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ArcGIS for Personal use new licensing from 2026

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

Hello,

I am a user of ArcGIS for personal use since the beginning. I have renovated my license last week, and I had a very bad surprise. The licensing mode hast changed from Advanced to Basic... not even Standard.

The problem I face now is that I have many features that I cannot edit, dimensions for example.

It is a big issue, because now I have many feature layers, that I can see them, but I cannot edit, delete... or create new ones.

I do not know why ESRI has downgrade so much the licensing options. I am really dissapointed. Much unfinished work is ahead of me, and no option to continue working.

Has anybody else the same situation?

Thanks

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DanPatterson

That is the case. Disappointing, but I suspect that there were abuses of people using the "Personal" portion of the license labelling and using it for their business/work.

joyoung_kerrvilletx

I am sorry to hear that you are locked out of your data now. Esri did announce the change would be happening for new and renewed accounts in June 2025 and I want to say I got another email sometime in the fall. I wonder if it has to do with the ArcGIS Online licensing changes and Professional including more software than Esri would like. Dropping it down to Basic aligns ArcGIS Pro with the Creator license which is what a Personal license used to include. But all of that is just me guessing.

It was fun to show my kids some of the advanced things GIS can do while it lasted. This also reminds me that I need to renew my personal license as well.

DanPatterson

check the licensing for each toolbox, for example

Data management toolbox licensing—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Feature Vertices to Points... Data Management tools .... really??? an advanced license

Thankfully, arcpy.da.FeatureClassToNumPy to the rescue

I am not sure the logic behind what requires an advanced license and what doesn't. I wish someone in the know would chime in

Robert_LeClair

The licensing change for ArcGIS for Personal Use (Advanced to Basic) occurred June 2025 from what I've learned. The rationale or reason I'm not seeing but as mentioned higher up in the thread, likely there was abuses/misuse of the program. As intended, it is "for individual use to explore, learn, and apply GIS technology to your personal projects." Perhaps some used it for profitable use cases...

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

I can understand some people had abuse... but that means esri knows them. By esri banned everyone, and not just those who use AGPU for business?

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

I have no mail regarding this new licensing (I live in Spain). But as you kids were doing many advanced tasks, what now? as for myself, they cannot do those things now.

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

Many options that I used are now disabled... Dimensions, envelope to polygons... much unfinished work has gone to the garbage

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

I understand that some people has made profit with this license, and as I say earlier, esri should know who these people were, but they banned everyone, not just those ones.

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

I have found that I can use QGis to perform those tasks (dimensions...) ... I'd like to continue using ArcGIS, but, at this point of my projects I have no other choice

KimOllivier

You still have unlimited access to the python geometry engine. So you can re-program every tool that you need using arcpy. You will have more low level work, processes work on pairs of geometry objects so you will need to interate over the featureclass. Often you can program in a shortcut that makes it faster than the general tool. If you only need a few restricted tools this may be worth it to keep using the Basic licence. I agree that not being able to create more complex featureclasses is a serious drawback.

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/arcpy/classes/geometry.htm

This often happens to me when a customer wants an app that works only on Basic. If there is a tool not available I create my own. eg I wanted to Densify a polygon from four straight lines to many vertices so that when it was projected the lines were curves. Oops, Standard or Advanced only. But I only have one polygon to edit and that can be done easily by adding vertices in a script. You can move selections easily between a featureclass and an object list. Much can be done in memory or with python lists.

There are some tools that disappeared in ArcMap that I have rebuilt. eg Frequency with Case. I often want to use a composite key but relates only work with a single field. Just run my tool that creates a new case# that is a single number for the composite key. Many others that I used to have are now in Pro such as Convex Hull.

http://www.ollivier.co.nz/support/python_tips/index.htm

Look at the sample Furthest Town task for an example of how to replace Near().

KirstenCorcoran

This is so disappointing! I've had a personal license for almost 10 years and I doubt I'll renew now. I use my personal license at home to learn new skills on the weekends using data that is not work related. During the week I apply this new knowledge at the office. Often I've had access to tools at home that we aren't licensed for at work. In the past I've been able to learn how to use it at home so I can make the case for my org to buy the license.

The fact that aggregate points (cartography) is somehow considered an advanced tool leaves me thinking there's not much point to having the personal license anymore. I can't think of many of the basic tools that I still need to learn.

It's also disappointing that my future new-hires likely won't have had access to the advanced tools except in the classroom. This crushes the option for learning Esri products outside of higher education system.

There were so many other ways abuse of the system could have been handled, I feel like this was the most harmful way possible.

Please, Esri, reconsider this decision.

IñakiLázaro_Cantera

I totally agree with your way of thinking. I'll have time to think until next february, where I'll really rethink the renewal... And, the same for me... more than 10 years using the license...

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