Understanding License Models


This topic describes the different licensing models and the product keys or subscriptions that may be associated with them. A useful visual of how product keys and subscriptions are represented in Tableau Cloud can be found in the Tableau Customer Portal(Link opens in a new window).

When viewing product keys using the Tableau Customer Portal (Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder), note the product specific prefixes.

Product Key Prefix Description
TC Tableau Creator product key, can be used to activate or deactivate Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder.
TD Tableau Desktop product key, can be used to activate or deactivate Tableau Desktop only. This is a legacy product key that is no longer sold or provided.

Term licensing models

Tableau’s term license model is defined by the metric that permits use of Tableau Cloud. Term licenses are also called subscription licenses. Tableau currently sells access to Tableau Cloud with subscription licenses. In the subscription license model, customers pay a yearly subscription fee. If the subscription expires, the software will stop working.

Tableau Cloud subscription licenses are role-based, core-based, or capacity-based. A single license key can be purchased with all roles and features and this license is called an Updatable Subscription License (USL). Only one key needs to be activated on Tableau Cloud to represent the entire purchase.

  • A role-based license allows you to add users based on the available licenses of each role type.

  • A usage-based license imposes no constraints on the number of Viewer user accounts in Tableau Cloud. Instead, the license is per usage, more specifically analytical impressions. An Embedded Analytics usage-based license is one type of usage-based license.

  • A capacity-based license provides unlimited Viewer users for Tableau Cloud, replacing per-user-per-month Viewer licensing. Instead of paying per Viewer, you purchase capacity units that define how much concurrent usage your deployment can support. At least one Creator license deployment is required. Creators and Explorers continue to be licensed per user per month.

Role-based license model

Tableau offers role-based term licenses that grant a range of capabilities at various price points. Four types of role-based term licenses are available: Display, Viewer, Explorer, and Creator.

  • Display licenses let users share and display Tableau content with a broad, internal audience of users who consume dashboards via shared displays with no interaction. There is no separate site role for Display licenses; when using a Display license, administrators create a dedicated login account for each licensed Display location, which is not the same as an individual user’s login account, and assign the maximum site role of Viewer.
  • Viewer licenses let users view and interact with workbooks in Tableau Cloud. Viewer licenses also let users access Tableau Mobile, add comments to workbooks, export visuals in various formats, download workbook summary data, create subscriptions for themselves, and receive data-driven alerts.
  • Explorer licenses are similar to the user-based licenses available in previous Tableau Cloud releases, and include the capabilities provided with Viewer licenses, and additional capabilities. An Explorer license allows access to workbook authoring capabilities using a web browser, as well as a full set of collaboration features.
  • Creator licenses permit a wide range of capabilities when using Tableau Cloud, and also grant use of Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder. A Creator license allows all of the capabilities available under the Explorer license, as well as the following capabilities when using Tableau Cloud:
    • Create and publish new workbooks from a new data source.
    • Edit embedded data sources in the Data pane.
    • Create and publish new data connections.
    • Use login-based license management activation on Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder.

Usage-based license model

In a usage-based licensing (UBL) model, Usage Viewers are licensed per usage measured in analytical impressions, while Creators and Explorers are defined per user.

An analytical impression is generated when a Usage Viewer (who must be a viewer outside your organization) accesses one or more embedded analytics within (or related to) your external facing application, or a Pulse metric. For example, when a Viewer is performing these following actions:

  • Loading a dashboard.

  • Loading a worksheet.

  • Downloading or exporting a visualization (dashboard or worksheet) such as an image, PDF, PowerPoint or Tableau workbook via API or the UI.

  • Receiving a subscription.

  • Successful requests for detail Pulse insights. A successful detail request can happen either from users interacting with the Pulse interface within Tableau or from embedded scenarios where an external application is making requests to the Pulse Insights API.

  • Getting a response from a VizQL Data Service request.

Note: Tableau Pulse will be available for usage-based sites at release, and will begin measuring analytical impressions in June 2024.

Site administrators will receive monthly overview emails(Link opens in a new window) updating them on Analytical Impressions consumption so they can track their usage and manage their budget. You can also request usage metrics at any time from your account managers to monitor usage.

Capacity-based license model

Starting in July 2026, the capacity-based licensing model provides customers who need to expand and scale their analytics access more broadly the option to purchase capacity-based units.

In a capacity-based licensing model, Viewer users are not licensed per user account. Instead, you can purchase Capacity-based Viewer Blocks that define how much concurrent usage your deployment needs to support. With this model, there is no limit on the number of Viewer user accounts you can add to Tableau Cloud.

Creators and Explorers continue to be licensed on a per-user, per-month basis. At least one Creator license is required per deployment to be able to purchase Capacity-based Viewer Blocks. A deployment can use either capacity-based or role-based Viewer licensing, but not both.

Each Capacity-based Viewer Block defines limits for the following types of actions. These types are subject to change as we evolve our infrastructure.

Visualization actions:

  • Opening and refreshing dashboards and views

  • VizQL Data Service (VDS) API calls

  • Exploring Pulse metrics

  • Pulse insights API calls

Background actions: 

  • Concurrent extract refreshes

  • Extract API calls

  • Publish API calls

  • Concurrent subscriptions

  • Scheduled Pulse digests

Capacity-based licensing is available in Standard, Enterprise, Cloud+, and Tableau+ Bundle editions. Capacity is provisioned at the tenant-level and can be allocated to individual sites by Tableau cloud administrators in Tableau Cloud Manager (TCM). For more information about specific capacity types and limits, see Tableau Cloud Capacity.

