The Llama license, explained in plain English

The license in one paragraph

Every Llama release comes with its own Community License Agreement from Meta. In short, it lets you download, use, modify and share Llama models, including in commercial products, for free. In return you must follow Meta's acceptable use policy, credit the model with "Built with Llama", pass the license on when you share the model, and name any shared fine-tuned model starting with "Llama". Companies whose products had more than 700 million monthly active users need a separate license from Meta. For the multimodal Llama models there is also a restriction for people and companies based in the European Union.

Which license applies to which model

Each Llama version has its own agreement with very similar core terms. The model you use decides the license you follow.

Each license links to an acceptable use policy for that version. The current one for Llama 4 is the Llama 4 Acceptable Use Policy. Meta's newer Muse models use different licenses; see the end of this page.

What you are allowed to do

• Use the models for personal, research or commercial work without paying Meta.
• Modify them, for example by fine-tuning on your own data.
• Share them, in original or modified form, as long as you follow the conditions below.
• Own what you make. The license says that, as between you and Meta, you own the derivative works and modifications you create, while Meta keeps ownership of the original materials.

What you must do in return

Credit the model

If you distribute a Llama model or offer a product or service that uses one, including another AI model built with it, you must display "Built with Llama" prominently on a related website, user interface, blog post, about page or product documentation.

Pass the license on

When you share a Llama model or a derivative, you must include a copy of the license agreement. You must also include a notice text file with the attribution line Meta specifies. For Llama 4 it reads: "Llama 4 is licensed under the Llama 4 Community License, Copyright © Meta Platforms, Inc. All Rights Reserved."

Name fine-tuned models with "Llama" first

If you use a Llama model to create, train or fine-tune an AI model that you distribute, its name must begin with "Llama".

Follow the acceptable use policy

The acceptable use policy is part of the license, so breaking it is also a license violation.

The acceptable use policy in brief

The policy forbids using Llama to:

• Break the law or others' rights, including violence, terrorism, exploitation of children, human trafficking, unlicensed professional practice, collecting sensitive personal data without consent, infringing intellectual property, and creating malicious code.
• Endanger life or safety, including military and weapons uses, illegal drugs, operating critical infrastructure, and promoting self-harm.
• Deceive people, including fraud, disinformation, defamation, spam, impersonation, and presenting AI output as written by a human.
• Hide the risks: you must tell end users about known dangers of your AI system.

The policy also gives ways to report violations, bugs and problematic output to Meta.

The 700 million user rule

If, on the release date of the Llama version in question, the products or services of a company and its affiliates had more than 700 million monthly active users in the preceding month, that company must request a license from Meta, which Meta may grant at its discretion. Until then, it has no rights under the community license. In practice this applies to a handful of the largest technology companies; almost every individual, startup and ordinary business is far below the threshold.

The EU rule for multimodal models

The acceptable use policies for Llama 3.2 and Llama 4 include a clause for multimodal models, the ones that accept images. For those models, the license rights are not granted to individuals living in the European Union or to companies with their principal place of business there. The restriction does not apply to end users of a product or service that includes such a model. So a person in the EU can use an app built with Llama 4 elsewhere, while an EU-based company building directly on these models should read the clause carefully.

Other clauses worth knowing

• Trademarks. The license does not let you use Meta's brands, except "Llama" as needed for the "Built with Llama" credit, following Meta's brand guidelines.
• Lawsuits end the license. If you sue Meta claiming that Llama infringes your intellectual property, your license terminates.
• No warranty. The models come "as is". You are responsible for checking whether your use is appropriate and safe.
• Governing law. The agreement is governed by California law.

Open weights, not open source

Meta often describes Llama as open, and the weights really are free to download and change. But the license adds conditions that common open-source licenses such as Apache 2.0 or MIT do not have: a usage policy, a user-count threshold, a naming rule and a regional restriction for some models. That is why many people prefer the term "open-weight model" for Llama. For most users the difference is small; for companies building products, it is worth knowing.

How Llama.Online follows the license

Llama.Online is an independent site, not run by Meta. Our chat sends messages to Llama models hosted by an inference provider, and our pages display "Built with Llama" in the footer as the license requires. You can try Llama 4 Maverick in our chat or read the terms of use.

What about Meta's Muse models?

Meta's newer models are called Muse, and they are not covered by the Llama licenses. Muse Glimmer is released under Apache 2.0, Muse Spark Open uses a new Muse Model License with limited commercial terms, and Muse Spark and Muse Wonder have no downloadable weights. None of the Muse models are in our chat. See Llama history for the timeline.

FAQ

Can I use Llama in a commercial product?

Yes, for free, as long as you follow the license: credit "Built with Llama", follow the acceptable use policy, and stay under the 700 million monthly active user threshold or get a separate license.

Do I need to ask Meta before using Llama?

No. You accept the license when you download the weights, for example on Hugging Face. Only the largest companies must request a separate license.

Can I fine-tune Llama and share my model?

Yes. Include the license, keep the required notice, and start your model's name with "Llama".

Is Llama open source?

Its weights are open, but the license adds restrictions that standard open-source licenses do not, so "open-weight" is the more accurate term.