and must stop when the work ends (Consultants or contractors may host Esri Offerings exclusively for the Customer’s benefit).^[1]

Maintenance and support

Esri provides Maintenance under the Esri Maintenance and Support Program only for customers in the United States. Customers elsewhere obtain maintenance from their local Esri authorized distributor under that distributor’s own support policy (Customers outside the United States get maintenance from their local Esri distributor).^[1] The US program (J10044, 2026-07-28) gives customers current on Maintenance or Subscription access to technical support, new versions and patches, e-learning, Esri User Conference registration and ArcGIS Living Atlas subscriber content, varying by product and life cycle phase.^[4]

Renewals follow fixed rules. Esri issues a Renewal Quote about 90 days before expiration. A Subscription renewed after the quote expires is priced at then-current pricing “with any legacy or migration pricing forfeited” (Late subscription renewals are quoted at then-current pricing, forfeiting legacy pricing). Reinstating lapsed Maintenance on a perpetual license includes “the fees that Customer would have paid since the expiration date” (Reinstating lapsed maintenance on perpetual licenses includes back fees).^[4] Add-On Support Programs (Premium Support, Special Events Premium Support, NORUS and System Support Engineer services) run alongside a current support term.^[4]

Audit and compliance

E204 as retrieved for this article contains no general clause giving Esri the right to audit a customer’s deployments. The compliance mechanisms that do appear are:

• EA Deployment Reports. At each EA anniversary and 90 days before expiration the customer reports all Deployments, and on request provides “records sufficient for Esri to verify the accuracy of the Deployment Report” (EA requires an annual Deployment Report and supporting records on request).^[3]
• Hosted content monitoring. For Esri Managed Cloud Services, customers must provide information Esri or its hosting partner reasonably requests “to verify Esri’s or Customer’s compliance with this Agreement”.^[1]
• Technical enforcement. Named User licenses are assigned by the organization administrator through user types, consumption stops at 100 percent of credits, and EA Products are enabled by Authorization Codes.^[7][2][3]

The usual compliance risks are shared Named User credentials, embedding a credential in a Value-Added Application, service accounts used for more than one integration (System-to-system integration: dedicated Viewer (read-only) or Contributor (read-write) credential per third-party system), and server core counts that exceed the license on physical hosts.

Cloud and virtualization

Esri counts cores on physical or virtual machines, “whichever is more advantageous” to the customer, and does not count hyper-threads. In the cloud, where one vCPU may not equal one core, Esri refers to the provider’s physical core equivalency (Virtualization and cloud: license the cores of the VM; convert cloud vCPUs to physical core equivalents).^[10] A new version may run alongside the version it replaces for up to 6 months, as long as neither deployment exceeds the licensed quantity (New version may run alongside the old one for up to 6 months).^[1] ArcGIS Online is Esri-hosted SaaS, so no core counting applies to it. Esri may change Online Services and APIs with 30 days’ notice of material changes and 90 days’ notice of deprecations (Online Services changes: 30 days notice for material changes, 90 days for deprecations).^[1]

Recent licensing changes

• 2022-06. Esri stopped selling new Concurrent Use licenses for ArcGIS Desktop.^[8]
• 2025-07-01. The Concurrent Use license type and ArcGIS License Manager were deprecated.^[8]
• 2025-12-01. Maintenance renewal quotes for Concurrent Use switch to the equivalent user type, and conversions between Named User and Single Use or Concurrent Use in My Esri end. New Single Use licenses are needed for ArcGIS Pro 3.7 and later, and Concurrent Use licenses are not valid for ArcGIS Pro 3.7.^[8][7]
• ArcMap. ArcMap 10.8.x is deprecated and in mature support, with no further releases planned; Esri encourages users to move to ArcGIS Pro.^[11] Existing Concurrent Use perpetual licenses continue to enable ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.x, ArcGIS Pro 3.6 and earlier, and ArcGIS CityEngine 2025.1 and earlier into 2028, according to their life cycles.^[8]
• 2026-08-01. Premium Support Services (PSS) became Premium Support Essentials, Plus and Advanced; Premium Support Essentials no longer includes a technical account manager.^[4]
• 2026-08-21. Current Enterprise Agreement E512S published.^[3]

Guides

• Esri ArcGIS licensing: user types, Named User, Single Use and Concurrent Use rules, server core counting, credits, virtualization and cloud.
• Esri Enterprise Agreement: deployment quantities, Authorized Entities, Deployment Reports, optional years, ownership changes and what survives expiration.

Out of scope

• List prices and part numbers. Esri’s store shows prices by region, and they were not shown for the retrieving location.
• ArcGIS Location Platform, developer plans and Runtime or Engine deployment licensing (E300 footnotes 15 to 22 and 89 to 97).
• Data licensing (E204 section 3) and third-party data terms.
• Professional Services, Training and the Advantage Program.
• Terms of Esri distributors outside the United States.