Frequently Asked Questions

The default license folder for Intel® Software Development Products is as follows:

• On Windows*: \Program Files\Common Files\Intel\Licenses
• On Linux*: /opt/intel/licenses
• On macOS*: /Users/Shared/Library/Application Support/Intel/Licenses

The product key or serial number is a 36-character, unique identifier for a suite or toolkit associated with your entitlement. For example: 5ca0a982-4c27-4f14-bbe9-5155e1af1efb.

On legacy systems, product keys or serial numbers created on the legacy system follow a 13-character format. For example: L8B7-4SBW47N5.

To find the product key or serial number:

1. After you register a product, you will get a confirmation email that contains the product key or serial number.
2. Go to the Intel Registration Center, and sign in by entering your user name and password.
3. In the Entitlements view, the list of entitlements registered to you appears.
4. To view your entitlement details and product keys or serial numbers for any associated products, expand an entitlement.

1. Go to the Intel Registration Center, and sign in by entering your username and password.
2. To view the license details, expand a license.
3. In the Actions column:
   • To send a copy of your license to your email, select the email button.
   • To download the license file, select the download button.
4. To manage the license, select (…), and then choose Manage License. You can do the following:
   • Manage the users associated with a multiuser license, such as the owner, administrator, and developers.
   • To ensure a named-user license is current, select the Rehost (refresh) button.
   • To review and update the host information for a floating license, select the Rehost (refresh) button.
5. For detailed information on support renewal prices, including reseller information, select (…), and then choose the Renew/Upgrade option. 

For more information, see Purchase, Renew and Upgrade FAQ

Note You can only transfer a serial number ownership to or from a different person with the same email domain. For the transfer to proceed, the target person must have an Intel account.

Transferring a license to another person can be done for both named-user and floating licenses.

1. Go to the Intel Registration Center and sign in by entering your user name and password.
2. To see your current licenses, select the Licenses view.
3. To manage the license, select (…), and then choose Manage License.
4. To change the owner and enter their email, in the Primary owner row, select (…).

To transfer the license to a user from a different domain or to transfer ownership to yourself, contact Intel support. For support options, see Get Help.

Additional Information

You can only add a person as an administrator to a serial number if they have the same email domain as the primary owner. For the transfer to proceed, the target person must have an Intel account.

1. Go to the Intel Registration Center and sign in by entering your user name and password.
2. To see your current license, select the Licenses view.
3. To manage the license, select (…), and then choose Manage License.
4. To change the administrator and enter their email, in the Administrator row, select (…).

Intel® Software Manager is a utility that allows users to:

• Download and install updates for your Intel® Software Development Products
• Manage the subscription status of installed software
• Activate serial numbers
• Manage licenses, such as add a new license or refresh or remove an existing license
• Find out about the latest news for Intel Software Development Products

The key difference is related to the licensing terms and associated support for the compilers. See the End User License Agreement (EULA) for distinctions between the three. Products under an evaluation license will cease to function at the end of the evaluation period. Free products are only valid for the granted license period. All other products will continue to function beyond the licensed support period.

An evaluation license is not renewable. Once your free license has expired, you must qualify for a new license. Paid licenses are eligible for support renewal. See the Purchase, Renew, and Upgrade FAQ for more information on renewals. Functionally, the evaluation and free tools compilers are identical to the paid compilers of the same version.

If you have Priority Support, open a ticket for any question in the Online Service Center.

If you do not have Priority support, you can get help on the community forum, Getting Started Questions for Intel® Toolkits.

Intel no longer provides Rogue Wave* IMSL* Numerical Libraries. If you have a license, Intel converted it to a license for Intel® Parallel Studio XE Composer Edition, which is bundled with an Intel® Fortran Compiler. However, if you still have your Intel Fortran Compiler with Rogue Wave IMSL installer, you can get assistance installing it at the Online Service Center. To ensure that your ticket is routed correctly, select the box indicating that your issue involves licensing problems.

Use this option if you need to replace an older license file with a new one for an existing installation, or if you wish to install the product using a license file.

Place the license file (*.lic) in the appropriate directory, making sure not to change the license file name.

Note If the INTEL_LICENSE_FILE environment variable is defined, use that directory instead of the default directory for your operating system.

• On Windows*: <installation drive>\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\Licenses
  
• On Linux*: /opt/intel/licenses
• On macOS*: /Users/Shared/Library/Application Support/Intel/Licenses

Note You will likely need administrative or root privileges to copy the license to the named directory.

Make sure to remove expired license files from the directory to ensure the correct file is being used.

If you have active Priority Support for legacy products like Intel® Parallel Studio XE and Intel® System Studio, follow these steps to find the license files:

1. Go to the Intel Registration Center. Sign in by entering your user name and password.
2. To see your current licenses, select Licenses.
3. In the Actions column:
   • To send a copy of your license to your email, select email.
   • To download the license file, select download.

For more information, see How do I send a license file to my email?

If you have Priority Support and upgraded to Intel® toolkits, to request your older license files, open a support ticket.

No. Only floating licenses require the installation of the Intel® Software License Manager on the license server. There is no need to install a license manager on the client systems.

You may see this error while installing Intel® Software Development Products with a license file. There are a few things you need to check.

