Pricing
Near-free for creators. A take-rate on the rest.
LicenseOS charges nothing until money moves. Rights holders list for free; creators pay only when they earn. The platform grows with licensing GMV that currently sits at zero because no middle tier exists between a C&D and a lawyers-only deal.
Fan, Education & Game Jam
Full enforcement and revocation for noncommercial creators, fan artists, educators, and game-jam participants. No credit card required.
Includes
- allow / warn / review / block decision API
- License tokens with a LicenseOS-signed provenance record (C2PA-aligned)
- Full revocation + audit log access
- Up to 10,000 license checks / month
- Fan-art + AI-infringement monitoring feed
- Badge embed for itch.io, Etsy, and app stores
- Noncommercial, fan, education, and game-jam use only
- Lifetime revenue cap: under $1,000
- –Commercial distribution or revenue
- –Royalty split payments
- –Priority human-review queue
Hobby Commercial
For side-hustle POD sellers, Shopify stores, and greeting-card makers who earn occasionally. No monthly commitment — buy prepaid credit packs or pay as you go.
Includes
- Everything in Free, plus commercial distribution
- Per-output IP fee + LicenseOS markup (Shutterstock-style credit packs)
- No monthly minimum or subscription
- License checks at $1 per 1,000 above the free cap
- Badge + license token on every licensed output
- Stripe-powered instant checkout for credit top-ups
- Email receipt and royalty ledger entry per transaction
- –Bulk output bundles (Creator tier)
- –Priority review queue
- –Webhook and API integrations
Studios Shipping Products
For studios, AI app builders, and POD operators shipping licensed products at scale. You pay nothing until your product earns — a 0% floor vs. every other licensing deal on the market.
Everything you need
- No minimum guarantee — ever
- Unlimited license checks (SLA: 200ms p95)
- Full rights-holder rule engine + territory controls
- Brand-pack asset enforcement + off-model AI classifier
- Priority human-review queue (SLA per agreement)
- Full audit export (CSV / JSON) for legal and app-store submissions
- Webhooks for license events, revocations, and takedowns
- Royalty split via Stripe Connect — automatic rights-holder remittance
- Dedicated support contact
Rights Holders & Brand Teams
For IP owners who need the Rights Control Console, style-guide AI classifier tuning, multi-seat management, and an SLA-backed human-review queue. Indie-priced vs. Rightsline at $10k+/yr.
Everything you need
- Rights Control Console (machine-readable rules, public licensing page)
- LicenseOS-signed provenance (C2PA-aligned) on approved asset packs
- robots.txt and crawler opt-out generator
- Fan-art + AI-infringement monitoring + one-click takedown feed
- Style-guide AI classifier tuning (custom per IP)
- Hard category and volume caps + reserved-rights configuration
- Revocation kill switch + monitoring dashboard
- Multi-seat team access with role-based permissions
- API + webhooks + Zapier connector
- Custom SLAs and dedicated onboarding
Non-exclusive, revocable
We never take your rights. Every license is time-boxed and revocable by the rights holder at any time.
Full provenance ledger
Every decision — allow, warn, review, block — is logged with a timestamp and token your lawyer can show a judge.
Signed provenance badge
"Licensed with LicenseOS" ships with a LicenseOS-signed provenance record (C2PA-aligned) — machine-verifiable proof of clearance anyone can check at /verify. Embedding it as a native C2PA Content Credentials manifest is on the roadmap.
How billing works
A permission rail, not a tollbooth
77% of large software companies now use usage or hybrid billing. LicenseOS is entirely transaction-indexed: the platform earns when rights holders earn.
Platform take-rate on zero-GMV long-tail
The median indie game earns under $1,000 after Valve's cut — any upfront fee is fatal. LicenseOS charges ~15% of each license fee collected (Stripe Connect application fee), so creators pay nothing until they earn. The long-tail uses rights holders currently C&D for free become passive revenue.
Stripe Connect split payments
Each transaction is routed through Stripe Connect: the rights holder's share is remitted automatically, LicenseOS retains the platform fee, and Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 is passed through at cost. Every payout appears in the rights-holder royalty ledger in real time.
License checks are near-free by design
A single license check costs ~$0.003 in COGS (comparable to Hive image-moderation pricing). We give checks away free up to generous monthly caps, then bill at $1–$3 per 1,000 above the cap — at or above COGS — so automation is never punished and normal use never sees a check bill.
MVP: payments are designed, not yet wired
The Stripe Connect integration is fully specced and schema-ready. In the current MVP, payment flows are stubbed — license tokens and decisions are live, but no real money moves yet. The architecture is built so that plugging in Stripe Connect is a one-sprint swap, not a rewrite.
