Tableau Creator, Explorer and Viewer licensing is the way Salesforce licenses the Tableau analytics products, Tableau Server (installed by the customer) and Tableau Cloud (hosted). Tableau currently sells term licenses, also called subscription licenses, for which the customer pays a yearly fee; if the subscription expires, the software stops working.[1] Two metric families exist. Under the role-based model each user is licensed at one of four levels, Creator, Explorer, Viewer or Display. Under the core-based model, offered for Tableau Server only, the license caps the number of processor cores instead of the number of users. On top of either model sit a license edition (Standard, Enterprise, Tableau Cloud+, Tableau+ Bundle or Tableau Server+) and, for older contracts, separately licensed features.
Tableau documents these rules in its Help pages rather than in a product-terms PDF, and those pages are not date-stamped. The executed Order Form is the contractual record of quantities.
Editions
Tableau calls its packages license editions. An edition is a suite of features to which all users are entitled, and editions cannot be mixed within a deployment: every user on a deployment must be on the same edition (rule).[1]
| Edition | Available for | What Tableau Help says it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server | Base edition: access for each licensed user, governance, collaboration, data prep and visual analytics |
| Enterprise | Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server | Advanced administration, security and data management for larger, more complex environments |
| Tableau Cloud+ | Tableau Cloud only | Premium AI functionality with Tableau Agent, a 50 site limit, Release Preview and Premier Success |
| Tableau+ Bundle | Tableau Cloud | Agentic analytics with Tableau Next, plus the Tableau Cloud+ edition license |
| Tableau Server+ | Tableau Server | One production and up to six additional non-production environments, pre-built containers, premium success support |
The editions are recorded as catalog SKUs: Tableau Cloud+ Edition, Tableau+ Bundle, Tableau Enterprise Edition and Tableau Server+ Edition. Tableau Help publishes no list prices.
As of 16 September 2024, Advanced Management and Data Management are no longer sold as independent add-ons. Their capabilities are available only to customers who bought them earlier or who buy Tableau Enterprise, Tableau Cloud+ or Tableau+ Bundle (Tableau Cloud), or Tableau Enterprise or Tableau Server+ (Tableau Server) (rule).[1]
Metrics
Each metric below is a catalog row that quotes Tableau’s definition.
- Creator: everything an Explorer can do, plus creating and publishing workbooks from new data sources, editing embedded data sources, creating new data connections, and use of Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder, which can be activated by signing in (login-based license management).
- Explorer: Viewer capabilities plus workbook authoring in a web browser and the full set of collaboration features. Tableau Help describes it as similar to the user-based licenses of earlier Tableau Server releases.
- Viewer: view and interact with workbooks, use Tableau Mobile, comment, export visuals, download summary data, subscribe oneself and receive data-driven alerts.
- Display: shows dashboards on shared screens to a broad internal audience with no interaction. There is no separate site role. The administrator creates a dedicated login account for each licensed display location and gives it the Viewer site role at most.
- Core (Tableau Server): the maximum number of computer cores on which Tableau Server may run, with no limit on user accounts.
- Resource Core: the computing power used to run Tableau Prep Conductor flows under Data Management.
- User-Based Embedded Analytics Server license: a usage-based license for embedding Tableau Server content in a solution that faces people outside the organization. End users are counted by the portal account they sign in with.
