Licenses and Plans

Overview#

Fusion is sold as a subscription, and the same application is used under several kinds of access: a paid plan, a free trial, Fusion for personal use, and Fusion for education. They differ in which features are available, how much collaboration and data management you get, and what the license permits you to do. Picking the wrong one can mean a feature you expected is missing, or that you are using a license outside its terms.

Autodesk's help describes the shape of these offerings but deliberately leaves prices, eligibility rules, and legal terms to Autodesk's product, pricing, and Terms of Use pages. This page therefore sticks to what the help documents, and says plainly where a figure or rule is not in the help.

Warning: The Autodesk help does not publish Personal use revenue limits, license terms or renewal periods, or startup-program eligibility. If you are not sure that your use is permitted, read the current terms on Autodesk's pages and Terms of Use, or ask Autodesk. Do not rely on third-party figures.

Where to find it#

• Your Autodesk account: sign in at the Autodesk account site and open All Products & Services. Fusion and the Fusion web client ("Fusion - Contributor") are listed there.
• Your access inside Fusion: on the Home page, the My Fusion page has an Access information section that shows trial status, expiration details, or renewal actions. It appears only for eligible users.
• Buying and upgrading: on the Application bar, click Extensions to open the Purchase Manager. On a trial the bar also shows See Plans and Pricing; with personal use it shows Upgrade. Both open the Purchase Manager on the Plans and Pricing tab.
• Assigning licenses to people: hub administrators check invitation status in the Fusion web client (profile image, then Admin, then Members) and assign licenses in Autodesk account management (User Management > By Product > Fusion > Assign users).

Types of Fusion access at a glance#

Note: not confirmed in Autodesk's documentation: the Personal-use revenue limit, the length of a Personal-use license term and how renewal works, and the startup program's eligibility rules, discount, and time limits. Earlier drafts of this guide quoted figures for these; they have been removed.

Personal use in detail#

Personal use is the license many beginners start with. What the help documents:

• Editable document cap: 10. The API's PersonalUseLimits object exposes editableFileCount, editableFiles, and maxEditableFileCount (documents the user has set to be editable). Release notes mention personal users reaching "the limit of 10 editable documents", so the cap is 10 as of those notes. The same object has existed since May 2021. The API describes these as documents the user has set to be editable, so the cap is on editable documents, not on how many files your hub can hold; the exact UI steps for switching documents are not covered in the help pages mirrored here.
• Hub access. With a Personal license you have full access to the hub you own. When you work in another hub you only have Basic Access. Everyone you invite to your own hub also gets Basic Access to its projects and designs.
• No Fusion web client. Access to the Fusion web client is not included with Fusion for personal use (or with trial versions).
• No Design Reservation. Design Reservation (avatars and reservation badges on designs being edited) is not available for personal use or for teams with only one member.
• No Fusion BOM. The Fusion Bill of Materials feature is not available with a personal license or single-user storage.
• File formats. Not every file format is available with Personal use. The supported-formats reference has a Personal Use column: a blank cell means the format needs a commercial subscription.
• Milestones. In Fusion for education, milestones are not available for single-user (personal) storage accounts.
• Monthly Flex tokens (beta). Personal use includes 10 monthly Flex tokens (beta), which equal 1,200 AI assists, for Autodesk Assistant agentic tasks. Commercial and Startup include 20 tokens (2,400 assists); Trial and Education include 10 (1,200 assists). The rollout began September 30, 2026, and unused tokens do not carry over.
• Upgrade path. Personal-use users see an Upgrade button on the Application bar.

Note: not confirmed in Autodesk's documentation: whether the personal-use feature restrictions for manufacturing, simulation, or exports match older descriptions (for example, limits on toolpath strategies). Use the supported file formats reference and the Autodesk comparison page for the current list.

Basic Access#

Basic Access is the reduced mode you fall back to when your license term expires or when a Personal-license holder works in someone else's hub. With Basic Access:

• In Fusion you can view projects and files (including previous versions) and export models.
• In the web client you can view projects and files, comment and mark up files, and download files if your permissions allow.
• Your data is not removed; you still have Basic Access to it.

Trials#

• Fusion trial: 30 days from first access, once per person (see the table above).
• Extension trial: if an extension is not included in your subscription, you can start a 14-Day Trial of it from the Purchase Manager. When it ends, access stops automatically and you are not charged.
• While you are on a Fusion trial, all extensions are enabled for the length of the trial.
• When invited to a hub, you may see a trial status until your administrator assigns a license.