1. Make sure you are using the offline installer and alternate activation method by providing the license file in your local folder for installation (as opposed to using a serial number or online installer file). As of March 2022, the online installer and serial number do not work for installing older products like Intel® Parallel Studio XE or Intel® System Studio.
2. The license file may be corrupted. Sign in to the Intel Registration Center (IRC) and download the license file or resend it to your email. If you cannot find the file in IRC and have Priority Support, open a support ticket to request the file.
   Note Modifying a license file arbitrarily may invalidate it.
3. Check the license and its support expiration date in the IRC. Make sure that the product you are installing is covered by the license and that the build date of the product is earlier than the support expiration date of the license you own.
4. The license file on your system may be outdated. When you renew your support, a new license file is generated for your serial number. You will need to remove the old license file from your system and replace it with the new license file.
   

Yes, you can. A named-user (single-user) license allows the license owner to install the product on multiple systems belonging to the same user. However, only one copy of the software may be in use by the license owner at any given time.

See the End User License Agreement.

If your support expired, Intel cannot provide you with the older license files. As part of recent changes to data privacy and retention requirements, Intel cannot retain older expired license information its system, so the those licenses were removed.

If you have Priority Support and need these files for installation, open a Priority Support ticket.

See the End User License Agreement.

Use this option if you need to replace an older license file with a new one for an existing installation, or if you wish to install the product using a license file.

Make sure to use the client license file for the floating serial number. Place the license file (*.lic) in the appropriate directory, making sure not to change the license file name.

Note If the INTEL_LICENSE_FILE environment variable is defined, use that directory instead of the default directory for your operating system.

• On Windows*: <installation drive>\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\Licenses
  
• On Linux*: /opt/intel/licenses
• On macOS*: /Users/Shared/Library/Application Support/Intel/Licenses

Note You will likely need administrative or root privileges to copy the license to the named directory.
 

To replace the license file on the server, refer to the Intel® Software License Manager FAQ.

You may see this error while installing Intel® Software Development Products with a license file. There are a few things you need to check.

1. The license file may be corrupted. Sign in to the Intel Registration Center and download the client license file of your floating serial number, or resend it to your email. Note Modifying a license file arbitrarily may invalidate it.
2. Check the server license and its support expiration date in the Intel Registration Center. Make sure that the product you are installing is covered by the license and that the build date of the product is earlier than the support expiration date of the license you own.
3. The license file on your server may be outdated. When you renew your support, a new license file is generated for your serial number. You will need to remove the old license file from your server and replace it with the new license file.

If your issue is with the Intel® Software License Manager, refer to the FAQ.

Older versions of the compiler do not support the client license format using USE_SERVER. Replace this file with the full server license. For more information, see Setting Up the Client Floating License.

A variety of issues can cause slow license checkouts:

• Old license server information or old license files
  • To remove old or expired license files, use the Software License Cleanup Tool. 
• A bug introduced with RHEL* and CentOS* 7.2.
• Running versions 2016 through 2017 update 1 of the compiler on a remote workstation
• Slow DNS lookups

For more information, see Slow Floating License Checkout.

There is no limit to the number of systems the product can be installed on. However, a floating license has n number of seats: typically 1, 2, or 5 seats. While the product may be installed on more systems than the number of seats, only n licenses can be checked out at the same time, where n = number of seats.

For more information, see the End User License Agreement.

Use of a floating license is similar to the named-user license. Either download the license file from the Intel Registration Center and provide the path during installation or provide the serial number during installation (requires internet access).

You can track floating license use with Intel® Parallel Studio XE products using the Intel® Software License Manager, which uses the Flexerra* FLEXlm technology.

The commercially available Intel® toolkits do not use a license manager. Usage is controlled by the terms of the purchased commercial product and the End User License Agreement. Users are assigned to the specific serial number in the Intel Registration Center.

The floating licenses provided for Intel® Parallel Studio XE will continue to work for the latest version of Intel Parallel Studio XE that the license is entitled to. Once the support term ends for that floating license, Priority Support and access to older versions will end.

The commercial model for Intel® toolkits includes Priority Support and access to older versions of the product.

Concurrent user licenses have changed to reflect the number of developers. For up to 64-node systems, the descriptions reflect "Up to [X] Developers". The best product for you depends on your team’s size. The following table details the changes in descriptions and configurations:

To upgrade your current floating license, see How to Upgrade a Floating License to a Concurrent License.

No. Intel® toolkits do not require a license for download, installation, or use. However:

• Acknowledgment and acceptance of the End User License Agreement is required.
• Purchase of toolkits with Priority Support is required for access to older versions.

Yes. The license file used by the Intel® Software License Manager will continue to work as long as the server host ID does not change. The floating serial number will no longer be available in the Intel Registration Center for server updates, so Intel® Parallel Studio XE users are encouraged to transition to the concurrent serial number as soon as possible.

The single-node version is supported for use on shared memory systems, like laptops, notebooks, PCs, desktops, and workstations. The multi-node version is supported for use on shared memory systems and on distributed memory systems, such as high-performance computing (HPC) clusters.

You should replace the floating license file on your local system with the concurrent license file. Floating license files are located by default in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Licenses for Windows*, and /opt/intel/licenses for Linux*, and typically contain “USE_SERVER” in the name. An environment variable may also be used to point to the server in the port@host format, and this should be changed to point to a license file.