Ckeditor 5 License Key Jun 2026

This change was made to better align with CKEditor's evolving commercial offerings and to provide clearer enforcement of licensing terms across all deployment types.

The GPL is a "copyleft" license. If you use CKEditor 5 in a proprietary software product that you sell or restrict, you cannot use the GPL version. You must purchase a commercial license. The Commercial Rule

Separate standard open-source implementations from high-volume, commercial deployments.

To set up approved hosts:

import ClassicEditor from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-editor-classic/src/classiceditor.js'; import Essentials from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-essentials/src/essentials.js'; import Bold from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-basic-styles/src/bold.js'; import Italic from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-basic-styles/src/italic.js';

A commercial license removes the GPL restrictions and unlocks a wide range of premium features and benefits:

The tells the editor, "This user has paid for/is authorized to use these advanced features," allowing them to run in a production environment. Open Source vs. Premium License ckeditor 5 license key

Yes. Since version 44.0.0, the licenseKey property is required for all uses. For local development, you can use 'GPL' or obtain a free development license key from the Customer Portal.

CKEditor 5 is deeply rooted in the open-source community. If your project is fully open-source and compatible with the , you can use CKEditor 5 completely free of charge.

| Deployment Size | Estimated Annual Cost | |----------------|----------------------| | Small (single app, <10K users) | $5,000–$25,000 | | Mid-market (multiple apps, 10K–100K users) | $25,000–$100,000 | | Enterprise (platform-wide, >100K users) | $100,000–$500,000+ | This change was made to better align with

If your application is open-source and complies with the GPLv2+ license, you do not need to buy a key. However, the editor software still expects the licenseKey configuration property to be defined in your code to suppress console warnings and clarify your compliance.

Your project is proprietary, commercial, or closed-source (you cannot or will not release your code under GPL).