Apache License 2.0
PermissiveSPDX identifier:
Apache-2.0OSI ✓Data updated Sep 26, 2026In plain words
Permissive license with an explicit patent grant, patent retaliation and a requirement to mark changed files.
Analogy: A free toolkit that also comes with a promise not to sue you over its patents — unless you sue first.
Pros
- + Explicit patent grant from every contributor
- + Preferred by many companies and foundations
- + Protects trademarks
Cons
- - Longer; NOTICE file handling
- - Not compatible with GPL-2.0-only
- - Does not stop hosted competitors
Well-known projects using it
34 well-known projects in our map use this license.
- Android Open Source ProjectOperating system · Google
- Apache CassandraDatabase · Apache Software Foundation
- Apache CouchDBDatabase · Apache Software Foundation
- Apache HTTP ServerWeb server and backend · Apache Software Foundation
- Apache KafkaMessaging and streaming · Apache Software Foundation
- Apache PekkoDeveloper tools · Apache Software Foundation
- CaddyWeb server and backend · ZeroSSL
- ChromaDatabase · Chroma
- ClickHouseDatabase · ClickHouse Inc.
- Eclipse JettyWeb server and backend · Eclipse FoundationAlso offered under: EPL-2.0
- etcdDatabase · CNCF
- Falcon-40BAI model · Technology Innovation InstituteSwitched to it on May 31, 2023
- Hugging Face TransformersAI model · Hugging Face
- KotlinLanguage and runtime · JetBrains
- KubernetesDevOps · CNCF
- MilvusDatabase · LF AI & Data
- Mistral 7BAI model · Mistral AI
- Moby (Docker Engine)DevOps · Docker
- NATS ServerMessaging and streaming · CNCF
- OLMoAI model · Allen Institute for AI
- OpenSearchDatabase · OpenSearch Software Foundation
- OpenSearch DashboardsObservability · OpenSearch Software Foundation
- OpenSSLDeveloper tools · OpenSSL FoundationSwitched to it on Sep 7, 2021
- PrometheusObservability · CNCF
- QdrantDatabase · Qdrant
- Qwen2.5-7BAI model · Alibaba Cloud
- RustLanguage and runtime · Rust FoundationAlso offered under: MIT
- SupabaseWeb server and backend · Supabase
- SwiftLanguage and runtime · Apple
- TensorFlowAI model · Google
- TiDBDatabase · PingCAP
- TimescaleDBDatabase · TimescaleAlso offered under: Timescale License
- TypeScriptLanguage and runtime · Microsoft
- vLLMAI model · PyTorch Foundation
Projects that moved away from it
- Sep 7, 2022Akka→ BSL-1.1
- Jun 4, 2019CockroachDB→ BSL-1.1
- Jan 14, 2021Elasticsearch→ SSPL-1.0 / ELv2
- Apr 20, 2021Grafana→ AGPL-3.0
- Apr 20, 2021Grafana Loki→ AGPL-3.0
- Jan 14, 2021Kibana→ SSPL-1.0 / ELv2
- Apr 19, 2021MinIO→ AGPL-3.0
- Nov 6, 2023Synapse (Matrix)→ AGPL-3.0
Permissions
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
- Patent grant
Conditions
- Keep copyright notice
- Mark changes
Limitations
- No liability
- No warranty
- No trademark rights
Extreme scenarios · Code licenses
- A1AllowedA cloud vendor sells your project as a managed service
- A2AllowedSomeone forks it and distributes a closed-source competitorMust mark modified files
- A3AllowedEmbedded in a closed-source SaaS backend (not distributed)
- A4AllowedLinked into a closed-source app or firmware and distributed
- A5Blocked by licenseSomeone promotes a modified version with your name or trademark
- A6AllowedSomeone sells unmodified copies
- B1Blocked by licenseA user sues you for patent infringement and keeps using the codePatent license terminates
- B2Blocked by licenseA contributor asserts patents on their contributed codeExpress patent grant
- B3Not addressedA cross-border dispute: governing law and venue
- C1With conditionsYou later relicense or sell commercial licenses (contributors signed no CLA)Same as MIT
- C2AllowedYour code is merged into a GPL-3.0 projectBut not compatible with GPL-2.0
- C3Blocked by licenseYou use a GPL-3.0 dependency and still ship under this license
- C4AllowedThe project is abandoned and someone forks it to continue
- C5Blocked by licenseYou want to block only big companies or competitors
- C6Not addressedKey code was written by an employee and the employer objects
- D1Blocked by licenseSomeone removes copyright or attribution notices
- D2Blocked by licenseSomeone modifies files without marking the changes
- D3AllowedInternal modification, no distribution and no external service
- D4AllowedUsed for military, surveillance or other uses you object to
- D5Not addressedUsed by a sanctioned entity
- D6Not addressedYour code is used to train an AI model
Worst-case radar
- 1Stops free-riding0
- 2Stops closed forks0
- 3Patent protection100
- 4Adoption friction0
- 5Hard to relicense50
Computed from the scenario matrix. Higher means more of that property, not "better".
Extreme scenarios · Model and data licenses
- E1AllowedWeights are used for military, surveillance or disinformation
- E2AllowedDistillation, or training other models on its outputs
- E3AllowedA hyperscale company uses it commercially
- E4AllowedFine-tuned, renamed and released as closed weights
- E5AllowedA dataset is used commercially and redistributed
- E6Blocked by licenseYou want to allow research use only
Worst-case radar
- 1Misuse control0
- 2Derivative control0
- 3Commercial control0
- 4Adoption friction0
Computed from the scenario matrix. Higher means more of that property, not "better".
Compare with…
- Apache-2.0+LLVM
- BSD-2
- BSD-3
- Boost-1.0
- ISC
- MIT
- MIT-0
- MulanPSL-2.0
- PostgreSQL
- Unicode-3.0
- Unlicense
- UPL-1.0
- Zlib
- APSL-2.0
- Artistic-2.0
- CDDL-1.0
- EPL-1.0
- EPL-2.0
- GPL-2.0+CPE
- LGPL-2.1
- LGPL-3.0
- LPPL-1.3c
- MPL-2.0
- Perl-5
- GPL-2.0
- GPL-3.0
- AGPL-3.0
- BSL-1.1
- Confluent CL
- ELv2
- FSL-1.1
- RSALv2
- SSPL-1.0
- Baichuan 2
- BLOOM RAIL 1.0
- ChatGLM License
- DeepSeek License
- Falcon License 2.0
- FLUX.1-dev NC
- Gemma
- Hunyuan Community
- Llama
- Mistral Research
- NVIDIA Open Model
- OpenRAIL-M
- Stability Community
- Qwen License
- CC BY 4.0
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- CC0
- CDLA-Permissive-1.0
- Etalab-2.0
- GFDL-1.3
- ODbL-1.0
- ODC-By-1.0
- OFL-1.1
- OGL-UK-3.0
Official text
Only the official text is legally binding. We do not translate license texts.
https://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0.html
Apache License 2.0
Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
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