The MicroStrategy contract set consists of documents that the Terms page of software.strategy.com publishes together: the Master Service Agreement, Service-Specific Addenda, Territory-Specific Addenda, the Strategy Cloud (MCE), Managed Cloud Standard (MCS), Cloud for Government (MCG), Customer Managed Cloud (CMC) and MCE on Stack IT service guides, the OEM Terms and Conditions, and the Technical Support Policy, each in several languages. The page notes that prior versions are on an archive site.[5] The Master Service Agreement (MSA) “applies to any Order Form entered into between the Strategy contracting party … and the entity or person ordering Products”.[1]
Editions
MicroStrategy contracts do not have editions. The documents that apply depend on what is bought:
| What is bought | Documents that apply |
|---|---|
| Software (perpetual or term) and Cloud Services | MSA, Territory-Specific Addenda, any Product-Specific Addenda, the Technical Support Policy, and a service guide for any Cloud Service[1] |
| Technical Support, Education, Consulting | Service-Specific Addenda and the Technical Support Policy[2] |
| OEM embedding | OEM Terms and Conditions with the MSA[4] |
The MSA states the order of precedence: an Order Form takes precedence over the MSA and other addenda “solely with respect to your use of the applicable Products”, excluding conflicting provisions of customer proposals or purchase orders, which are “null and void”; Service-Specific Addenda control over the MSA only for the services they cover; and the English version controls over translations.[1] The Strategy contracting party, governing law and venue depend on the Ship To country, listed in Exhibit A; for the United States and Canada it is MicroStrategy Services Corporation, a Delaware corporation, with Virginia law and Fairfax County courts.[1] A customer with several order forms should note that “the latest version of the Agreement incorporated into an Order Form shall govern all of your other Order Forms”.[1] Catalog proof: The latest Agreement version in an Order Form governs all other Order Forms.
Metrics
Named User and CPU. The contract units are covered in MicroStrategy Named User and CPU licences.
DSI (support unit). Technical Support is sold per DSI, “a single Strategy One metadata database or a set of related Strategy One metadata databases (such as for production, development, testing, etc.) that will be accessed by the Products specified on an order”. Standard Support is the base level and Extended, Premier and Elite Support are add-ons “on a per DSI basis”.[3] A customer with separate metadata repositories for unrelated environments may therefore need separate support subscriptions.
Education Pass User. An Education Pass gives one individual global access to public training and includes certification exam fees; the Architect Education Pass covers courses and certifications for Architects and includes Expert.Now access, and the Analyst Education Pass covers those for Analysts. A pass may be reassigned once per term if the holder has not used it or has left.[2]
Counting / floors
Fees. “All payment obligations are non-cancelable and fees are non-refundable and not subject to offset.” Undisputed invoices are payable within 30 days; a dispute must be raised within 30 days or the invoice is deemed correct.[1] If an undisputed invoice remains unpaid for 30 or more days after it is due a late fee of the lower of 1.5% per month or the legal maximum may be charged, and if a payment is more than 30 days past due and Strategy has given at least 30 days’ written notice, it may suspend the right to use the Product and accelerate all unpaid fee obligations under all Order Forms.[1]
Excess use and audit. Excess use is invoiced “at our standard list prices from the date you exceeded the scope of your rights”, with the successor-price rule for discontinued Products, and Strategy may audit books and records no more than once per 12-month period where an audit is the only way to verify payment obligations.[1] See MicroStrategy License Manager, audits and compliance.
Term and early termination. Either party may terminate if the other materially breaches and fails to cure within thirty days (a failure to pay is a material breach), ceases operation without a successor, or becomes insolvent. The customer may terminate for convenience on written notice but remains responsible for all remaining amounts that would have been due. On expiry or termination the customer must stop using the Product, and may ask within 30 days for its Customer Data in Strategy’s standard database export format at no extra cost.[1]
Assignment. The customer may assign the agreement without consent, on prompt written notice, in connection with a merger, reorganization or sale of its assets or equity, to its successor, but if the transfer is to a Strategy competitor Strategy may terminate. Other assignments need consent.[1] Catalog proof: Assignment needs consent except to a successor, and transfer to a competitor allows termination.
