IMPORTANT: From February 2023, we have made changes to the way licenses work. Please read more about these changes here.
Capture One offers perpetual and subscription licenses for users. The difference between those is the term of validity. A perpetual license is everlasting (for life, providing that you meet the minimum system requirements), while with a subscription plan you have to make regular payments to keep the license active – but you always have access to the latest version.
About perpetual licenses
Once you make a full one-time payment for the Capture One software version, you obtain a lifetime license. You can use this license to activate the version you purchased for, and for any older versions.
Be sure to keep your workstation inline with the minimum system requirements to ensure the version you purchased will always work with your hardware. To check what max software update you are eligible to, please navigate to your user account -> Plans & services management -> you will see the related information under the license you own.
About subscription licenses
With a subscription license, you have to make payments monthly or annually based on your subscription plan. As long as you make regular payments, a subscription license works with the latest version of Capture One. You can also activate the previous versions of the software with your subscription license.
NOTE: To use Capture One on a subscription basis, you must have and maintain an internet connection allowing for communication between your equipment and Capture One's equipment over the internet for the purpose of Capture One being able to validate and reconfirm your valid subscription license, including payment of applicable subscription license fees from time to time during the subscription period.
Subscription plans
| Subscription plan | Description |
| Annual prepaid |
When you choose an annual-prepaid subscription plan, it means that you will be charged the indicated amount once a year. The first payment is done at the moment of purchase, while ongoing payments will be made on the date specified in your Order History -> Subscriptions -> Next Charge field. |
| Monthly | This subscription plan is particularly suitable for those who value flexibility. It means that you will be charged on a month-by-month basis while your subscription is active. |
| Annual paid monthly | An annual subscription billed monthly meant that you would make monthly payments on the specified dates during the 1-year contract period. The subscription couldn't be canceled prior to the end of the 12-month term. No longer sold. |
Cancelling subscription
If you want to cancel your subscription and not prolong it for another month or year (depending on your subscription plan), you can do so through your Capture One account. See the detailed instructions in this article.
NOTE: As soon as you press the 'Cancel' button, the end date of your subscription will be set to last day of your current cycle (monthly or annual). By that time, you will still be able to use Capture One having access to all updates and upgrades released in the remaining time period.
After the end date, your license key will be disabled and you will lose the access to the software entirely.
The number of activations per license
Every Capture One license is cross-platform compatible (be it macOS or Windows) and allows you to activate the software on a specific number of machines. The number of available activations depends on your license type. Read more about how many computers can be activated with each Capture One license in our dedicated article:
How many computers can I install Capture One on?
Backwards compatibility
All Capture One licenses are backwards compatible which means that they can be used to activate older versions too. Let's say you have obtained Capture One 23 license key and use it on your new MacBook running the latest macOS. You have the second computer on an older macOS that requires an earlier version of Capture One compatible with that OS version. That's not a problem – simply download Capture One 22, 21, 20 or 12 (the one supporting your old macOS) and activate it with your Capture One 23 license key. Older software installers can be downloaded here (scroll a bit down to see versions prior to 22).
IMPORTANT: The backward compatibility of Capture One subscriptions depends on whether it was issued by FastSpring. FastSpring licensing was first introduced in Capture One 11.3.2. If you can find your license in the FastSpring Order History, your license is a FastSpring one.
Like this, all Capture One Pro subscriptions purchased via FastSpring can activate the software starting from version 11.3.2 onward. Sony and Fujifilm subscriptions were introduced even later and have been supported since the release of Capture One 12. Subscriptions for Capture One Nikon can activate the software starting from version 20 (13.1.0) accordingly.
Legacy subscriptions (obtained before November 2018) are supported since Capture One 8 onward and allow customers to use Capture One from version 8 to the latest one. These are no longer sold and cannot be found under the FastSpring order history.