Embedded Analytics

Tableau’s Embedded Analytics offering is a limited-use license for Tableau Cloud that’s made available to customers who want to embed Tableau Cloud analytics into an external facing solution to provide Tableau content and insights to clients outside of their organization.

Note: Embedded Analytics licenses cannot be used in the same environment as full-use licenses. To change to an Embedded Analytics license, first deactivate your existing full-use licenses and then activate the Embedded Analytics license.

For example, consider an organization that runs a service where they analyze consumer data and generate reports on behavioral patterns regarding different consumer demographics. In this scenario, Tableau Cloud acts in support of a specific proprietary application titled ‘Demographics Analyzer’ and connects with exported TXT files and a SQL database. The organization makes visualizations available to its clients in a secure portal, where clients log in to manage their account and view the results. End users are uniquely identified by the account they use to access the portal.

To verify the license contact Customer Success(Link opens in a new window).

License editions

License editions include a suite of features and functionality to which users are entitled. License editions cannot be mixed within a deployment, meaning all users on a deployment must be on the same license edition. Consider the needs of your entire deployment when selecting your license edition.

Tableau Cloud license editions

  • Tableau Standard Edition License

    Tableau Standard edition is the base Tableau Cloud edition. It provides Tableau Cloud access for each licensed user, governance, collaboration, data prep, and visual analytics functionality.

  • Tableau Enterprise Edition License

    Enterprise edition is designed for sophisticated business environments on Tableau Cloud. It is ideal for organizations that require advanced administration, security, and data management functionality to scale to more users in more complex data environments and meet Enterprise standards.

    For more information and a list of features included with Tableau Enterprise, see About Tableau Enterprise.

  • Tableau Cloud+ Edition License

    Tableau Cloud+ edition is available exclusively for Tableau Cloud. It is tailored for wall-to-wall adoption of AI-powered, self-service analytics. It encompasses premium features tailored for larger or more complex deployments like premium AI functionality with Tableau Agent, a 50 site limit, Release Preview and Premier Success for Tableau Cloud.

    For more information and a list of features included with Tableau Cloud+ edition, see About Tableau Cloud+ Edition.

  • Tableau+ Bundle License

    Tableau+ Bundle is available for Tableau Cloud. It includes agentic analytics with Tableau Next, and the Tableau Cloud+ edition license.

    For more information and a list of features included with Tableau+ Bundle, see About Tableau+ Bundle .

Tableau Server license editions

  • Tableau Standard Edition License

    Tableau Standard edition is the base Tableau Server edition. It provides Tableau Server access for each licensed user, governance, collaboration, data prep, and visual analytics functionality.

  • Tableau Enterprise Edition License

    Enterprise edition is designed for sophisticated business environments on Tableau Server. It is ideal for organizations that require advanced administration, security, and data management functionality to scale to more users in more complex data environments and meet Enterprise standards.

    For more information and a list of features included with Tableau Enterprise, see About Tableau Enterprise.

  • Tableau Server+ Edition License

    Server+ edition is designed for organizations that want the full power of Tableau Server with the flexibility and intelligence to scale further. It is ideal for enterprises that require expanded deployment environments (1 production and up to 6 additional non-production environments for testing), accelerated setup with pre-built containers, and premium success support to drive adoption and maximize value across their organization.

    For more information and a list of features included with Tableau Server+ edition, see About Tableau Server+ edition(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Server Help.

Private Connect licensing

If you have Tableau Cloud with a Tableau Enterprise or Tableau Cloud+ edition, or Tableau+ Bundle, Private Connect is available for purchase as an add-on license. You need an add-on license for each private connection.

You also need to purchase data usage blocks to send and receive data over the private connection. Private connection data usage is billed per terabyte.

Monthly summaries of usage are sent as described in Monthly Account Summary FAQs(Link opens in a new window). Cloud administrators that want more frequent and granular statistics can use the Activity Log(Link opens in a new window) to get usage. The private connection Endpoint ID that appears in the list of private connections in Tableau Cloud Manager maps to endpointID in activity log events.

Feature licenses

Important: As of September 16, 2024, Advanced Management and Data Management are no longer available as an independent add-on options. Advanced Management and Data Management capabilities are only available if you previously purchased these, or if you purchase certain license editions: Tableau Enterprise, Tableau Cloud+, or Tableau+ Bundle (available for Tableau Cloud), or Tableau Enterprise or Tableau Server+ (available for Tableau Server).

Feature licenses are sold differently than other licenses. Features with independent licenses must be licensed for every user in the deployment.

These features are licensed annually, and in the context of licensing, the availability of these features to the user base are “all or none:”

  • Data Management
  • Advanced Management
  • Login-based License Management

Note: Updatable subscription licenses include both features and roles in one license. You no longer need to activate multiple licenses and product key(s) for different features and their associated roles.

Data Management

The Data Management license includes Tableau Catalog and Tableau Prep Conductor. For more information, see About Data Management.

Advanced Management

Tableau Cloud Advanced Management is licensed on a per deployment basis. For more information on Advanced Management and the capabilities included, see About Tableau Advanced Management on Tableau Cloud.

Login-based License Management

Login-based license management (LBLM) simplifies licensing for Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder. Instead of end users needing to activate product keys, Cloud Creators can activate and use Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder by signing in to the Cloud site (LBLM).

For more information, see Activate Tableau using Login-based License Management.

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