Questions and answers
Who needs a commercial license?
Anyone whose use is Commercial Use under the LICENSE: any use that is not one of its permitted purposes. Investment management, meaning managing, advising on or trading investment capital, is Commercial Use for every individual and every organization except as personal trading, an endowment, a pension or public fund or a foundation's treasury included. Commercial Use also includes use by, for, or on behalf of a company or other organization, including your own company or your work for one; embedding the software or its output in a product or service for others; and operating a hosted or public-facing service through which others run it or receive its output. The decision guide on the home page walks through it. The LICENSE is the controlling text.
Is personal trading still free?
Yes. A natural person may research, develop, or backtest strategies and execute trades for their own account with their own capital, free of charge. Your own account includes accounts you hold alone or jointly with your household (spouse or domestic partner, dependants), their accounts, and retirement or other tax-advantaged accounts or a revocable trust for your benefit. Your own capital includes margin and other ordinary borrowing from a broker or lender. Trading through a company, even one you wholly own, is not Personal Trading: that is the Solo plan.
Do schools, universities, charities and government bodies pay?
Not for teaching, research and their other operations: the LICENSE makes those uses by a charitable organization, educational institution, public research organization, public safety or health organization, environmental protection organization or government institution a permitted purpose. Investment management is different: using the software to manage, advise on or trade an endowment, a pension or retirement fund, a sovereign or other public fund, or a foundation's treasury or reserves, or to research strategies for that capital, is Commercial Use for every organization, and it needs the Fund plan.
I trade my own money through my own company. Is that free?
No. An account of a company, partnership, fund or trust, other than a revocable trust for your own benefit, is not your own account, even if you wholly own it. The Solo plan covers one person using the software for a company they wholly own, alone or with their household, trading up to $10M of their own capital. Trading in your own name, for your own account, stays free even when trading is your living.
What is a seat?
A seat is a natural person who runs the software for the licensee, or one automated pipeline, such as a CI job, that runs it. People who only run compiled output, or only write PineScript that a pipeline with a seat transpiles, need no seat. A seat can move to another person when its holder leaves or no longer needs it. If you need more seats than a plan lists, ask for a quote.
How are assets under management measured?
Fund plans are priced by the band your assets under management (AUM) fall in. AUM is your regulatory assets under management as your latest regulatory filing reports them (for a US adviser, Form ADV), or otherwise the amount an officer certifies each year, plus your own capital traded with the software. For an endowment, a pension or public fund or a foundation's treasury, that is the investment capital traded with the software. A band covers AUM over its lower limit up to and including its upper limit. AUM is measured when you order and in each yearly statement. The $100M to $500M band is sold by invoice or purchase order: write to enterprise@pineforge.dev.
How is my use checked?
Once a year, and with each renewal, you send a signed statement of your seats and, as your plan requires, your AUM, own capital traded with the software, monthly active end users or revenue. If your use went above your plan, you pay the difference at list price for that period. Self-serve plans carry no audit.
Can I upgrade or change my plan?
Write to enterprise@pineforge.dev with your license id. An upgrade during a term costs the difference between the two plans' annual prices, pro-rated to the days left, and ends on the same date. If your use grows past your plan, you have 30 days to upgrade.
How do renewals work?
Checkout is a one-time payment for a 12-month term, shown on your certificate. Nothing renews automatically. To renew, buy again and give your current license id at checkout: the new term starts when the current one ends, so renewing early loses nothing, and renewing up to 30 days late still continues from the old end date.
What happens to code I generated when my license ends?
You keep it. Output generated during a paid term stays licensed for your plan's uses after the term ends; only generating new output needs a live license. Copies of a product already delivered to your users may keep running and be supported.
Do I get an invoice? What about tax?
For a live purchase, Stripe creates an invoice for the payment; whether Stripe emails it to you depends on the seller's Stripe settings. Test-mode orders, including every order while the site is in preview, get no real invoice. Stripe asks for a billing address, lets you add a tax id, and shows the amount due before you pay.
Is there a trial?
No. The source code is public, so you can read it before you buy. Write to enterprise@pineforge.dev with any question before you buy.
Can I get a refund?
No. Fees are not refunded after purchase, except where the law requires it or for a duplicate or mistaken charge. When an order is refunded in full, its license is revoked and the verify page reports it as revoked.
What is the license id, and how is a license verified?
Each license has an id like PFL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX and a signed license file (JSON) carrying an Ed25519 signature. Anyone can check the id or the file on the verify page, which also reports revocation. The certificate page shows the same details in a printable form.
What information does the license contain?
The license names the licensee and country, the plan and scope, the term, and the agreement version. It never contains the buyer's name or email; those stay with the order. The privacy page lists what the site collects and how long it is kept.
Is this site legal advice?
No. The LICENSE and the Commercial License Agreement are the controlling texts. If you are unsure whether your use needs a license, write to enterprise@pineforge.dev.
Who sells the license, and which law applies?
pineforge, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. The agreement, a draft under review by counsel, chooses Delaware law and the state and federal courts in New York County, New York.
Are the prices final?
Yes. Live sales start once counsel has approved the Commercial License Agreement; until then no real payment is taken, and test licenses are not commercial licenses.