Calculate your Bentley license costs by subscription type over time
Pick the products you need, choose how you want to license them, and see what they cost across the whole term. When the numbers look right, download a branded estimate you can share internally.
Perpetual Licensing explained
The Perpetual License is the most traditional way to license Bentley software. It is a network license you buy upfront, plus an annual SELECT maintenance fee that keeps you on the latest release with 24/7 support.
- Cheapest option long term — usually from year six or seven onwards.
- Shared network license — the seat can be used by anyone on your team.
- Larger upfront investment than either subscription.
If you use more licenses than you own, the overage is invoiced as Term Licenses at the end of the quarter, so it pays to keep an eye on consumption.
Annual (Virtuosity) Subscription explained
The Annual (Virtuosity) Subscription is Bentley’s newest model: a 12-month license you can assign and re-assign across your team, and every one of them comes with free one-to-one training.
- No large upfront cost.
- 35–50% cheaper than a Cloud Service Subscription over a 12-month period.
- More expensive than a perpetual license once you pass roughly ten years.
If you expect to use the product for the long term, compare it against the perpetual license above — the break-even point is usually somewhere between year five and year seven.
Cloud Service Subscription explained
A Cloud Service Subscription lets you project your annual license consumption and pre-pay it into a fund. Bentley reviews your usage every month and charges only for what you licensed, with no long-term commitment.
- Monthly billing absorbs peaks and troughs in demand.
- Good fit for occasional, short-term access to a range of Bentley applications.
- The most expensive model if you use the product consistently every month.
Once you find yourself consuming licenses every month, adding an Annual or Perpetual license typically saves at least 30% against the cloud rate.