MicroStrategy Named User and CPU licences are the two counting bases of the Strategy ONE platform sold by MicroStrategy Incorporated, now branded Strategy. The system administration help states that Strategy uses “two main categories of licenses”: Named User licences, “in which the number of users with access to specific functionality are restricted”, and CPU licences, “in which the number and speed of the CPUs used by Strategy server products are restricted”.[6] It adds that licences are managed differently according to the type bought, and tells administrators to refer to their Strategy contract for descriptions of the licence types.[6]
The Master Service Agreement (MSA) says an order form may specify quantities of Named User licences for the Software or, for on-premises Software, quantities of CPU licences.[1] The two bases interact: the CPU licences documentation says that “you cannot assign privileges related to certain licenses if the system detects that more CPUs are being used than are licensed”, so a CPU shortfall can block privilege assignment even when user counts are within limits.[5]
Editions
Strategy distinguishes licence types, grouped into Client products, Server products and bundles. The documentation says “there are two main types of licenses … that come with privileges: Client product and Server product licenses”, and that some licences and their privileges are sold in bundled packages.[3]
Client licence types
| Licence type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Client - Reporter | A consumer licence: “a runtime license that lets end users view reports, documents, and dashboards via browser-based applications”[2] |
| Client - Web | Access to the Web interface; for Analysts and Architects it supports creating analytics applications with create and edit controls[2] |
| Client - Architect | Administration and development tools including Workstation, Developer, Architect, Integrity Manager and Object Manager; it is used to manage project schema and build centralized data models[2] |
| Client - Mobile, Hyper (Web, Mobile, Office, SDK), Application (API, Tableau, Power BI, Google Workspace, Office) | Mobile apps, HyperIntelligence cards and gateways into other tools[2] |
Client - Reporter is a subset of Client - Web. A Client - Web user inherits the Reporter privilege set, but the inheritance does not run in reverse, so a Client - Reporter user does not obtain the Web privileges.[3] The three common user types, Reporter (consume), Web (author and analyse) and Architect (administer and model), therefore map to licence types in rising order of privileges.
Server licence types
| Licence type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Server - Intelligence | The architectural foundation that powers all clients except Client - Reporter[2] |
| Server - Reporter | The server product for Reporter clients; “required to use Strategy AI”; a subset of Server - Intelligence[3] |
| Server - Analytics, Distribution, Collaboration, Geospatial | Each described as an add-on available on top of Server - Intelligence[2] |
| Server - Transaction | Write-back functionality in documents, dashboards and mobile apps[2] |
| Server - Telemetry | Real-time capture and distribution of telemetry data[3] |
Bundles
The modern cloud bundles are AI Consumer User, AI Power User, AI Architect User, Cloud Reporter User and Mosaic Consumer User. The documentation says the first four “are the most comprehensive, modern product package offerings”, and files Cloud Consumer User, Cloud Power User, Cloud Architect User, Consumer User and Power User under legacy license bundles.[2]
| Bundle | Intended user |
|---|---|
| AI Consumer User | View, execute and interact with dashboards, HyperIntelligence cards, reports and documents; use Strategy AI and Mosaic Universal Access[3] |
| AI Power User | Create, design, save and share dashboards, cards, reports, documents and Mosaic models[3] |
| AI Architect User | Full control of Strategy AI to create and manage Strategy Cloud environments, with administration, development and testing tools[3] |
| Cloud Reporter User | View and interact with dashboards, reports and documents in a web browser; receive distributed reporting[3] |
| Mosaic Consumer User | Consume data from connectors such as Tableau, Power BI, Office and Google Workspace and view Mosaic models[3] |
The older bundles are composed of named licences. The legacy Power User bundle contains Client - Web, Server - Intelligence, Server - Analytics and Server - Distribution; the Consumer User bundle contains Client - Reporter, Server - Reporter and Server - Distribution; and the Cloud Architect User bundle contains Client - Architect.[2] Catalog proof: The legacy Power User bundle contains Client - Web, Server - Intelligence, Analytics and Distribution.
Metrics
Named User. Section 10.n of the MSA gives three cases: a single identifiable individual with unique login credentials; individuals who non-concurrently use a generic login credential, “collectively deemed one Named User”; and a single individual without login credentials who receives Reports directly from the Products.[1] The third case matters for distribution: a person who only receives scheduled reports can still count.