- Private Connect data usage (terabyte): data sent and received over a Tableau Cloud private connection. The data is bought in blocks and billed per terabyte, and each private connection needs its own add-on license.[1]
Counting / floors
Licenses, site roles and permissions
Tableau separates three layers. A license belongs to the user. A site role is set per site and caps what the user can do on that site. Permissions are granted on content such as projects, workbooks and data sources.[2] A user’s effective rights are where the three overlap. Tableau’s own example is a user who holds a Creator license because of another site, has the Explorer site role on this site and has the Save capability on a project here. That user still cannot publish on this site, because the Explorer site role does not allow saving.[2]
The license consumed follows from the highest site role:
| License consumed | Site roles |
|---|---|
| Creator | Server Administrator (when Creator is the highest license activated), Site Administrator Creator, Creator |
| Explorer (at least) | Server Administrator (when Explorer is the highest license activated), Site Administrator Explorer, Explorer (can publish), Explorer |
| Viewer (at least) | Viewer |
| None | Unlicensed: cannot sign in |
On Tableau Cloud a user consumes only one license per tenant, even when they belong to several sites. The level is set by their highest site role, so a Creator on one site who is a Viewer on two others consumes one Creator license (rule).[3] On Tableau Server, a user’s license likewise applies to every site they belong to.[2]
Role-based deployments
Under role-based licensing, each user who accesses Tableau Server must be licensed and assigned a role, and administrators can add users only up to the licenses available of each type (rule).[1] Three details affect the count:
- Administrators. Tableau Server Administrators always take the highest role available. If a Creator license is activated, administrators consume Creator licenses. Adding Creator capacity to a server that had only Explorer licenses converts existing administrators to Creator. Accounts that only administer Tableau Services Manager (TSM) need no license (rule).[1]
- Site role limits. A server administrator can cap how many Creator, Explorer and Viewer licenses each site may use. A user who belongs to several sites counts against each site’s limit but consumes only one license, the one matching their highest site role on the server. Server administrators do not count against site limits (rule).[4] When a site reaches its Explorer limit, a new Explorer is given a Creator license if one is free. Otherwise the user is added as Unlicensed.[4]
- Legacy interactors. A valid Server Interactor key activated on version 2020.4 or later has its Interactor count mapped to the Explorer role (rule).[1]
Core-based deployments
A core-based license limits the total number of cores across all the computers in a Tableau Server cluster. Only computers that run at least one licensed process count. If a computer has one or more licensed processes installed, all of its cores count toward the total (rule).[1] Core licensing allows a practically unlimited number of Explorer and Viewer users and permits a Guest User account, which role-based licensing does not. It includes no Creator seats, however (rule). Because new data sources can only be published by a Creator, or from a licensed Tableau Desktop by a user with the Explorer (can publish) role, a core-based server needs at least one role-based Creator license or a legacy Tableau Desktop key. A Creator license added to a core-based server is consumed by an administrator first. Non-administrators can receive the Creator role only after every administrator holds a Creator license.[1]
Feature licenses and Resource Cores
Data Management, Advanced Management and Login-based License Management are licensed “all or none”. A feature bought as a separate license must cover every user, or all cores, in the deployment. The deployment includes the licensed production installation and the licensed non-production installations that support it (rule).[1] A core-based server that uses Data Management must buy at least four Resource Cores, which the Enterprise edition includes (rule).[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Tableau Help counts cores on every computer, physical or virtual, that runs a licensed process. It publishes no separate hard-partition or hypervisor rule for Tableau Server beyond the licensed-process test described above.[1] Embedded Analytics licenses cannot run in the same environment as full-use licenses. Existing full-use licenses must be deactivated before an Embedded Analytics license is activated (rule).[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Tableau Cloud is a hosted service, so the core-based model and Guest User account do not apply to it. Tableau Help publishes no bring-your-own-license rule that turns Tableau Server licenses into Tableau Cloud entitlements. Private Connect, which connects Tableau Cloud privately to customer data, is an add-on for Tableau Enterprise, Tableau Cloud+ or Tableau+ Bundle. It needs one license per private connection plus data usage blocks billed per terabyte.[1]
Programs
- Tableau Updatable Subscription License (USL). A single product key that carries every role and feature purchased. Renewals, capacity changes and new features update the same key, and with the Server ATR service no restart or reactivation is needed. Older non-USL subscriptions used one key per role, and the keys were stacked.[1]
- Perpetual licenses (legacy). Tableau no longer sells perpetual licenses, and annual maintenance for them can no longer be purchased. Perpetual interactor licenses were sold per user regardless of role. Perpetual core licenses follow the same model as subscription core licensing.[1]
Out of scope
- List prices. Tableau’s pricing pages are marketing pages and are not catalogued as license metrics.
- CRM Analytics and Tableau Next consumption. Tableau Next is named only as part of the Tableau+ Bundle. Its consumption, and that of Data 360, is described in Salesforce Data 360 credit consumption.
- Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder standalone keys. They appear here only as legacy keys and as tools included with the Creator license.
- Tableau Public and Tableau Reader end-user license agreements.