The Terms and Conditions of your license purchases (made via our web store) are always accessible from your Capture One account under the 'Plans & services management' section:
Comments
102 comments
Hi Josef,
Yes, that is of course possible.
You should deactivate Capture One first.
Then install Capture One on your new computer and activate it.
Thank You Lily, have a nice day. J.
Hi Lily,
Indeed!
Do you have a solution for me? I absolutely must be able to continue using V7 on this computer. I can no longer change the operating system on this machine and it is my main production tool.
I have been using Capture one for over 10 years and absolutely don't want to change image processing software. I have a huge workload in this field of activity
Hi Lily. I bought a monthly subscription and I don't know how to cancel it. Please tell me how can I cancel my subscription in Capture One 20.
Hi Bombaert,
I suggest you submit a request directly to the Support Team - https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
They will provide you more information about the licensing.
Hi Ilaha,
Thank you for the question.
First of all, you will have to log into your account at captureone.com
Then click on Order History and you will be redirected to the FastSpring page.
There you will have to enter your e-mail. Then go to the Subscriptions tab and select your subscription. Click on Manage and select Cancel subscription from the drop-down list.
I purchased CaptureOne; why it listed as 'Capture One 21 Pro (Trial)' when I review 'About Capture One 21'? Did something go wrong with my download?
I really want to keep using Capture One and cancel my Adobe subscription, but you guys aren't making it easy.
The price difference is unjustifiable - $10/mo for Adobe vs $25/mo for C1Pro
I'm locked into a promotional rate, which is great, but it's brand specific, and I was told that if I want to upgrade to a 'Pro' subscription that I'd now have to pay full price.
Also, apparently now your promotional rates are only valid for the first year subscription??
Capture One is good software, but it's not twice as good as $10 for Lightroom + Photoshop.
Give existing customers a bit of a break, and a bit of incentive to continue to support you.
Give new customers a real reason to choose you over Adobe.
So i bought a perpetual licence thinking great, i wont have to shell out again
But what's this? If i have to reinstall capture one 20 i can't, no download available, and my licence wont work on the latest version, meaning my perpetual licence is actually a yearly licence.
To say i am beyond disappointed is selling my feelings on this short.
This is deeply exploitative.
Peter,
I'm not sure if you really expected to get a continuous upgrade for a one-off license payment although it would certainly be a nice idea. However, the industry standard for that is one-off payment per month on a subscription basis that offers access for as long as one pays.
There are a handful of exceptions although longevity and availability of updates may not yet be fully proven. Perpetual means that what you buy should continue to work so long as your hardware supports it. And, presumably, the licensing server arrangements are still in place or license checks have been somehow eliminated at some point in the (distant?) future.
I'm not sure what you are seeing but my C1 download link in the browser allows me to scroll down and find a button for the Previous Version (so V20 at this time) and beyond that, in the V20 Download window I can scroll down and see links back to Version 10.
I believe that if anyone needs to go back further than that (likely a very rare possibility these days) there is an option to seek assistance from the Support Team on a case by case basis.
I hope this helps you in some way.
HI Lily
I want to cancel my monthly plan,
I do as you say to Click on Manage and select Cancel subscription from the drop-down list.
but it keeps saying"This subscription cannot be canceled here."
yet I can't find another place to do it,hope you can help.
I want to cancel capture one for sony because I have subscribe capture one pro, what should I do? I pressed cancle, but I have a message for me to call you back.
I have a Capture One Pro 20 perpetual license and would like to upgrade to Capture One Pro 21. There is a third-party approved vendor who is selling the full perpetual license version of Capture One Pro 21 for a price that is currently lower than your upgrade price. If I purchase this new perpetual license from the third party vendor, will I still have the three activations for Capture One 21 that I am entitled to from my Capture One Pro 20 purchased via your website in March 2020 and would it still be backward compatible with my previous version? Thanks.
Hi Burt,
Thank you for the comment.
I have converted your request to a support request. The Support Team will get back to you via the ticket soon.
