Unity seat licensing covers how a purchased Unity Editor seat reaches a person’s computer and how an organization can see and control it. Unity gives three models: named user licensing, serial-based licensing and floating licensing.[1] The model determines what a licence manager can count. Named user seats are visible in Unity ID, serial-based activations are tied to computers, and floating licences are pooled and counted by concurrency on a server that the customer runs.
Editions
The three models are not editions in the commercial sense, but their availability depends on the plan.
| Model | Typical plans | Needs internet | Offline option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named user licensing | Personal, Pro, Enterprise, Industry | Yes, to sign in and re-authenticate | Grace period for temporary loss of connection; manual licence request for Enterprise and Industry seats |
| Serial-based licensing | Paid plans with a serial key, legacy keys, Student plan keys | Online to activate or return | Works offline after activation |
| Floating licensing | Enterprise, and Industry according to Unity’s Industry page | Yes, to the on-premises licence server | Checkout of a licence for up to 99 days by default |
Unity’s pricing FAQ states that floating licensing is available exclusively for Enterprise subscribers,[13] while the Unity Industry FAQ says standalone and floating licences are available for Industry.[14] The two statements are not reconciled on Unity’s pages, so the entitlement should be confirmed on the order document. Unity Pro assigned seats, Unity Personal and floating subscriptions cannot be activated by manual licence request.[4]
Metrics
Seat and Authorized User
A subscription defines the software licence level available to an organization, and a seat represents an individual licence to use Unity products.[5] The Editor Software Terms grant the right to install and execute the Editor for internal use by the number of Authorized Users in the Offering Identification.[12] Unity’s role documentation lists the organization user types as Owner (described as billable), Manager, User and Guest, so a licence manager should confirm with Unity which of these count toward a purchased seat count in a given contract.[15]
Named user licence
Named user licensing is a seat-based solution for individuals in a network-connected environment. A user may belong to several organizations and subscriptions, and on sign-in is granted all the entitlements from those subscriptions.[1] Unity notes that named user licensing gives organization administrators improved licence visibility because they do not need to track licensed devices.[1] Named user licences work with Editors from the 2021 stream onward, 2020.2.2 or later in the 2020 stream, and 2019.4.27 or later in the 2019 stream.[3]
Serial-based licence
A serial-based licence is node-locked: the activation is associated with the computer where it was activated, and the licence can be used offline after online activation.[1] Terms of Service section 10 limits a node-locked subscription to the number of computers or operating systems per Authorized User stated in the Additional Terms and the Offering Identification.[11] Unity’s documentation states that every paid commercial licence allows one person to use Unity on two computers that the person has exclusive use of, wherever they are and whatever operating system they run, and that an educational licence sold through Unity or its resellers is good for a single activation.[3]
Floating licence
A floating licence is concurrency-based, for complex projects or larger organizations: the customer runs a licensing server and buys a pool large enough for the members who use Unity at the same time.[1] The Terms of Service permit use on multiple devices and sharing among Authorized Users, but the number of concurrent Authorized Users may not exceed the total number of floating subscriptions.[11] The Editor Software Terms add that, unless floating licences have been purchased, only one instance may be used at a time per seat.[12]
Counting / floors
Assigning seats
An organization member with the Owner or Manager user type assigns seats in Unity ID, by opening Organizations, selecting an organization, then Subscriptions & Services and Manage seats, and selecting members.[5] Each assignee receives an email about activating Unity, and a paid seat gives the member a licence to activate the Editor.[5] If a project contributor has a lower-tier subscription, the organization must assign that person a seat from its own licence.[5] Additional seats can be bought at any time from the Unity store.[5]
Activating
Unity Hub is the primary method for managing licences, and for Unity Personal it is the only method for activating and returning.[2] The options are:[4]
- Unity Personal: signing in to Unity Hub activates the licence automatically; signing out returns it.
- Named user licence: after an administrator assigns the seat, signing in to Unity Hub activates the licence; signing out returns it.
- Serial key: entered under Settings, Licenses, Add license, then Activate with a serial number.
