Open Model Licenses | How Much To Run AI
Reference the licenses, access conditions, and practical restrictions for the open-weight models in the current calculator catalog.
Last updated: 2026-08-06
This page records the license information for the model entries currently in the calculator catalog. Download access alone does not establish that a model is open source or unrestricted for commercial use. Read the license file and acceptable-use terms for the exact repository and checkpoint you plan to deploy.
License summaries are for planning and comparison only. They are not legal advice. The repository's license, model card, access terms, and applicable law control.
How to read this page
- Open weights means that the publisher makes model weights available under stated access terms. It does not by itself mean that the training data, code, or every model component is open source.
- Open source is a separate question that depends on the license and the definition being used. This page does not apply an OSI certification to any model.
- Commercial use needs more than a yes/no label. Restrictions may cover attribution, notices, trademarks, acceptable use, distribution, scale, monthly active users (MAU), model-as-a-service (MaaS), or additional agreements.
- The calculator's model records now include repository, variant, context window, weight format, license name, license URL, gated-access flag, and the date the metadata was last manually checked. These fields are still maintained by hand and are not automatically synchronized with the repository.
Current catalog
| Calculator entry | Variant | Repository / checkpoint | License | Gated | Practical restrictions and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 2.5 7B | Instruct | Qwen/Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct | Apache License 2.0 | No | Commercial use, modification, and redistribution are generally permitted under Apache-2.0. Preserve copyright and license notices, document changes when required, and do not assume the license grants Qwen or other trademarks. |
| Qwen 2.5 32B | Instruct | Qwen/Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct | Apache License 2.0 | No | Same Apache-2.0 baseline as the 7B checkpoint. Verify the exact repository and included notices before redistribution. |
| Qwen 2.5 72B | Instruct | Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct | Qwen License (custom) | No | Do not reuse the Apache-2.0 conclusion from the smaller Qwen 2.5 entries. Read the custom Qwen terms for the exact checkpoint, including commercial use, redistribution, attribution, and other conditions. |
| Llama 3.1 8B | Instruct | meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Llama 3.1 Community License | Yes | Access is gated and requires accepting Meta's terms. Commercial use is subject to the Community License and Acceptable Use Policy. The license includes a separate-authorization threshold for products with more than 700 million monthly active users and naming/attribution requirements for derivatives. |
| Llama 3.1 70B | Instruct | meta-llama/Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Llama 3.1 Community License | Yes | The same Community License, gated access, acceptable-use, scale threshold, and derivative naming/attribution conditions apply. Check the current Meta terms before a large-scale launch. |
| DeepSeek-V3 | Base | deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3 | MIT | No | MIT generally permits commercial use, modification, and redistribution when the copyright and license notice are retained. Verify the model card and any bundled component terms; the calculator entry is a 671B total / 37B active MoE record. |
| DeepSeek-V4-Flash | Preview | deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Flash | MIT (model-card reference) | No | The model card identifies MIT terms, but verify the exact release state and checkpoint before deployment. The catalog entry describes a 284B total / 13B active MoE model; its native FP4+FP8 format is not the same thing as a generic INT4 download. |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | Preview | deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4-Pro | MIT (model-card reference) | No | Verify whether the selected repository is a Preview or later release and read its current model card. The catalog entry describes a 1.6T total / 49B active MoE model, so license permission does not imply that the current calculator's hardware match is a feasible production deployment. |
| GLM-5.2 | Instruct | zai-org/GLM-5.2 | MIT (model-card reference) | No | MIT generally permits commercial use, modification, and redistribution with the required notices. Verify the exact model card and official release because published parameter counts and checkpoint metadata may differ across sources. |
| Kimi K3 | Instruct | moonshotai/Kimi-K3 | Kimi K3 License (custom) | No | This is not an unconditional MIT or Apache license. The published terms require a separate agreement for MaaS businesses above USD 20 million in annual revenue, and require products at or above 100 million MAU or USD 20 million in monthly revenue to prominently display “Kimi K3”. Read the current license before offering the model as a service or redistributing it. |
For non-developers
The table above keeps the license names and source summaries. The notes below explain what those entries mean in everyday terms. They are a reading aid, not new license terms.
- Qwen 2.5 7B and 32B: Apache-2.0 is a relatively permissive license. You can generally use, modify, and redistribute these checkpoints, but keep the required copyright and license notices. Check the repository before shipping a redistributed copy.
- Qwen 2.5 72B: This entry uses custom Qwen terms. Do not carry the Apache-2.0 conclusion from the 7B and 32B entries over to this checkpoint. Read the specific repository terms first.
- Llama 3.1 8B and 70B: You must pass Meta's gated-access process and accept its terms. Commercial use also follows the Community License and Acceptable Use Policy. Large products and derivative models may have extra requirements.
- DeepSeek-V3: The entry points to MIT terms, so keeping the copyright and license notice is the main baseline condition in the summary. Check the model card and bundled components before distribution.
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash and V4-Pro: The table uses the model-card license reference. Confirm the exact release and checkpoint before relying on that summary. The listed FP4+FP8 format and very large model sizes also need separate deployment checks.
- GLM-5.2: The entry refers to MIT terms from the model card. Verify the current model card and release details for the exact checkpoint before use.
- Kimi K3: This is a custom license with conditions for some MaaS and very large commercial products. Read the current terms before offering it as a service or redistributing it.
Practical checklist before commercial deployment
For the exact checkpoint, confirm:
- The repository, revision, and whether it is Base, Instruct, Chat, Preview, or another release state.
- The license file, model card, acceptable-use policy, and any gated-access terms.
- Attribution, copyright, notice, trademark, naming, and redistribution requirements.
- Any MAU, revenue, MaaS, geography, user, or use-case thresholds.
- Whether quantized files, adapters, tokenizer files, inference code, and other bundled components have separate terms.
- Whether the planned deployment is direct inference, an internal tool, an API, or a model-as-a-service product.
The cost calculator can help estimate infrastructure spending, but it does not grant permission to download, modify, host, or commercialize a model.
Sources
The repository links in the table are the primary starting points. License terms can change independently of calculator pricing data, so check the repository's current LICENSE, model card, and publisher terms on the date of deployment. Metadata in the calculator is maintained manually and stamped with a checked-at date; use it as a reference, not as a real-time compliance check.