Do I Need to Pay for Photosynth?
Most Photosynth use is free, provided that you follow our
Terms of Use, and create "
public" synths. You can make public synths, view them, share them with others, and embed them on your website all for free for up to 20 GB of storage – even if your synths are commercial in nature.
If you would prefer not to share your synths with our community of users, you can create "
unlisted" synths. Use of the unlisted feature comes with some limitations in terms of storage and traffic (discussed below). If your usage of Photosynth exceeds these limitations, you’ll need our commercial license. You can learn more about the benefits and limitations of unlisted synths on our
Privacy in Photosynth page.
The Benefits of a Photosynth Commercial License
The Photosynth commercial license gives Photosynth users the benefits of unlisted synths, but it also removes the restrictions on storage and the number of synth views per month.
- Unlimited Synth Storage. Standard unlisted synths are restricted to 1 GB of storage. Public synths have a 20 GB storage restriction. We remove both storage restrictions for synths if you have a Photosynth commercial license.
- Unlimited Synth Views. Standard unlisted synths are restricted to no more than 500 views/month. Organizations with commercial Photosynth rights have no restriction on the number of views/month of their synths.
What Exactly is a "Synth View"
A synth view is counted whenever a viewer opens the synth. Whether the person views one photo and leaves after 10 seconds, or takes 15 minutes to view 500 photos in the synth, it’s still counted as a single "synth view". Unlisted synths can have no more than 500 such views per month, unless you have our commercial license.
How Do I Get a Photosynth Commercial License?
If you’ve decided a Photosynth commercial license is the right thing for you or your organization, you can obtain one by contacting the Microsoft Virtual Earth Sales Team at
maplic@microsoft.com. The details are as follows:
- Synth Views will be counted as Microsoft Virtual Earth billable transactions.
- Microsoft Virtual Earth transactions can be licensed through Microsoft Volume Licensing, Microsoft Virtual Earth ISVs and the Microsoft Virtual Earth Sales Team.
- Once you enter into a Microsoft Virtual Earth Agreement, we will ask you for the Live ID you used to create your synths. We will map this Live ID to your Virtual Earth account for tracking and billing purposes.
Additional questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us at
maplic@microsoft.com.