What happens if I don't add any license to my public repository?

Under default copyright law, your code is technically "all rights reserved" even if it's publicly visible on GitHub — others have no explicit legal permission to use, modify, or redistribute it, which can discourage adoption and creates real legal ambiguity for anyone who wants to build on your work.

What's the difference between MIT and ISC?

They're functionally nearly identical in what they permit and require — ISC uses slightly simpler, more modern legal wording while achieving essentially the same permissive terms as MIT. The choice between them is largely a matter of preference or ecosystem convention (ISC is the default for many npm packages).

Why doesn't this tool generate Apache 2.0 or GPL licenses?

Those licenses are considerably longer and more legally detailed than MIT, ISC, or BSD, and the risk of an inaccuracy in reproducing that much legal text outweighs the convenience. For those licenses, copy the exact official text from apache.org or gnu.org directly.

Does a permissive license mean anyone can do literally anything with my code?

Nearly, but not quite — all four licenses generated here still require that the original copyright notice and license text be included in any copy or substantial portion of the software that's redistributed. Beyond that requirement, usage, modification, and redistribution (including commercially) are broadly permitted.

Where should I save the generated license text?

As a file named exactly `LICENSE` (with no file extension) in the root directory of your repository — this is the standard filename GitHub, GitLab, and package registries look for to automatically detect and display your project's license.

MIT License Generator

Generate a Correctly Formatted MIT License Instantly

Need to use MIT License Generator right now?

The MIT license is the most widely used open source license, but it still needs to be filled in correctly with the copyright holder's name and year — a detail easy to skip or get wrong when copying it from memory. This tool generates the exact, correctly formatted text ready to drop into your LICENSE file.

No sign-upNo uploads 100% free

Author / copyright holder

Year

LICENSE

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 [Your Name]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Features

Runs entirely in your browser
Privacy-first — your data is never uploaded
Real-time, instant results
100% free, no sign-up required
Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile
No installation needed

Who uses this tool?

Software engineersWeb developersAPI testersDevOps engineersStudents

People also search for

Open Source License Generator Open Source License Picker Apache 2.0 License Generator GPL License Generator JSON Formatter tool

About MIT License Generator

An open source license is a legal document that tells anyone who finds your code exactly what they're allowed to do with it — use it, modify it, redistribute it, sell products built on it — and under what conditions. Publishing code without any license attached is a common and important mistake to avoid: under default copyright law in most countries, code with no explicit license is technically "all rights reserved," meaning others have no clear legal permission to use it at all, regardless of your intent in making the repository public.

This tool generates the full, correct text for four of the most widely used permissive open source licenses, each filled in automatically with your name and the current year: MIT (by far the most popular license on GitHub — extremely short, extremely permissive, requiring only that the license and copyright notice be preserved), ISC (functionally almost identical to MIT with slightly simpler wording, used by Node.js core and many npm packages), and BSD 2-Clause and 3-Clause (similar permissive terms to MIT, with the 3-Clause variant adding a restriction against using the project's name to endorse derived products without permission).

All four licenses generated here share a common philosophy: permissive licensing, meaning they impose minimal restrictions on what others can do with your code, in contrast to copyleft licenses (like the GPL family) which require derivative works to also be open-sourced under the same terms. This tool intentionally doesn't attempt to generate GPL, LGPL, or Apache 2.0 license text — those licenses are considerably longer with more legally significant clauses, and getting even small wording details wrong in a legal document carries more risk than it's worth; for those licenses, copy the exact, official text directly from the Free Software Foundation or Apache Software Foundation.

Once generated, save the output as a file named exactly `LICENSE` (no file extension) in your repository's root directory — this is the convention GitHub, GitLab, and virtually every package registry look for to automatically detect and display your project's license.

How it works

Pick a license. Choose MIT, ISC, BSD 2-Clause, or BSD 3-Clause.
Enter your name and year. Fill in the copyright holder's name and the current year.
Copy the full license text. Save the result as a LICENSE file in your project's root directory.

Examples

Generating an MIT license

Input

License: MIT, Author: Jane Doe, Year: 2026

Output

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Jane Doe

Permission is hereby granted...