Flex FAQ

Both single-user subscriptions and Flex are forms of named user access. Single-user subscriptions are dedicated subscriptions, assigned for use to only one named user at a time. They are best suited to users who access products on a frequent basis. Flex, on the other hand, is not a dedicated subscription. It is intended to be shared by an unlimited number of users, who access products “paying” a daily rate by consuming tokens. Flex is best suited for occasional product use.

Although each Flex purchase results in one or more new Flex token packs, tokens from each purchase are added to the team’s single token balance. As your team accesses products, tokens from the Flex token pack with the earliest end date are consumed first, so that you’ll have the longest period of use for each Flex token pack before it expires. Further, if your team has multiple Flex token packs with the same end date, Flex consumes tokens from the smallest packs first. For example, Flex will consume tokens from a 500-pack before consuming them from a 5000-pack. This ensures that tokens for which you paid a higher price are consumed before tokens from discounted packs.

Yes. Although it’s always best practice to close products when you finish using them, recent versions of most Flex products include an idle awareness feature that detects a lack of meaningful use, delaying your next token charge should you forget to close.

Check Flex products that support idle awareness to find out if your product supports the idle awareness feature.

After 15 minutes of inactivity, Autodesk products that support this feature enter an idle state in which further token charges are paused. Inactivity is detected when a user isn’t performing meaningful operations (each product determines which operations are meaningful). While paused, the next daily token rate is delayed. With the detection of a return to meaningful operations, usage is again considered to be active, the license session resumes, and a daily token rate will be consumed after the first five minutes of use.

When you sign in to a product, Flex confirms that a team has enough tokens to cover the daily rate of the product’s new session. If the token balance isn’t sufficient, Flex notifies you with a message. You won’t be able to run the product until your team has enough tokens. Note: You’ll see this message if the team balance is less than the daily token rate of the product you’re trying to run, if the team balance is zero, or if the Flex subscription has reached its 12-month expiration date.

When you open a product and sign in, you cannot specify which team to use for token consumption. In this case, Autodesk chooses the team.

Yes, when your team gets Flex, Flex users inherit the plan and benefits of the single-user subscriptions already in that team.

Tokens will not be charged if you sign in and out within five minutes.

Each Flex token pack is good for one year from the date of purchase. If a Flex token pack reaches its end date with a positive token balance, the remaining tokens expire. Tokens from expired subscriptions don’t roll over and there is no refund for unused expired tokens.

Changing time zones has no impact on the 24-hour period. As it starts when you sign in to the product, you won’t incur another charge for 24 hours from that start time, regardless of the time zone reflected on the clock.

Some product plugins incur a daily token charge when accessed (while some plugins do not). For those that do incur a daily charge, if the plugin was configured to start when the host product starts, the daily token rate will be charged for both. To avoid inadvertent charges for plugins, don’t configure your plugin to load when the host product starts. See the Flex rate sheet.

Yes. You must connect to the Internet once every 24 hours. An Internet connection is required when you first sign in to a product. After that, you can go offline for up to 24 hours. As you approach the 24-hour mark, an in-product message notifies you that online sign-in is again required.

No. Flex adheres to the same Terms of Use as single-user subscriptions. Every user assigned to a product included with Flex can install that product on up to 3 devices and can run that product from one device at a time.

No. Flex charges the daily token rate only once per named user, per product, per 24-hours, regardless of which device the user is using to access the product.

No. Flex charges the daily token rate only once per named user, per product, per-24-hours regardless of product version.

No. You can limit the products to which each user has access. However, you cannot set a token limit for a specific user or a group of users.

For products included with Flex that run on Linux (such as Flame, Maya, MotionBuilder, and Mudbox), only 2020 versions and newer are supported by Flex.