Construct 2 has been officially retired. Now you should upgrade to Construct 3.

Using a license

Construct 2 Free Edition

Construct 2 can be downloaded and installed to any computer for free, including site-wide at non-commercial institutions like schools. Without a license, it runs as the Free Edition. This has the following limitations:

  • A maximum of 100 events in a project
  • A maximum of 4 layers in any layout
  • A maximum of 2 effects in a project
  • No folder organisation in the project bar
  • No event search
  • No configurations bar
  • No Families
  • No Preview on LAN
  • Not allowed to be used for commercial purposes (however, it can be used in education and other non-profit organisations)

Buying a license removes all of these limits. Licenses can be purchased from Scirra.com or from Steam. Both the Standard and Business licenses remove all the above free edition limitations.

The Personal license

All the free edition limits are removed with a Personal license. However, the rules for commercial use are different for individuals and organisations.

Individuals may use a standard license for commercial purposes up to a revenue limit of $5000. Once revenues associated with creations made with Construct 2 exceed $5000 (including associated advertising/promotion) a business license must be purchased. However, no business license is necessary before that point.

Not-for-profit organisations like schools, libraries and universities may use personal licenses to remove the free edition limits. Bulk discounts are available.

Commercial organisations cannot purchase standard licenses: they must purchase business licenses.

The Business license

Most individuals do not need a business license. It is only necessary for:

  • Individuals who have already made over $5000 from revenue associated with Construct 2 creations, and
  • Commercial organisations like businesses.

Not-for-profit organisations never need business licenses - they may use standard licenses instead.

Purchasing from Steam

If you purchase from Steam, then Steam will manage the license. If you want to install your copy of Construct 2 on another computer, just install Steam, log in and download Construct 2 again. The rest of this section applies to buying directly from our site, which involves a license file instead of using Steam.

The license file: c2license.txt

If you've made a purchase directly from Scirra (rather than from Steam), you will be sent a redeem key by email. This is a special code you can enter to the Scirra Store and get your license. If you want to buy a license for someone else, you can give them the redeem key and they can then get a license from the store with their own name and email address on it. This also works if you want to buy licenses for a number of people, e.g. your employees or colleagues: you will receive a number of redeem keys, which you can then give to each individual.

Once you have redeemed your purchase from the Scirra Store, you can download your Construct 2 license, which is a file called c2license.txt. You simply need to copy this folder in to either the install directory or My Documents. Restart Construct 2 and it should launch as the licensed version: the purchaser name should appear on the start page and About dialog, Free edition should disappear from the title bar, and the free edition limits should be removed. Alternatively, you can place your license file wherever you like and locate it by clicking Load license file in the About dialog.

Unless a license is purchased for an organisation, the license is for the individual rather than their computer. This means you can use your licensed copy of Construct 2 on as many computers as you like, so long as you are the only one using it. Other people must buy their own license. Remember Construct 2 can be used as portable software (see Installing Construct 2). You can put your license file in the install directory on a removable drive and take your licensed copy of Construct 2 to any computer.

You must not modify the license file at all. It is protected by a hash, and any modification whatsoever will cause Construct 2 to reject the license and revert to the Free Edition.

You must not share your license file! Keep it to yourself like you do with serial numbers for other software. Also, the license file contains some of your personal information, so it is certainly preferable to keep it private.

If you lose your license file, such as if you format your computer and forget to back it up, you can re-download your license here:

https://www.scirra.com/store/downloads

Construct 2 Manual 2020-06-13