CPU. Section 10.h of the MSA defines a CPU as a physical core in a physical computing environment or a virtual core in a virtual computing environment, to which an instance of the Software is assigned, as identified by the operating system.[1]
Other units. Strategy AI Question and Standard User and Standard Architect belong to the managed cloud services (see the cloud article); Mosaic Universal Access user is a designated-user licence, and Education Pass User is a training unit with an Architect Pass and an Analyst Pass.[2][9]
Counting / floors
Privileges decide the licence. “In a Named User licensing scheme, the privileges given to users and groups determine what licenses are assigned to users and groups.” For example, the Web Use Filter Editor privilege is a Web Professional privilege, so assigning it to a user grants that user a Web Professional licence; if only one such licence exists and another user is given any Web Professional privilege, Intelligence Server displays an error when users log in to Strategy Web.[4] Catalog proof: Privileges assigned to users determine which Named User licences they consume.
A server licence for every user. Every user must be associated with a base server licence, “either the Server-Reporter or Server-Intelligence license”. By rule each client licence needs a corresponding server licence, so a client privilege automatically consumes a server licence, except Reporter privileges.[4][7]
Hierarchies in a worked example. The documentation gives an example of an enterprise with 2 Server - Reporter, 1 Server - Intelligence, 1 Client - Web and 2 Client - Reporter licences. Three employees use Reporter and Intelligence privileges between them. Because the Server - Intelligence licence inherits the Server - Reporter set and the Client - Web licence inherits the Client - Reporter set, the usage fits exactly in compliance. A second example, in which two employees between them need two Client - Web licences but only one is held, is out of compliance even after the inheritance is applied.[3] A customer can therefore be compliant with fewer higher-tier licences when the lower-tier privileges can be mapped upward.
Who is not counted. The Administrator user created with the repository is not counted in the licensed user count.[4] Disabled users do not count against the licensed user total in an audit.[11]
Environment floors. For both bases, the licence covers one production environment and up to two non-production environments.[1]
CPU counting. With CPU licences “the system monitors the number of CPUs being used by Intelligence Server in your implementation and compares it to the number of licenses that you have”. The example given is Strategy Web installed on two dual-processor machines, four CPUs, with a licence for only two.[5]
Managed cloud floors. Managed Cloud Standard is “sold on a per user pricing model, starting at 50 Standard User licenses and 2 Standard Architect licenses” and scales to 300 Standard Users; each user licence carries 0.5 GB of allocated memory, a minimum of 25 GB, up to 150 GB total.[8]
Virtualization & partitioning
The CPU definition counts virtual cores as well as physical ones, so a virtual machine to which an instance of the Software is assigned has as many CPUs as its guest operating system reports.[1] CPU affinity allows Intelligence Server or Strategy Web to be deployed on a selected subset of a machine’s CPUs, and the number of processors to be used must be supplied during installation.[5][10] The retrieved documents do not describe how CPU licences are counted across a clustered environment or when virtual machines move between hosts. See processor and core licensing and virtualization and partitioning for the general issues.
Cloud / BYOL
Named User licences apply in the managed services, where the licence types are delivered as bundles. The Product Licensing List describes Strategy AI User as “designated to specific users with unrestricted use of Strategy AI”, states that Strategy AI does not unlock Mosaic access, and says Mosaic Universal Access is included in the Mosaic Consumer, AI Consumer User, AI Power User and AI Architect User packages.[2] Software installed by the customer under a CPU or Named User licence may be placed on servers operated by third-party cloud providers on the customer’s behalf, in the licensed Territory.[1]
Programs
- Out-of-compliance warnings. Warnings escalate at 15 and 30 days, covered in the audits article.[4]
- Installation activation period. After installation the customer has 30 days to activate the installation.
- Trial Architect Education Pass. Each employee with a corporate email address may take a 30-day trial Architect Education Pass.[9]
Out of scope
This article does not cover pricing for licence types, which Strategy does not publish, the privileges contained in each licence type (the documentation points to a dashboard for them), or the legacy tools Developer and Command Manager beyond noting that December 2026 is the last supported release for server legacy tools including Developer, Command Manager and Object Manager.[4] It does not cover Strategy Mosaic or AI consumption, which are in the cloud article.