Example transaction breakdown
License fee charged
$10.00
Creator pays for a commercial use
Rights holder receives
$7.13
After 15% platform fee + Stripe pass-through
LicenseOS platform fee
$1.50
~15% take-rate; Stripe $0.30 + 2.9% passed at cost
MVP note: Stripe Connect is specced and schema-ready. In the current build, payment flows are stubbed — license decisions and tokens are live, but real money movement is enabled when the first commercial cohort is onboarded.
One API call. Instant proof.
License checks are free up to generous caps — at ~$0.003 COGS per check, giving them away is the right trade for a permission rail that sees every use. Automation pays; casual use never sees a check bill.
- Free tier: 10,000 checks / month included
- Paid: $1–$3 per 1,000 checks above cap (at/above COGS)
- Decision latency: 200ms p95 SLA on Commercial+
- Returns: verdict + license token + scope + revocation URL
# JavaScript · one-line drop-in (commercial example)
const decision = await client.checkLicense({
ipPropertyId: "moonberry-grove",
useCase: "low_volume_commercial",
commercialIntent: true,
expectedRevenue: 500
});
# returns:
{
"verdict": "allow",
"token": "lic_01HZ...",
"scope": { "territory": "worldwide", "expires": "2027-06-01" }
}
Rights holders
List your IP. Earn passively. Stay in control.
Rights holders pay nothing to list. LicenseOS earns from the take-rate on licensing fees we collect and remit on your behalf. The Rights Control Console is what Rightsline charges $10,000+/yr for — at a fraction of the cost.
Publisher Free
- Publish machine-readable licensing rules
- Public licensing page (human + machine-readable)
- LicenseOS collects and remits royalties
- Fan-art and AI-infringement monitoring
- ~15% platform take-rate deducted from each royalty
Pro / Brand Control
- Style-guide AI classifier tuning (custom per IP)
- Human-review SLAs with named reviewer
- Hard category and volume caps configuration
- Reserved-rights lock (no film, no national retail, etc.)
- Multi-seat team access with role-based permissions
- Advanced API + webhooks + Zapier connector
Enterprise / NIL
- NIL consent ledger + House v. NCAA compliance audit trail
- Revocation kill switch + real-time monitoring dashboard
- Concierge onboarding + rules-writing support
- Dedicated legal-export format (CSV / JSON)
- Custom SLAs and dedicated support contact
- Volume pricing on platform take-rate for high-GMV catalogues
Why LicenseOS
Every alternative has the wrong price or the wrong friction
| Alternative | Speed | Min. Guarantee | Indie self-serve | LicenseOS wins on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Negotiate a real license | Weeks – months | Usually required | No | Minutes, $0 floor, self-serve |
| Story Protocol | Fast | No | Yes | No crypto wallet; Stripe rails; visual/character IP focus |
| TollBit / ProRata | Fast | No | Partial | Targets small rights holders + visual IP (they do text publishers) |
| Rightsline / Flowhaven | Sales-led | Yes | No | 100x cheaper; no enterprise contract; indie-first |
| "Just use it and hope" | Instant | No | Yes | Legal cover, platform approval, no takedown risk |
FAQ
Common questions
Who actually pays — the creator or the rights holder?
Creators (developers, POD sellers, studios) pay the license fee on each use. Rights holders pay nothing to list their IP; LicenseOS deducts a ~15% platform take-rate from each royalty collected before remitting the remainder. The rights holder never writes a check to LicenseOS.
Is there a minimum guarantee or monthly commit?
No, and that is the headline differentiator. The Commercial tier is a pure revenue-share — you pay a percentage of what your product actually earns, starting from the first dollar, with a floor of exactly $0. LEGO Ideas pays 1%; most licensing deals carry a minimum guarantee. LicenseOS has neither.
Is it really free for fan art, education, and game jams?
Yes. Fan, educational, and game-jam use (lifetime product revenue under $1,000) is free permanently — full enforcement, revocation, audit log, and the badge included. You only move to a paid tier when your work becomes commercial. K-12 and edtech creators auto-approve on the rights-holder side; no manual review needed.
What happens when a license is revoked?
Revocation is instant. The rights holder triggers it from their console; the decision API immediately returns BLOCK for that asset and use type; the badge resolves to a revoked state. The audit log captures the timestamp and reason. Creators are notified via webhook (Commercial and Enterprise) or email.
How does the platform earn margin if checks are free?
Margin comes from the transaction take-rate on license fees, not from API calls. License checks are a loss-leader — their job is to make the permission infrastructure frictionless so that more licensed transactions happen. The business scales with GMV, not with API volume.
When will real payments be live?
The Stripe Connect schema and payout ledger are built. Real money movement is stubbed in the MVP while we validate the license-check and rights-holder console flows with the first cohort. We expect to enable live payouts for the first five commercial licenses in the 90-day launch window.
Free for fan and education use. Pay when you earn.
Sign up in under two minutes. No credit card required for the Free tier. Commercial tiers activate when your first license fee is processed.
Rights holders: list your IP free at /signup — no enterprise contract required.