Open-Source Licence Generator
Get the exact text of a popular open-source licence, such as MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL 3.0, BSD or ISC, with your name and year filled in, ready to save as a LICENSE file.
About this tool
A licence tells people what they may do with your code. Without one, the law treats your work as “all rights reserved”, so nobody can legally reuse it even if it’s public on GitHub. Choose a licence, enter the year and the copyright holder (you, or your company), and save the text as a file called LICENSE in the top folder of your project.
Permissive licences (MIT, ISC, BSD and Apache) let others use your code in anything, including paid, closed-source products, as long as they keep your notice; Apache 2.0 adds an explicit patent licence. Copyleft (GPL) requires anyone distributing software built on your code to share their source under the same terms. The texts are the official ones, checked word for word against the SPDX licence list, with only the year and name filled in, so don’t edit the wording: a modified licence is no longer the standard one that people and tools recognise.
For GPL and Apache projects, also add a short notice to the top of each source file; the end of each licence explains how. This tool gives the licence text and a summary, not legal advice; if your project involves a business or other people’s code, check the terms with someone qualified. Your name and choice are remembered on this device.