If you are a faculty member, student, or staff of a recognized degree-granting academic institution, you can obtain a free academic license from our website. These licenses may only be used for research, teaching, or coursework purposes.
The two main types of single-user academic Gurobi licenses are the Academic Named-User License and the Academic WLS License. The table below shows key differences between the two licenses.
| Academic Named-User | Academic WLS | |
| Multiple machines allowed | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multiple users allowed | ❌ | ✅ |
| Requires active internet connection | ❌ (only for license setup) | ✅ |
| Client-server architecture | ❌ | ✅ (WLS license server managed by Gurobi's organization) |
| Requires to be within the university network | ❌ (only for license setup) | ❌ (only for license setup) |
| Parallel jobs allowed | ✅ | ✅ (limited to default session limit of 2) |
| Can be used in containers | ❌ | ✅ |
| Validity time | 1 year | 90 days (can be extended) |
Academic Named-User License
This Gurobi Optimizer license is tied to a single user on a single machine and cannot be used in containerized environments.
- This license will be valid for up to one year; when it expires, you can request a new academic license, as long as you are still eligible.
- You only need an internet connection (via a university network) for activation; afterwards you can run your optimization jobs offline.
To request a free Academic Named-User license file for your computer, please:
- Register as an "Academic user" on the Gurobi website and log into your account.
- Connect your computer to the university network.
- You can connect your computer either directly or via a VPN that tunnels all traffic through the university network.
- Once the license file is set up, your computer does not need to be connected to the internet in order to use Gurobi.
- Visit the License Request section of your User Portal, and select "GENERATE NOW" in the Named-User Academic block.
- You can repeat this process to obtain licenses for additional computers or for newer Gurobi versions.
- For more information on using grbgetkey, please refer to How do I retrieve an Academic Named-User license?
Academic WLS License
Run Gurobi wherever you want, including containerized environments. This license type follows a client–server architecture in which client machines request tokens to the WLS license servers, which are managed by Gurobi, in order to run optimization jobs locally. Thus, it can be used seamlessly across multiple platforms, including those outside an academic network. With this license you are not restricted to a single machine; you can run Gurobi Optimizer from wherever you want, including from within containers.
- You need Gurobi version 10 or later, and a permanent internet connection to the Gurobi WLS license servers when running your optimization jobs. This is because the client machine needs to request a token to our WLS license servers in order to start a session by instantiating a Gurobi environment.
- This license will be valid for 90 days; when it expires, you can extend it, as long as you are still eligible.
- This is the best option if you wish to run Gurobi on the cloud or from Google Colab.
- For more information, see What is an Academic WLS license?
- Register as an "Academic user" on the Gurobi website and log into your account.
- Connect your computer to the university network.
- You can connect your computer either directly or via a VPN that tunnels all traffic through the university network.
- Once the license file is set up, your can use the license from any computer that has an internet connection.
- Visit the License Request section of your User Portal, and select "GENERATE NOW" in the WLS Academic block.
- Once you have generated a WLS license, please see How do I set up a Web License Service (WLS) license?
Solutions to common errors
- If you receive the error "Academic Domain Error. Your network address is not recognized as belonging to an academic domain.", please make sure you are connected to your university network. Please refer to How do I resolve an "Academic Domain Error"? for more information.
- If you don't see the academic license blocks in the License Request section of your User Portal, please be sure to have "ACADEMIC" (not "COMMERCIAL") selected in the slider.
- If you receive the error "[USER_NOT_ACADEMIC] User account type is not academic", please refer to How do I resolve the error 'User account type is not academic'?
Other types of free academic licenses
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Educational institution site licenses (a.k.a. floating license or token-server license). Share Gurobi with multiple users in your academic departments, schools, and classrooms by running Gurobi on your university’s local-area network, at no cost to you or your institution.
- This license type follows a client–server architecture in which client machines request tokens to the Token Server (TS), which is managed by the end-user's institution, in order to run optimization jobs locally. As it is only responsible for token management, the TS is a lightweight application, and a basic machine is typically sufficient to host this process. Client machines must be able to reach the TS over your network because they need to request a token in order to start a session by instantiating a Gurobi environment. For more information, see the section Floating Site (Token Server) Licenses.
Educational institution site licenses Multiple machines allowed Server:❌, Clients:✅ Multiple users allowed ✅ Requires active internet connection ❌ (only for license setup on the server) Requires to be within the university network ✅ Client-server architecture ✅ (Token server managed by the end-user's institution) Parallel jobs allowed ✅ (provided license token availability from the server) Can be used in containers Server:❌, Clients:✅ Validity time 1 year (extension can be requested) - See How do I obtain a free academic license for a cluster or a shared computer lab?
- Gurobi Instant Cloud is not available to academic users.