I just purchased a license and I want to activate it. I was using for two week a trial version. How to enter the activation key received ?
Hi,
Thank you for the comment.
I have converted your request to a support request.
The Support Team will get back to you soon.
Lily,
I pay a monthly fee for Capture and when I upgraded to 21, I was automatically given a Free 30 Day Trial. If I have a subscription, why would it do that? The 30 Day Trial is now over and it now wants me to purchase or enter my key. I have had my subscription for 3 years now and cannot find a key, if I ever even had one. What should I do to resolve this?
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thank you for the comment.
I have converted your request to a support request. The Support Team will get back to you soon.
Hi Maryna!
It seems that the new policy regarding the pre-upgrade to Version 22 is messing a lot of things up.
People who upgraded from 20 to 22 are limited to using 20 only and it was not very clear that they won't be able to use 21 until 22 is released.
This article states that when you purchase the upgrade you're able to use OLDER versions of Capture One - not just the current one you already own.
Not only is this very confusing to your customers, you're also causing issues for those who HAD bought the upgrade to 21 and now upgrade to 22. They too seem to be stuck with version 20 until 22 is released.
I think this whole mindset of always trying to withhold stuff from customers is not a good business strategy and seems to backfire quite a bit.
It used to be quite simple: once you upgraded to the latest version you could use all older versions too. But it seems that was too "generous" and now your support team is getting flooded with questions, requests and quite probably a lot of requests for refunds as well.
Maybe you should consider sticking to your own long standing terms regarding licenses and simply enable all users who bought the V22 pre-upgrade to also use V21 in the meantime.
hi,
I have a question about deactivate C1 on my computer. I lost my laptop and I want to deactivate C1 on it. I have a new laptop with active C1 and I don't want to lose it. How to do it properly?
Hi Andrzej,
Thank you for the comment.
I have converted your request to a support request. The Support Team will get back to you soon.
Hi, I own four DF/DF1 bodies and three backs (P45, P40+ and IQ160. I have read on the internet this should entitle me to a a license for CaptureOne software? Would you please confirm? Thank you.
Hi Castro,
Thank you for your comment.
Please check our article with the list of supported cameras Camera models and RAW files support in Capture One
Note, attention, if you have a perpetual license, do not buy an upgrade with subscription, because you will lose the perpetual licenses for previous versions C1. This is a capture one cheat, I'm terribly disappointed, got robbed. Give me back my perpetual license
worst customer support ever - no response for 24 hrs . I am trying to purchase a subscription and my card is getting declined all the credit cards. No problem with the issuer when I check with them.
FastSprint does not respond. I have to deliver pictures to my clients and I am stuck with the subscription please help me with a resolution quickly.
Fast Spring: details
Support Ticket Number: 01117935
Subject: Consumer Support - General Inquiry
thank you
yogan
Hi. I got a new computer. I already activated the license on two computers prior. If I deactivate the license on one computer, can I activate one of the licenses on my new computer?
I tried this technique but it does not seem to be working. It says cannot activate, because the upgrade limit is exceeded... What does this mean?
Help!
Hi, I have the annual Sony subscription and would like to upgrade to the annual Pro subscription so that I can also import and edit my old Nikon catalog/images from lightroom. However, from looking around on the support pages it appears I must let my existing Sony license expire and then start a new subscription with the Pro version. Is this true, i.e. there is not a prorated upgrade path from a camera specific to the Pro version?
Thanks.
Hello, when managing the Enterprise account, I see only one serial, I don't know how to eliminate accounts that we don't want to be able to use it anymore, like a blacklist, because if they have the serial they can activate it wherever they want.
Hello, is there any possibility of integrating the activation and management of licenses by MDM, as you indicate in the Enterprise version?
The current annual price for a Capture One Pro subscription is $125.30. Will my annual subscription price remain at $125.30 for subsequent years?
Please sign in to leave a comment.