ArcGIS Pro Concurrent Licenses

[vijaybadugu]

We've been using concurrent license pool for almost years along with license manager. Currently, We upgraded to ArcGIS enterprise11.5.  I've heard, it would retire soon by end of the year, ArcGIS pro 3.6 is the last version to support this license type. 

We are ready to convert all our concurrent licenses to named users (ArcGIS Enterprise or Online). Does it work same as pool ? How it works when assigning ArcGIS Pro add on license to the member in organization? Do we need purchase individual Standard licenses (Professional) for each user ( it is going to be too expensive)? Could you please tell us more about this ?  

[VenkataKondepati]

ArcGIS Pro 3.6 is the last version that supports concurrent licensing. Esri is retiring it, and moving everything to named user licensing via ArcGIS Enterprise or Online.

Unlike a shared pool, named user licenses are assigned per person, so only that user can access Pro unless you reassign it. You don’t need to buy a license for everyone — just for however many need to use Pro at the same time.

You can convert your existing concurrent licenses to a set number of ArcGIS Pro Standard or Advanced add-on licenses and manage assignments through your Portal.

[vijaybadugu]

Suppose, ArcGIS Pro Named User is being assigned to one of the member by Admin, At the same time, second user wants to use ArcGIS Pro. In this case,  Does admin need to reassign same named user to second person?   

[RandyKreuziger1]

Each user but have some type of Named User account.  You just can't reassign, the first user needs someplace to land.  For example, if you have all User Types assigned you have no place to reassign the Professional Plus user.  If you have a open Creator (Basic) license you can reassigned the Professional Plus user to the Basic license so the second user can be temporarily assigned to Professional Plus.

As you mentioned, an Admin must be available to make that change.

[MichaelVolz]

You say you don't need to buy a license for everyone, just enough for maximum license usage at any given time.  As such how much license reassignment are you doing on a daily/weekly basis to maintain this environment?

[VenkataKondepati]

In the current concurrent license model, we have 100 licenses that users across the globe can share. It's flexible — someone logs off in one region, and someone else can pick it up elsewhere. It works really well for distributed teams and variable usage.

With Named User licensing, we lose that flexibility. Each license is tied to a specific user, and only they can use it unless we manually reassign it. There’s no true “license pool” — and while reassigning is possible, it’s not ideal if usage fluctuates a lot of day to day or across time zones.

So, if we currently have 100 users, but only 30–40 using ArcGIS Pro at any given time, we’d need to either:

Purchase enough named licenses to cover peak concurrent use, or

Reassign licenses actively (which can become an admin overhead).

Personally, I’d prefer a pay-as-you-go model — something like what FME Server does with credits — where we’re billed based on actual usage, not fixed user counts. That kind of model would scale much better for our environment and reduce waste, especially when user needs vary across teams and projects.
Hopefully, Esri moves in that direction, because the shift from concurrent to named users feels a bit rigid for how modern team's work.

Regards,
Venkat

[JoshuaBixby]

Get ready to spend more money and waste more time when your organization is finally pushed off of concurrent use licensing.  This topic hits a big nerve with me, so I am going to stop now before I start ranting about Esri management decisions around licensing.

[MervynLotter]

We're concerned about how Esri plans to convert our perpetual concurrent licenses to temporary named user licenses. As our organization experiences financial challenges, we occasionally face significant delays in paying our annual maintenance. This shift could leave our users without access to ArcGIS Pro, creating significant frustration with us. We hope Esri will find a solution that benefits all users.

[vijaybadugu]

I have received an update from ESRI that, we will have to purchase individual license for each user and can be managed in ArcGIS Portal/Online for assignment of licenses to the users.

[MichaelVolz]

Sounds like your licensing costs will now skyrocket so you will either need to somehow secure a lot more money or drop ArcGIS Pro for many current users.  You are between a rock and a hard place!!