packages/docs/docs/license/faq.mdx
Remotion is a React-based technology for programmatic video creation. It lets you build videos with code, AI agents, or manual edits; preview and refine them in the browser; and render them locally, client-side, or in the cloud. If you want to learn about Remotion itself first, start with The Fundamentals.
You are eligible to use Remotion for free if you are:
Contact us in case you need confirmation if your use case is acceptable.
No. Remotion is source-available software, but it is not open-source software according to the Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition.
The Remotion source code is publicly available, but its use is governed by the proprietary Remotion License, which includes conditions that are not part of OSI-approved open-source licenses.
The Remotion project works similarly as many open source projects, in that way, that the code is openly available on GitHub and that individuals use it freely and contribute back. But to pay for the time that it takes to maintain such an ambitious project, we need to generate money. This is also good for you: You get regular updates, good support, motivated maintainers and an overall healthy product. By separating individuals and companies, we are charging those who are most able to afford it.
There is no difference between the free and paid version.
We discriminate the price of the same software for various users: Remotion is free for individuals and small organizations, but paid for bigger organizations.
No. A Remotion license covers your use of Remotion only. It does not include a license to third-party patents, such as patents relating to codecs like H.264/AVC, HEVC or AAC. Depending on your use case and jurisdiction, you may need additional licenses or need to pay royalties. It is your responsibility to determine whether these requirements apply to you.
See the Terms and Conditions for the full terms and the FFmpeg license page for the third-party software that Remotion redistributes.
Support is provided on a best-effort basis, but we will respond first to people who own a company license. We try to reply and help everybody who files an issue or contacts us. We recommend to ask questions or get help in public channels such as GitHub Issues or Discord whenever possible where community members also have the chance to reply. See our Support Policy for more details.
Any commercial use case is allowed as long as you are not selling Remotion as a product itself or allowing people to circumvent cases where they would have to buy a license themselves.
Example of an accepted use case: Allowing users to create and render their own personalized video based on your Remotion template.
Example of an unacceptable use case: Allowing users to submit any Remotion video, meaning a Remotion project, to your server for rendering.
The Company License is available in two options, which can be combined or purchased individually:
When both options are activated at the same time, a combined Minimum Spend of $100 per month applies, and spending on Seats counts towards this Minimum Spend.
See the Terms and Conditions for the full definitions.
Telemetry is a reporting mechanism that sends a small, anonymized event to Remotion each time a render is performed. It is implemented through the @remotion/licensing package and is described in detail on the Telemetry page.
Telemetry never throttles, blocks, or fails renders - even if the telemetry request itself fails, renders still complete successfully.
Telemetry is used to ensure accountability, and to provide you with insights into your own rendering activity in the Remotion Dashboard.
The information collected is limited to:
No content, metadata, or user data from the rendered media is ever collected. See the Telemetry and Terms pages for the full details, and the DPA Statement for Remotion's role as an independent controller.
Who telemetry is mandatory for: Starting with the Remotion 5.0 release, telemetry becomes mandatory for Company License Users and Enterprise License Users under the "Remotion for Automators" option. These users must obtain a license key from remotion.pro and include it in their rendering configuration so that each render is reported. Telemetry is also mandatory for everyone using client-side rendering: a telemetry event is always sent for every render, even without a licenseKey, regardless of license type or whether the render is part of an automation process. The event is solely used to verify that Remotion is being used; no content, metadata, or user data from the rendered media is collected.
Who telemetry is voluntary for: Telemetry is voluntary for Free License Users and for companies under the "Remotion for Creators" option. For server-side rendering, these users control whether telemetry is sent: a telemetry event is only sent when a licenseKey is set, so omitting it means no telemetry is sent. Free License Users can pass "free-license" to the licenseKey option to declare their eligibility for the Free License and disable a console warning.
If you are unable to activate telemetry due to firewall restrictions, corporate policies, or other technical limitations, you must provide Remotion with a monthly verifiable report of your rendering activity as an alternative. Please contact us as this requires an Enterprise License and a custom agreement.