Use restrictions. The customer may not use a Product to provide time-sharing, software-as-a-service, service bureau or similar services, may not use the Products to develop or train a competing product, and may not make benchmarking or operation analysis available to third parties without consent.[1] Affiliates buy through their own order forms, which “establish a new and separate agreement” with the Strategy entity signing.[1]
Reseller orders. An order with an authorized Reseller is an Order Form under the MSA, payment runs to the Reseller, the MSA supersedes conflicting reseller terms, and non-payment of the Reseller “will constitute a material breach of the Agreement”.[1]
Warranty. Products carry a warranty for the Order Term or, for perpetually licensed Software, six months from the order form effective date.[1] The existence of perpetual licences is also visible in the support addendum, which prices Standard Support for perpetual licences as a percentage of the licence fee.[2]
Support terms
| Topic | Term |
|---|---|
| Who is eligible | Only customers with an active Technical Support subscription[3] |
| Standard Support price | Perpetual licences: separately stated, priced as a percentage of the licence fee, provided for 12 months from delivery; term licences: included in the term licence fee[2] |
| Renewal | All licensed Products or none; no renewal for a subset[3] |
| Past-due invoices | Support may be discontinued and is reinstated on payment[3] |
| Support Liaisons | Standard: 2; Extended: 4; Premier: 6; Elite: 8[3] |
| Platform releases | About every 12 months, supported for 3 years with updates about every 3 months and patches as needed[3] |
| Compliance questions | Over-deployment found in a compliance case is referred to the Account Executive to realign the licensing agreement[3] |
Support is available only for platform releases, updates and patches that have not expired on the Product Support Lifecycle posted on the Strategy website.[3] Support excludes support for Web customizations developed with the SDK and for third-party software such as databases, operating systems and browsers.[3] Catalog proof: Technical Support must be renewed for all licensed Products or none.
End of full support for on-premises software
Section 4.7 of the Technical Support Policies states: “beginning on January 1, 2027 we will no longer provide full technical support, feature updates, bug fixes, enhancements nor security patches for on-premises software.” To continue support, customers “must purchase Extended Lifecycle Support for up to 24 months with such support period beginning on or after January 1, 2027 and ending on or before December 31, 2028”. It appears on the order as a “Tech Support Extension” SKU, is limited to critical security patches and technical assistance for the on-premises software, and may not be renewed beyond December 31, 2028.[3] The product documentation adds that December 2026 is the last supported release for server legacy tools including Developer, Command Manager and Object Manager.[8] For customers on perpetual on-premises licences this creates a dated decision: move to a cloud offering, buy Extended Lifecycle Support, or run unsupported. Catalog proof: From 2027-01-01 full support for on-premises software ends.
Virtualization & partitioning
The contract has no separate virtualization clause. Counting follows the CPU and Named User definitions, and the deployment-environment clause ties use to any operating or cloud environment named in the order form.[1] Support is sold per metadata repository (DSI), which in a virtualized estate means the number of related repository sets rather than the number of hosts.[3]
Cloud / BYOL
Cloud Services are covered by service guides that are part of the Agreement and that Strategy may update; the July 2026 MCE guide is one of several versions that the archive lists for 2026.[9] For Customer Managed Cloud, Strategy provides updates and customers must apply them, and for MCE Strategy delivers updates quarterly (instance-based) or monthly (container-based) within the Technical Support Services subscription.[6][7] The MSA licence to install On-Prem Software on servers operated by third-party cloud providers on the customer’s behalf makes customer-run cloud deployment possible under the on-premises grant, within the licensed Territory.[1]
Programs
- Standard Support. Included for term licences, priced as a percentage of the licence fee for perpetual ones.[2]
- Extended Lifecycle Support. For on-premises software from 2027-01-01 to 2028-12-31.[3]
- Cloud Elite Support. An MCE add-on with eight Support Liaisons.[7]
- Reseller orders. Resellers collect payment, but the MSA governs use.[1]
- OEM program. Under the OEM Terms the partner gets a non-exclusive, non-transferable, application-restricted licence to embed Products in its OEM Solution, must send quarterly sales reports and may be audited.[4]
- Trial Architect Education Pass. A 30-day trial for employees.[2]
Out of scope
This article does not cover the confidentiality, indemnity, data protection and liability provisions of the MSA in detail, the Territory-Specific Addenda, which vary by country, or consulting rates, which are on order forms. It does not give the content of the Product Support Lifecycle page, which was not retrieved. It does not cover Strategy’s rights under agreements other than those linked from the Terms page, such as a separately negotiated enterprise agreement.