- Autodesk Named User Subscriptions
Most practice managers still picture Autodesk licensing as a pool of user licenses: twenty on a server, thirty people, and whoever opens Revit or AutoCAD first gets one. That model is gone, and a lot of the confusion about seat counts, sharing and what happens when someone leaves comes from still thinking in it. Here’s how named user subscriptions actually work, in the terms Autodesk uses, and what each rule means for the invoice.
We’re NexSys’s Design Technology team, and NexSys is an Autodesk Elite Partner. What follows is Autodesk’s model as it stands on 23 September 2026, with the prices in Australian dollars ex GST where they matter.
- The rule
A named user license is one person, on multiple computers, one instance at a time
Autodesk’s own words: each user is assigned a licence, which can’t be shared with another user. That person can download and install the same software on up to three devices, so multiple devices are fine, but can use only one instance at a time. The subscription lives in your Autodesk account, an admin does the user assignment to a named person by their Autodesk ID, and the person signs in to use it. That sign-in is the licence. There’s no serial number to type, no licence server to point at, and nothing that a second person can borrow for the afternoon, which is what Autodesk means when it says account sharing isn’t permitted.
What the three-device rule is for is the person with a workstation in the office, a laptop for site visits and a machine at home. All three can have Revit installed, and the sign-in follows the person, not the desk. What it isn’t for is a shared workstation in the corner that four people take turns at, because each of those four needs to sign in as themselves, and each sign-in needs its own subscription.
- What ended
Autodesk's transition: the end of multi-user network licenses and perpetual licenses, and the trade-in offers that got practices there
Multi-user subscriptions, the network pool that a whole office drew from through a licence server, were retired in stages, and so were the maintenance plans that kept old perpetual licenses current. Autodesk stopped selling new perpetual licenses in 2016 and wound down maintenance plan renewals in the same transition, so the subscription model is now the only one. Multi-user sales stopped on 7 August 2020, and Autodesk ran a trade-in offer at renewal, two named-user subscriptions for each multi-user seat, with the deadline extended twice through the pandemic until multi-user renewals finally closed on 7 February 2024, so any practice that renewed after that date is on a named user plan whether it noticed or not.
The trade-in ratio is the number worth remembering, because it explains a lot of today’s over-licensing. A practice with 20 network seats that served 35 people traded them for 40 named-user subscriptions, which was generous in 2021 and is 5 seats too many in 2026, now that the 35 people have become 32 and three of them only open Revit on Flex days. Nobody went back and recounted. That’s the audit.
Paying for seats nobody uses? We'll read your Autodesk usage report and quote the mix, not the count.
Get a seat review- Occasional users
Flex tokens: the named-user answer to the person who needs Revit twice a month
The pool used to absorb occasional users for free, and named users don’t, which is why Autodesk introduced Flex. Tokens are bought in packs, valid for a year, with the remaining balance visible in the account, and a day of use draws a fixed number: 7 for AutoCAD, 9 for Civil 3D, 10 for Revit. A reviewer who opens a model fewer than about 100 days a year is usually cheaper on Flex than on a full subscription. Flex is also assigned to named users, and when someone holds both a subscription and Flex access, Autodesk draws on the subscription first and the tokens only when it’s exhausted or absent.
Here’s a view some resellers would argue with: most practices should have Flex and most don’t. The objection is that tokens feel like a meter running, but the arithmetic beats the feeling. A practice with six directors and reviewers on full Revit subscriptions is paying for far more than they use.
- Housekeeping
Reassignment, usage reports, previous versions and the seat that's still assigned to someone who left
Because every subscription is tied to a person, someone leaving doesn’t free the seat. An admin has to remove them in the Autodesk account and assign the seat to the next person, and until that happens the subscription is paid for and idle. Autodesk’s account portal lets administrators manage users and shows usage by user, and it also controls product access to previous versions, which a subscription includes back several releases, so the check takes ten minutes a quarter: who hasn’t signed in for ninety days, and why. Half the answers are “they left in March”, a quarter “they only use it on Flex days now”, the rest the reason the seat should stay.
The same report is what a licence compliance review would look at, so it works in both directions. Autodesk’s audit program can select any customer, and the things it finds are usually the mirror image of the waste: the education offering on a commercial laptop when nobody at the practice is at a qualified educational institution, an old perpetual install nobody removed, shared accounts on a generic mailbox that four people know the password to. Those audit findings cost more than the seats.
A caveat, though. If you’re a practice of five with five seats and one admin who knows everyone, none of this needs a process. We’d rather say so than sell you one. The licensing hub covers what we do for practices that are past that size.
- Before you ask
Questions practice managers ask about named users
Can two people share one Autodesk subscription?
No. Each subscription is assigned to one named user and Autodesk’s terms say it can’t be shared. That person can install on up to three devices but run one instance at a time, so two people who both need the software need two subscriptions, or one subscription plus Flex for the occasional user.
Can we reassign a subscription when someone leaves?
Yes, and the same week: an admin removes the departed person in the Autodesk account and assigns the seat to someone else, the subscription carries on, and until that happens it’s paid for and idle.
What about cloud credits and cloud services?
Cloud credits are a separate consumable for rendering and analysis in Autodesk’s cloud services, not a licence. A subscription includes some, and a single user or an admin can buy more. They don’t substitute for a seat or for Flex tokens.
Can a named user switch computers?
Yes, freely. The person signs out on one machine and in on another, Autodesk’s licence follows the sign-in, and the limit is three installed devices and one running instance rather than a fixed computer.
- Written by
Written and reviewed by the NexSys engineers, design technology specialists and consultants who build and support IT for architecture, engineering and construction firms across Australia. Every price, rule and vendor statement is checked against its source on the date shown.
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