Audacity is free software. You may use it for any personal, commercial, institutional or educational purpose, including installing it on as many different computers as you wish.

You may also copy, distribute, modify, and/or resell Audacity, under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation – either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. In granting you this right, the GPL requires that the source code you distribute is itself available under the GPL. If you distribute or recommend Audacity in any way, please cite our trademark by referring to Audacity as “Audacity(R)”.

If you have questions, please contact us via the Audacity forum.

See also Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU GPL.

Advice for Vendors and Distributors

A variety of companies and individuals bundle Audacity with their products, resell or otherwise distribute it. Below are requirements and guidelines for bundling, reselling or distributing Audacity.

Legal Requirements

You must include the following to comply with version 2 or later of the GPL:

  1. a verbatim copy of the GPL and
  2. the Audacity source code (or if you are distributing a modified version of Audacity, that modified code). Failing that, you must include a written offer to supply the code.

If you distribute our installers and do not modify them, this will fully comply, because the installers include the GPL and an offer in README.txt for users to obtain the source code from us. Versions of Audacity after 1.3.3 also include the GPL in the application itself, in the About Audacity dialog. On this site, we block advertisements from distributors offering modified installers of Audacity, on the expectation that any modification is likely adding unwanted software.

Additionally, the name Audacity® is a registered trademark of Dominic Mazzoni. Therefore you may not advertise yourself or your business as an authorized distributor of Audacity, and you may not modify Audacity then continue to use the Audacity name without the express permission of the Audacity Team.

Updating and Documenting Audacity

We would appreciate your linking to our website: https://audacityteam.org so your users can download updated versions of Audacity when released. Also, please subscribe to the notifications list at the bottom of https://audacityteam.org to ensure you receive advice of and can distribute the latest version of Audacity.

If you bundle the .exe or .dmg Audacity installers, the Audacity Manual is included. If you provide the Audacity zip file or source tarball, please consider including the standalone Manual with your distribution to reduce the number of queries we receive. IMPORTANT: If you write your own documentation for Audacity, please submit it to us for review before you publish it.

For vendors selling a hardware product, with Audacity included:
  1. Thank you for choosing to distribute Audacity with your product! Please contact us early so we can work together to make your product a success.
  2. Please distribute Audacity unmodified. If you need to modify it to work with your device, please contact us first.
  3. Please test your device with Audacity thoroughly. If there are any specific configuration instructions needed to make your device work with Audacity, please ensure these are included with the device.
  4. Please note that we cannot help your customers with problems specific to your device – these must be dealt with by your own qualified staff. Users needing support with Audacity itself can find assistance at https://audacityteam.org/contact/.
For those wishing to resell Audacity, or a rebranded version of it:
  1. If you are reselling Audacity unmodified, your advertising should make it clear that Audacity is available for free on the Internet, and highlight the benefits of the customer purchasing Audacity from you. For example, you could offer Audacity on a CD-ROM, bundle other software or music files, or provide a printed manual.
  2. You should endeavour to provide your own technical support for your customers, and your own documentation if you have modified Audacity. If you are reselling Audacity exactly as obtained from us and have questions about this, please contact us via the Audacity forum.
  3. Please read these additional guidelines for resellers on the Audacity Wiki.