RF-DETR is released under the Apache-2.0 license: the models and the code are free to use commercially, including inside closed-source and revenue-generating products, with no copyleft obligations, and no enterprise license to buy.
When teams evaluate a computer vision model, the benchmark numbers get all the attention and the license gets a glance. For anything you intend to ship, the license decides whether you can actually use the model you picked. Roboflow's RF-DETR is built to make that an easy answer: it is free to use commercially.
This article covers what RF-DETR's license actually grants, what that means in practice when you go to ship, where the scope begins and ends, and why it matters compared to the models most teams reach for first.
RF-DETR Is Apache 2.0
RF-DETR is Roboflow's family of state-of-the-art real-time detection models, covering object detection, instance segmentation, and keypoint detection. The core models and all of the code are released under the Apache 2.0 license.
Apache 2.0 is a permissive open-source license. In plain terms, it lets you use, modify, and distribute the software, including in commercial and proprietary products, without having to open-source what you build around it. It also includes an explicit patent grant from contributors, which adds a layer of protection that lighter licenses like MIT and BSD leave out. It is one of the most widely trusted licenses in software, and it is the standard most corporate open-source policies accept without a second look.
For RF-DETR, that means the model and the code are yours to build on commercially. No usage fees for the model, no copyleft strings, no separate license to unlock commercial use.
What Free to Use Commercially Actually Means
License language is easy to wave at and hard to act on. Here is what Apache 2.0 lets you do with RF-DETR in concrete terms.
You can ship it in a closed-source product. Train RF-DETR on your data, build your pipeline around it, and sell the result without publishing your source code. The license does not reach into the application you wrap around the model.
You can deploy it anywhere. Cloud, on-prem, or on edge hardware next to the camera. There is no deployment shape that changes your obligations, and nothing about serving it over a network triggers a disclosure requirement.
You can make money with it. Use it in a paid product, an internal system that drives revenue, or a customer-facing API. Commercial use is exactly what the license permits, with no revenue threshold and no contact sales to use this commercially gate.
You keep ownership. Your data, your trained weights, and the code you write are yours. RF-DETR does not assert control over what you build, and you can take it all somewhere else whenever you want.
You do not owe anyone a license fee for the model. Apache 2.0 asks for attribution and the standard license notices. It does not ask for payment.
Where the Scope Begins and Ends
To be precise, since licensing questions reward precision: this is about the RF-DETR model and code. The open-source models and code carry the Apache 2.0 license, and that is what is free to use commercially.
The Roboflow platform, the hosted product for labeling, training, deployment, and monitoring, is a separate paid product with its own plans. You can use RF-DETR entirely on your own, from the open-source repository, with no Roboflow subscription. You can also use the platform to train and deploy RF-DETR faster, which is a convenience you pay for, not a license you have to buy to use the model commercially. The two are independent. The model is free; the managed infrastructure is the product.
This is general information, not legal advice. For how the license applies to your specific product, read the Apache 2.0 license terms and check with your own counsel.
YOLO Is Not Free to Use Commercially
Many detection and pose models do not offer free licensing. The Ultralytics YOLO family, for example, is licensed under AGPL-3.0, a strong copyleft license. In practice, building on an AGPL model in a commercial product means either open-sourcing your own application, including the proprietary pipeline around the model, or buying a separate enterprise license to lift those obligations. The model is free to download; it is not free to ship in a closed product.
That distinction is the one that surfaces at the worst time: during a security review, a procurement check, or due diligence, where many enterprises flag or outright ban AGPL components. In short, free to download and free to ship commercially are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where teams get caught.
RF-DETR closes that gap by default. Apache 2.0 means there is no commercial license to buy back the rights you need, no copyleft obligation to open-source your product, and nothing for a procurement team to object to. And because RF-DETR is also at the top of the accuracy and latency curve, choosing the commercially safe model is not a tradeoff against performance.
Start Building with Roboflow's RF-DETR For Object Detection, Instance Segmentation, and Keypoint Detection Apps
If licensing has been the thing standing between your team and shipping a detection model, RF-DETR removes it. The models and code are Apache 2.0, free to use commercially, and available in the open-source RF-DETR repository. You can train on your own data, deploy to the cloud or the edge with Inference, and ship it inside whatever you are building.
Cite this Post
Use the following entry to cite this post in your research:
Contributing Writer. (Mar 10, 2026). Roboflow's RF-DETR Is Free to Use Commercially. Roboflow Blog: https://blog.roboflow.com/rf-detr-is-free-to-use-commercially/