Earth Engine for Noncommercial and Research Use Join our community of scientists and nonprofits using Earth Engine for research, climate analysis, natural resource management, and more. For more than a decade, Earth Engine has enabled planetary-scale Earth data science and analysis by nonprofit organizations, research scientists, and other impact users. Since the launch of Earth Engine for commercial and government operational use, commercial and government operational customers are charged for Earth Engine services. However, Earth Engine remains free of charge for certain use cases, as defined below. To help you determine if you’re eligible to use Earth Engine free of charge, click on your 'Institution Type' to read more: Nonprofit organization using Earth Engine for noncommercial activities Academic or educational institution using Earth Engine for research or teaching News media organization Certain government agencies Trainer or Trainee of Earth Engine for a finite period Individual using Earth Engine for noncommercial purposes Earth Engine will remain free of charge for nonprofit organizations using the services for scientific research, education, or noncommercial activities. Nonprofit organizations that receive Earth Engine free of charge may not: Use Earth Engine for fee-for-service activities, including fulfilling a deliverable, output, result, or task paid for by a fee-for-service type of an agreement with a commercial, government, or other entity. In addition, these organizations may not charge or receive compensation from commercial entity for applications or data created by the use of Earth Engine. Perform compensated fee-for-service work on behalf of government or commercial entities. If any of these criteria do apply, you require a commercial license to use Earth Engine for these purposes. Earth Engine will remain free of charge for students, faculty, or staff at an academic or educational institution, e.g. K-12, college, university, and will use Earth Engine for academic research or teaching/learning purposes. Academic or educational institutions receiving Earth Engine for free may not: Use Earth Engine for fee-for-service activities, including fulfilling a deliverable, output, result, or task paid for by a fee-for-service type of an agreement with a commercial, government, or other entity. In addition, these organizations may not receive compensation from commercial entity for applications or data created by the use of Earth Engine. Perform compensated fee-for-service work on behalf of government or commercial entities. If any of these criteria do apply, you require a commercial license to use Earth Engine for these purposes. Earth Engine will remain free of charge for journalists at an organization whose primary mission is journalism. Earth Engine will remain free of charge for government agencies using Earth Engine noncommercially in the following cases: The agency is from a Least Developed Country, as defined by the United Nations ( list ).

The agency is part of an Indigenous Government, officially recognized by the national government. The agency is using Earth Engine for scholarly research (e.g. peer-reviewed paper, thesis, report, article, publication, per TOS section 2.1b ). Government agencies are not permitted to use Earth Engine free of charge for the following (in these cases, a commercial license is required): Internal research and development, prototyping, or testing for internal purposes. The repeated production of data products; the production of tooling for management, policy, or web applications. Creating datasets, apps, services that are maintained on an on-going basis. Producing datasets where the primary goal is to enable operational workloads. Noncommercial access to Earth Engine for government agencies is subject to review by Google. Government users must use an institutional Google account supported by their agency. Earth Engine will remain free of change to users offering Earth Engine training or to users taking a training course to learn Earth Engine. You may use Earth Engine free of charge for training only, for the duration of the training course. You may charge for your training services, but you cannot charge for use of Earth Engine. You are an individual developer using Earth Engine for noncommercial purposes. Individuals receiving Earth Engine for free may not: Use Earth Engine for fee-for-service activities, including fulfilling a deliverable, output, result, or task paid for by a fee-for-service type of an agreement with a commercial, government, or other entity. Receive compensation for applications or data created by the use of Earth Engine. Perform work (compensated or not) on behalf of entities covered by commercial terms. Example use cases Here are some examples, to help you decide if your government work is Research or Operational : Examples of Government Research Activities : Work being done for a specific scientific study, creation of an initial foundational dataset Examples of Government Operational Use : Datasets, apps, services that are maintained on an on-going basis. Activities producing large and/or valuable datasets where the primary goal is to enable operational workloads. Here are some examples to help you decide if your use is Noncommercial or Commercial : Examples of Noncommercial Activities : Trainers/developers and organizations who offer training services to Earth Engine users. A PhD student using Earth Engine for their thesis on natural resource management. Examples of Commercial Activities: Monetization of services built on top of Earth Engine. Internal Research & Development (R&D) activities where the primary goal is to develop a commercial product. Activities used to produce sales and/or marketing white papers that are used to promote a certain product, service, technology, or methodology, or to influence current and prospective customers' or investors' decisions. If you are not eligible to use Earth Engine free of charge, are a commercial entity or a government agency interested in using Earth Engine for operational purposes, please see Earth Engine for Commercial Use . If you are a Startup, the Google for Startups Cloud Program provides your funded startup with access to dedicated mentors and industry experts, product and technical support, Cloud cost coverage (up to $100,000) for each of the first two years, and more. Earth Engine is now a covered Cloud product as part of this program. Apply here . If a startup has applied for this program, and were not eligible for it, please reach out here .