An automation is defined as owning code that programmatically calls one of the following APIs or commands:
renderMedia()renderStill()renderFrames()renderMediaOnLambda()renderStillOnLambda()renderMediaOnCloudrun()renderStillOnCloudrun()renderMediaOnVercel()renderStillOnVercel()renderMediaOnWeb()renderStillOnWeb()npx remotion rendernpx remotion stillnpx remotion lambda rendernpx remotion lambda stillnpx remotion cloudrun rendernpx remotion cloudrun still<Player>1 Render is the successful generation of a video, audio, GIF, PDF or still image.
Previews in the Remotion Studio or Remotion Player do not count as Renders.
If you require a Company License and are building an automation, your use case falls under Remotion for Automators and requires you to purchase Renders.
If you qualify for the Free License and are building an automation, then you do not have to purchase Renders.
Low-volume video production, such as rendering locally or one-off renders on a server, fall under the Remotion for Creators option and do not require purchasing Renders.
Yes, it is allowed to build a service that generates Remotion code using artificial intelligence and renders it. Allowing end-users to edit the Remotion code is also permitted if the code was initially generated by your service.
However, it is not allowed to let users bring or upload their own Remotion code to your service for rendering.
See the Terms and Conditions for the full policy on rendering services.
It depends on whether your client receives only the finished video, or whether they also own or operate the Remotion project.
You deliver only a finished video file (e.g., an MP4). Your client never receives the project code, never runs Remotion, and has no access to it. In this case your client is not a User of the Remotion Software, so their headcount does not count toward yours. Only your agency's headcount counts. If your agency has 3 or fewer personnel, the Free License covers this work; if it has 4 or more, your agency needs a Company License.
Your client owns or operates the Remotion project. For example, you are building a Remotion codebase that the client will own, run, or continue to develop, or you are collaborating directly with the client on the same Remotion project. In this case both companies' headcount is aggregated for the 4-person threshold. The responsibility for purchasing the license falls upon the entity that ultimately owns the IP of the Remotion project, though an agency may administer the license on the client's behalf via the Remotion Dashboard.
You hire another agency or contractors. If you bring in another studio, freelancers, or a consulting agency to help operate the Remotion Software on the same project, their headcount aggregates with yours for the 4-person threshold.
See the Terms and Conditions for the formal definitions.
Filling out compliance forms, introducing additional commitments and skipping our licensing platform for license management, such as billing and payment, requires an Enterprise License. Please contact us if you would like to discuss a custom agreement.
The Enterprise License is suited for teams with needs that go beyond the standard Company License. It includes:
Yes. You can use a solution such as Remotion Lambda to render a video serverlessly. Rendering a media file this way counts as a Render.
You can contact us if you would like to discuss a custom agreement.
Remotion operates two main websites, both run by Remotion AG:
You only need an account on remotion.pro if you require a Company License or want to buy digital products in the Remotion Store. The legal documents in this section (e.g., Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, DPA and DPIA Statement) are published on remotion.dev for easy access, but where they refer to the licensing platform, the Store, or the Dashboard, they concern remotion.pro.
Signing up is only required if you fall under the requirements of the Company License. If you are eligible for the Free License, you do not need an account.
To create an account:
Holding a Company License also comes with perks such as priority support and access to Remotion templates, which are available through the licensing platform within your created project.
You can sign up for an account on remotion.pro using one of the following methods:
If you signed up using email, you can link your Remotion account to Google or GitHub in your account settings for a smoother login experience.
You have to set up your own infrastructure by either using cloud services (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure), setting up your own on-premise infrastructure or using client-side rendering.
Acquiring Renders refers to the permission to use Remotion to render media programmatically in an automated way. However, it does not include the costs of any cloud services you might be using to render your media.
If you go beyond the render limit of your license, you can increase the number of renders at any time in your Remotion Dashboard, and the price will be prorated for the current period and included in your next invoice. We expect that you make those adjustments in the Remotion Dashboard within 30 days after you have exceeded your limit.
The same applies to the number of Seats, if you onboarded more Creators than you bought Seats for.
There are no refunds because you can already evaluate Remotion before using it commercially.
Your Remotion Dashboard allows you to do all of these without having to contact a human.
We use Stripe as a payment service. It accepts all major payment methods.
Remotion for Creators: You need to have at least 1 Seat active as long as you are using Remotion to render videos, either locally or as one-off renders on a server.
Remotion for Automators: You must maintain an active license while working on a Remotion project or rendering videos through your automation. Once you stop rendering videos and no longer use Remotion in any other capacity, such as the Remotion Player, you may cancel your license.