General information

Community licenses are for non-commercial, non-production use in an academic setting. You can find more information about licensing here .

There are two types of licenses, which can be generated in the academic user portal:

  1. Node licenses are meant for installation on a PC or laptop. Up to two different computers can be used, and the GAMS installation will be locked to those computers. No internet connection is required when using GAMS.
  2. Network licenses are meant for use in docker, virtual machines, or similar settings. You can use up to two concurrent nodes with a network license. The machines always have to be connected to the internet.

How to generate and install your license

This video shows how to register for a community license and install it on a Mac. The process is basically the same on Windows. If you prefer written instructions, keep reading below the video.

  • If you have not done so yet, signup for a free account at https://academic.gams.com using your institutional email address.

  • Download a GAMS installation file at https://gams.com/download/ for your operating system and install GAMS.

  • Make sure to update your name in the user portal, so it can be included in your license.

  • Go to the portal dashboard , click on the correct “get your free community license” button (either node or network), and then hit the orange “Generate License” button

  • You will then see your personal license in the Licenses section

  • Copy your Access Code into your clipboard

  • Start the GAMS Studio application on your laptop or PC, and inside the application press CTRL-T (Windows & Linux) or CMD-T (Mac). This will open a new terminal window for you, which you need for the next step.

  • Generate your license by executing gamsgetkeyin the terminal window opened in the previous step with your access code in your clipboard as an argument. For example: gamsgetkey xxyyzzxx-yyzz-xxyy-zzxx-yyzzxxyyzzxx Hit Enter and your license will be generated.

  • The generated license will be displayed in the terminal. Copy all 8 lines of the license to your clipboard (the red box in the screenshot below).

 

  • In GAMS Studio go to Help > GAMS Licensing, GAMS Studio should recognize the license in the clipboard and will offer to install it.

Your license should now be installed.