JetBrains has officially made CLion, its powerful cross-platform IDE for C and C++, free for non-commercial use. This licensing shift opens access to students, hobbyists, open-source contributors, and educational creators—removing a key barrier for individual developers not engaged in commercial work.
Organizations and individuals using CLion for commercial development will still require a paid license, in line with JetBrains’ standard pricing model.
This update follows JetBrains' recent changes to RustRover, Rider, and WebStorm, which also introduced free tiers for non-commercial users. CLion now joins this growing list of JetBrains IDEs available at no cost for personal, educational, or open-source use.
JetBrains has confirmed that this model does not yet apply to its other IDEs, but the company is actively assessing its impact and may expand it in the future.