License Generator

Select a license, enter your name and year, then copy or download the full license text ready to use in your project.

LicenseYearFull Name / Organization

SPDX:MIT·MIT License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Your Name

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which licenses are supported?

MIT, Apache 2.0, GNU GPL 3.0, ISC, BSD 2-Clause, BSD 3-Clause, and The Unlicense. These cover the vast majority of open source projects.

What is the difference between MIT and Apache 2.0?

Both are permissive licenses. Apache 2.0 additionally grants patent rights from contributors and requires a NOTICE file in derivative works.

When should I use the GPL?

Use GPL when you want to ensure that derivative works also remain open source (copyleft). Suitable for libraries or applications where you want to enforce software freedom.

How do I apply the license to my project?

Download the generated text as a LICENSE file and place it in the root of your repository. Also add a license header comment to your source files if your chosen license recommends it.

Open Source License Comparison

License	Permissive?	Requires attribution?	Copyleft?
MIT	Yes	Yes (keep copyright notice)	No — derivatives can be proprietary
Apache 2.0	Yes	Yes	No — but explicit patent grant
BSD 2/3	Yes	Yes	No
ISC	Yes	Yes	No — functionally equivalent to MIT
GPL 3.0	No	Yes	Yes — derivatives must be GPL too
Unlicense	Yes	No	No — public domain dedication

Choosing the Right License

Small utility or library — MIT is the most popular choice: easy to understand, businesses can use it without concern.
Project with patents — Apache 2.0 includes an explicit patent grant, protecting contributors from patent litigation.
Want derivatives to stay open — GPL 3.0 ensures that anyone who modifies and distributes your code must also open-source their changes.
No restrictions at all — Unlicense dedicates the work to the public domain with no conditions.