RubyMine Is Now Free for Non-Commercial Use
Hold on to your helper methods – RubyMine is now FREE for non-commercial use! Whether you’re learning Ruby and Rails, pushing open-source forward, creating dev content, or building your passion project, we want to make sure you have the tools to enjoy what you do even more… for free.
Another chapter in the story
We recently introduced a new licensing model for WebStorm, RustRover, Rider, and CLion – making them free for non-commercial use. RubyMine is now joining the party! For commercial use, our existing licensing model still applies.
Why are we doing this?
We believe developers do their best work when the right tools are accessible. We’ve been listening closely to the Ruby and Rails community – their feedback, success, challenges, and passion for building with joy. Now, we’re making a change that reflects what we’ve heard.
By making RubyMine free for non-commercial use, we hope to lower the barrier to starting and help more people write clean, confident Ruby code from day one. It’s our way of supporting the unique Ruby community – from those who choose Ruby for their projects to maintainers of gems and frameworks who contribute to the Ruby ecosystem. Whether you’re debugging at midnight, crafting clever DSLs, or launching your first Rails app, RubyMine is here to help you build smarter (and crash less).
Commercial vs. non-commercial use
As defined in the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use, commercial use means developing products and earning commercial benefits from your activities. However, certain categories are explicitly excluded from this definition. Common examples of non-commercial uses include learning and self-education, open-source contributions without earning commercial benefits, any form of content creation, and hobby development.
It’s important to note that, if you’re using a non-commercial license, you cannot opt out of the collection of anonymous usage statistics. We use this information to improve our products. The data we collect is exclusively that of anonymous feature usages of our IDEs. It is focused on what actions are performed and what types of functionality of the IDE are used. We do not collect any other data. This is similar to our Early Access Program (EAP) and is in compliance with our Privacy Policy.
FAQ
Below are answers to the most common questions. Check out the full FAQ for more information.
Licensing
What features are included under the free license?
With the new non-commercial license type, you can enjoy a full-featured IDE that is identical to its paid version. The only difference is in the Code With Me feature – you get Code With Me Community with your free license.
Which license should I choose if I want to use RubyMine for both non-commercial and commercial projects?
If you intend to use RubyMine for commercial development for which you will receive direct or indirect commercial advantage or monetary compensation within the meaning of the definitions provided in the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use, you will need to purchase a commercial subscription (either individual or organizational). This license can then also be used for non-commercial development.
How do renewals and upgrades work now?
Non-commercial subscriptions are issued for one year and will automatically renew after that. However, for the renewal to happen, you must have used the assigned license at least once during the last 6 months of the subscription period. If it has been more than 6 months since you last used an IDE activated with this type of license and the renewal did not occur automatically, you can request a new non-commercial subscription again at any time.
Am I eligible for a refund if I’ve already bought a paid subscription but do non-commercial development?
If you’re unsure whether you qualify for a refund, you’ll find full details of our policy here. Please note that if you also work on projects that qualify as commercial usage, you can’t use the free license for them.
Data collection
Does my IDE send any data to JetBrains, and can I opt out?
When using a commercial subscription, you have full control over whether or not you want the product to send IDE telemetry to JetBrains, and detailed data collection is disabled by default.
With a non-commercial subscription, JetBrains IDEs may collect the following types of data:
- Anonymous telemetry. This refers to generalized, anonymous statistics about how features are used (such as time spent, clicks, or general workflows). Like with Early Access Program builds, using the free non-commercial subscription means agreeing to send anonymized usage statistics, which enables us to improve the product. It is not possible to opt out.
- Detailed code‑related data pertaining to IDE activity, such as edit history, terminal usage, and your interactions with AI features. This may include code snippets, prompt text, and AI responses. If you’re using a non-commercial subscription, detailed code‑related data collection is enabled by default. To disable it, you must do so manually via the product settings: Settings | Appearance & Behavior | System Settings | Data Sharing.
If you allow us to collect this data, we will make sure that:
- No sensitive or personal information is shared.
- Data is properly secured.
- Access is restricted to authorized personnel and use cases.
Read more about what data is collected and how it is protected.
Getting a non-commercial subscription
What should I do to apply for this subscription?
It can be easily done right inside your IDE:
- Install RubyMine and run it.
- Upon startup, there will be a license dialog box where you can choose the Non-commercial use option.
- Log in to your JetBrains account or create a new one.
- Accept the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use.
- Enjoy development in your IDE.
If you’ve already started a trial period or have activated your IDE using a paid license, you still can switch to a non-commercial subscription by following these steps:
- Go to Help | Register.
- In the window that opens, click on the Deactivate License button.
- Choose Non-commercial use.
- Log in to your JetBrains account or create a new one.
- Accept the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use.
- Enjoy development in your IDE.
I don’t see the Non-commercial use option in my IDE. What should I do?
The most likely explanation for this is that you’re using an older version of RubyMine. Unfortunately, we don’t support obtaining the non-commercial license for any releases prior to RubyMine 2025.2.1.
That’s it for today! If you don’t find an answer to your question, feel free to leave a comment or contact us at sales@jetbrains.com.
The RubyMine team
JetBrains
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