- Licence request: for an offline computer, the Hub creates an
.alfrequest file that is uploaded from another computer to Unity’s portal, which returns an.xmlfile for assigned seats or a.ulffile for a serial key to import. - Command line: for headless builds or where the Hub cannot be installed, using Editor batch-mode flags to activate or return a licence for Unity Pro and serial keys; this is not available for Unity Personal.[2]
Manual activation is for an assigned seat on an Enterprise or Industry subscription or for a legacy serial key, and the Hub cannot return a licence activated this way; the customer must contact Unity support.[2][4] The Terms of Service also note that some Offerings connect to the internet to check for updates, provide usage statistics or validate the subscription.[11]
Returning and moving licences
Unity requires a licence to be returned before the customer switches computers or changes hardware or the operating system; if it is not, the licence server sees a request from another computer and may report that the activation limit has been reached.[3] A licence can be returned in Unity Hub, from the command line for serial licences, or from the Unity ID portal under My Account and My Seats, including when the computer is no longer accessible; a Disable all activations option returns all activations at once.[3] Unity’s Hub documentation points administrators of paid plans to the Activations section of the Unity ID subscriptions page, where the computer names with an activated licence are listed; this does not apply to Unity Personal.[4]
Floors on the Student plan and Education licences
The Student plan is activated in the Hub with a licence key sent after SheerID verification, only one Unity ID can be associated with it, and it is valid for one year with renewal while enrolled.[16] Unity directs institutions that need classroom or lab computers to apply for the Education Grant License instead of using student plans.[16]
Virtualization & partitioning
Unity’s licence rules for virtual machines are indirect. The Editor Software Terms allow installing the Editor on a primary and a secondary computer or operating system for one person, with a single instance at a time per seat, and say that Unity may in its discretion authorize additional computers upon deactivation of existing ones.[12] Third-party service providers may not run the Editor on a cloud or remote server except as the customer’s Authorized User.[12] For a virtual desktop pool, the practical consequence is that each person needs a seat, or the pool needs floating licences sized for concurrent use, and licence activations should be returned before a virtual machine is rebuilt, because Unity warns that major operating system changes can affect the computer ID that a licence recognizes.[3]
Cloud / BYOL
Floating licensing is the Unity feature that most resembles a bring-your-own-server model. The Unity Licensing Server is an HTTP or HTTPS server that manages a pool of Editor licences; the Unity Licensing Client is included in Unity Editor 2019.4 or later and Unity Hub 3.1 or later and a configuration file must be distributed to client computers.[6][7] The server must run on a persistent computer on the local network, and if computer bindings change, the server licence becomes invalid.[7] Server version 2.0 or later supports Windows 11, 10 and 8 (64-bit), Windows Server 2012 to 2025 and Ubuntu 20.04 or later.[7]
How the pool works
When a user starts the Editor, the client requests a licence; if there are enough licences in the pool the server removes one and assigns it to the client until the client releases it, and if the client does not renew within a specified time the server releases the licence automatically.[6] The server’s lease renewal interval defaults to 15 minutes and the issued client licence expires by default after 480 minutes (8 hours).[10] The server serves one product licence at a time, and the client configuration can list preferred licences in order.[10]
Offline checkout
From server version 2.0 and Unity Hub 3.8, a floating licence can be checked out for offline work for up to 99 days by default, capped by the licence expiration, if the administrator enables the allowBorrow key on the server and the user enables hubEnableWorkOffline on the client.[8] A checked-out licence is unavailable to others for that period, so extended checkouts reduce effective pool capacity.
Monitoring and renewal
The Licensing Server Dashboard, available from server version 2.0, shows the number of active and available licences and licences released over a period, lists licences in use in real time, and keeps an interactive view of historical usage to a maximum of 18 months with CSV and JSON export.[9] Administrators can also restrict by user name or machine name with an access control list from version 2.0.1 onward.[10] A renewed server licence becomes available for download from Unity ID only after the current subscription term has expired, and there is then a grace period of one month to import it before the server licence stops working.[10]
Programs
Two programmes touch activation. Evaluation Versions are limited to thirty days from download and to one individual or one employee,[11] and Unity Industry has a 30-day trial.[14] The terms treat attempts to circumvent Authorized User limits or to interfere with Unity’s ability to audit or track licence restrictions as a prohibited use.[11]
Checklist for establishing a licence position
- Export assigned seats by subscription from Unity ID and compare them with purchased seats and with people who actually use the Editor.
- List serial-based activations and the computer names shown under Activations, and reclaim stale ones through My Seats.
- For floating pools, review the dashboard’s 18-month usage history to size the pool against peak concurrency, and check for long offline checkouts.
- Confirm each user type that can sign in to the Editor is counted correctly against the order document.
- Record the renewal date of the server licence and the one-month import grace period.
Out of scope
This article does not cover which plan an organization is eligible to use, cloud service metering, Asset Store licences or source code access; see the other Unity Technologies articles. It also does not reproduce the server installation procedure, which the Unity Licensing Server documentation describes in detail.