At Gurobi, we strongly support the teaching and use of mathematical optimization within academic institutions. That’s why we have made it very easy for academic users to get free copies of Gurobi for use in class, for research, or for industry consulting projects. These are the same full-featured, no-size-limit versions of Gurobi that commercial customers use. Gurobi offers a variety of licenses to facilitate the teaching and use of mathematical optimization within the academic community, such as individual, educational institution, and Take Gurobi with You licenses.
Individual Academic Licenses
Named-user academic license: This license can be set up on a single physical machine. Users may install and license Gurobi for their own use on more than one machine.
To obtain this license:
- After registering and logging in, visit the Download Gurobi Optimizer page, and download the version you need, as well as the README.txt.
- After downloading, visit the Free Academic License page to request the free license.
- Follow the instructions in README.txt to install the software.
- Once installed, run ‘grbgetkey’ using the argument provided (ex: grbgetkey ae36ac20-16e6-acd2-f242-4da6e765fa0a). The ‘grbgetkey’ program will prompt you to store the license file on your machine.
- If you have any problems, please refer to the Academic Validation Troubleshooting instructions.
Web License Service academic license: The Gurobi Web License Service (WLS) is a new licensing services for containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes,…). Compared to other licensing options, WLS offers unique advantages for some use cases:
- It does not require the installation of any licensing tools on the client.
- It is scalable and high-available out of the box using multiple worldwide servers.
- It is dynamic and it does not require to register the container hosts.
As an academic user, Gurobi allows you to create a free WLS Academic License for 90 days that can be extended as long as you maintain your eligibility.
To create this license:
- Register for a gurobi.com account as an academic.
- Visit the Web License Manager site.
- There you can create or extend the WLS academic license.
- Your computer must be connected to a recognized academic institution network when the request is made.
Educational Institution Site Licenses
Multi-user academic site license: This license of Gurobi can be setup on a university’s local-area network.
To obtain this license:
- Ask your network administrator to submit a case at https://support.gurobi.com and ask for an academic site license request form.
- Once the form has been submitted and approved, we will send instructions to your administrator on how to obtain and setup the license file.
Take Gurobi With You
The Take Gurobi With You program allows students to “take” one named user commercial license with them to their professional role for a period of one year. Click here for more information on the program.
Free Academic License Requirements
Gurobi Academic Licenses:
- Can only be used by faculty, students, or staff of a recognized degree-granting academic institution.
- Can be used for:
- Research or educational purposes.
- Consulting projects with industry – provided that approval from Gurobi has been granted.
- Must be validated from a recognized academic domain.
- Expire 12 months after the creation date, and can be renewed annually. There is no limit on the number of free licenses you can obtain, although each license must be generated individually.
Using a Free Academic License with Modeling Systems
You may use a free Academic License for Gurobi with an existing license for AMPL, GAMS or MPL. To do this, first follow the instructions above. Next, configure Gurobi as a solver for your modeling system (this may require you to install additional tools):
- For AMPL, detailed instructions can be found in the AMPL-Gurobi Guide.
- For GAMS, please see the instructions for OsiGurobi and the professional Gurobi link on the GAMS website.
- For MPL, the academic version already comes with the Gurobi solver installed, so no additional configuration steps are needed.
To purchase an academic license for AMPL, please contact us. To purchase an academic license for GAMS, please contact GAMS. Free academic licenses for MPL are available via the MPL Academic Program.
Technical Support
If your question is related to product installation or licensing, please visit the Gurobi Support site for assistance. For all other questions, or to discuss the product, we have a Gurobi Community Discussion Forum.