Paid plans, extensions, and Flex tokens#

The Purchase Manager (Application bar, Extensions) handles three kinds of purchase:

Extensions#

Extensions add design and manufacturing features, or let you perform actions that would otherwise cost Flex tokens. The help lists:

• Manufacturing Extension: advanced capabilities for 3- to 5-axis CNC machining, nesting and fabrication, and metal-based additive manufacturing.
• Simulation Extension: simulation and generative design. Without it you can still run simulation and generative design studies using Flex tokens charged per result.
• Design Extension: for example plastic rules and tools, Geometric Pattern, Organic Mesh Conversion, Volumetric Lattice, Design Advice, Find Similar Components, PMI Authoring, and Configuration Rules.
• Fusion Manage: a separate product for product lifecycle management, usable with Fusion or independently.
• The Signal Integrity Extension is no longer available for new purchases or trial.

Some bundles include extensions automatically: Fusion for Manufacturing includes the Manufacturing Extension; Fusion for Design includes the Design Extension, Simulation Extension, and Fusion Manage.

Ways to get access depend on your type of Fusion access, but typically are:

• Daily access using Flex tokens: for occasional use, no contract. The Design and Manufacturing Extensions offer daily access. Flex Auto Access can automate daily purchases but is not available to all customers and must be enabled by your administrator; tokens are deducted on days you open Fusion.
• Monthly or yearly access by payment card: for regular use, auto-renews by default, and the product appears in your Autodesk account where you can assign named users.
• Resellers: you can also buy through an Autodesk Reseller or Service Partner.

Bring Your Own Subscription#

Under the BYOS policy, a hub administrator can invite people to a hub without assigning a subscription. Someone who already has a Fusion subscription can use the hub regardless of who owns the hub, who bought the subscription (subject to the Authorized User definition in the Terms of Use), and where the data center is. Contract managers assign and manage subscriptions.

Step by step: check and confirm your access#

1. Sign in to your Autodesk account and open All Products & Services. Confirm Fusion is listed.
2. Open Fusion and go to Home > My Fusion. Read the Access information section (if shown).
3. Look at the Application bar. See Plans and Pricing indicates a trial; Upgrade indicates personal use.
4. Open the Purchase Manager (Extensions button). On the Advanced Capabilities tab, check which extensions you can start a trial of or purchase.
5. If a feature is missing, check that the account signed in to Fusion is the one that holds the access (for example a school email versus a personal email).
6. Administrators: in the Fusion web client choose profile, Admin, Members. A member with status Active has accepted the invitation and can be assigned a license; Pending means they have not accepted yet. Then open Autodesk account management (User Management > By Product), click Fusion, and click Assign users. Use the Assign tab to search by name or email, or the Import to assign tab to upload a CSV (first name, last name, email address) for bulk assignment; members who already have licenses are skipped. Administrators do not need a Fusion license to do this.

Options reference#

What happens when access lapses#

If your license term expires you keep Basic Access to your data: you can view projects and files, comment and mark up files, and download files if your permissions allow. You cannot rely on editing. Export important designs to neutral formats (such as STEP) and keep your own backups outside the cloud.

Tips and pitfalls#

Tip: Keep a periodic local backup: export important designs as Fusion archive files (.f3z) or neutral formats. This protects you against a lapse, an account problem, or an outage.

Tip: Fusion can run offline for two weeks at a time. After that you must reconnect and sign in so the license can be validated.

Warning: Do not use a license outside its terms, for example Personal use for paid work. The help does not list Personal-use commercial restrictions, so check Autodesk's current terms.

Warning: Extensions that are not included, trialed, or purchased do not appear as available. If you paid for one and cannot use it, check the assignment in your Autodesk account and restart Fusion.

Warning: Monthly Flex tokens (beta) are shared across a team and do not roll over to the next month.

Practice exercise#

1. Open your Autodesk account and identify the product listed and who it is assigned to.
2. In Fusion, open Home > My Fusion and compare the Access information with the account page.
3. Open the Purchase Manager and note which extensions offer a 14-Day Trial for you.
4. If you hold Personal use, check how many documents you have set to be editable and compare against the cap of 10.
5. Write down, in one sentence, which license you hold and why it is the right one.

Expected result: you can state which access type you hold and which features it does and does not include.

Related#

• Installing Fusion
• Hubs and projects
• Workspaces overview
• Cloud collaboration