Calame

Pricing

Open at the core. Pay when you scale.

Calame is dual-licensed: the core is Apache 2.0, free forever. The Enterprise modules (SSO + RAG) are BUSL 1.1 — free for your own use, paid only when you embed them into a product you sell.

Community

Self-host Calame freely. Apache 2.0, no limits.

Free

Forever — Apache 2.0

  • PostgreSQL · MySQL · SQLite connectors
  • Profiles, PII masking, row-level scoping
  • Token / password / OAuth 2.1 auth
  • Built-in chat (Anthropic, OpenRouter, local Ollama…)
  • Audit log + write queue
  • Self-hosted, your data stays put
  • Community support — GitHub issues

Pro

BUSL 1.1

All features, single instance. Perfect for one team or one product.

$45/ month

Per instance · billed monthly

  • Everything in Community
  • OIDC SSO — Google, Okta, Azure AD, Keycloak
  • RAG core + connectors (vector ingestion)
  • Right to use ee/ modules in production
  • 1 Calame instance
  • Email support — best effort

Enterprise

BUSL 1.1

Unlimited instances, priority support, embedding rights.

Custom

Annual license — quote based on usage

  • Everything in Pro
  • Unlimited Calame instances
  • Priority support — 1 business day SLA
  • Right to embed Calame ee/ in a paid product
  • Roadmap influence + early access to features
  • Custom security review on request
  • Auto-converts to Apache 2.0 four years after release

Cloud

Soon

Calame, hosted. We run the servers, you run the profiles.

Soon

Join the waitlist

  • Managed Calame instance
  • Automatic upgrades
  • TLS, backups, monitoring included
  • Bring your own database (read-only credentials)
  • Audit log replicated off-instance
  • SOC 2 — in progress

All tiers — your data stays on your infra. Calame never phones home.

License model

One repository. Two licenses.

Calame separates its core from its enterprise modules at the directory level. The split is mechanical — you can read the license boundary in the source tree.

Apache 2.0

Everything outside ee/

Connectors, profiles, MCP runtime, masking, chat, audit, the entire web UI. Use it freely, fork it, modify it, deploy it in production. Patches welcome.

paths
  • /packages/cli
  • /packages/core
  • /packages/connectors
  • /packages/web
  • /scripts/
  • /docs/
BUSL 1.1

The ee/ directory

OIDC SSO and RAG ingestion. Free for internal use, evaluation, and contributions. A commercial license is required only if you embed these modules in a paid product offered to third parties.

paths
  • /ee/sso
  • /ee/rag-core
  • /ee/rag-connectors

What's allowed under BUSL?

Internal corporate use, self-hosting Calame, contributing patches, forks that aren't paid commercial offerings. Almost everything you'd want to do.

What needs a commercial license?

Reselling Calame as a managed service, or embedding ee/sso, ee/rag-core, ee/rag-connectors in a paid SaaS that competes with Calame Cloud.

Why BUSL and not just Apache?

So that solo maintainers can keep building the project full-time without seeing it forked into a closed paid product they can't sustain. Every BUSL version converts to Apache 2.0 after 4 years anyway.

Compare

Feature by feature.

Everything in Community is in Enterprise and Cloud. Enterprise adds the BUSL-licensed modules. Cloud runs the same code, hosted.

FeatureCommunityProEnterpriseCloud
Core
PostgreSQL / MySQL / SQLite connectors
Profiles + per-table & per-column visibility
PII auto-detection + masking rules
Row-level scoping
Built-in natural-language chat
Audit log + write queue
Auth
Open / Bearer token / password
OAuth 2.1 + Dynamic Client Registration
OIDC SSO (Google, Okta, Azure, Keycloak)
External validation URL
Advanced
RAG core + vector connectors
HashiCorp Vault for secrets
Embed in a paid product
Operations
InstancesUnlimited1Unlimited1 managed
SupportCommunityEmail — best effort1 business day SLA1 business day SLA
HostingSelf-hostSelf-hostSelf-hostManaged
PricingFree$45 / monthCustomSoon

FAQ

Licensing, in plain English.

If your question isn't here, the contact form lands directly in our inbox — we usually reply within a business day.

I just want to use Calame inside my company. Do I need a paid license?

It depends. If you only need the Apache-2.0 core (connectors, profiles, PII, chat, audit, OAuth), Community is enough — forever, free, unlimited instances. As soon as you want SSO or RAG (the ee/ modules), you need Pro (one instance) or Enterprise (multiple instances).

What exactly is "one instance"?

One Calame process — i.e. one running container or one Node server. Staging, preview, dev environments owned by the same team count as the same instance for license purposes; we apply common-sense, not a license-server.

When do I need Enterprise instead of Pro?

Three cases. (1) You run Calame on more than one production instance — different products, different regions, different teams. (2) You want a 1-business-day support SLA. (3) You want to embed the ee/ modules into a paid product you sell to third parties (a "Competing Offering" under BUSL). Anything else fits Pro.

What does the BUSL change date mean?

Each BUSL-licensed version of Calame ee/ automatically converts to Apache 2.0 four years after publication. So today's Pro/Enterprise features become free OSS in four years, automatically — your license fee buys you the rights to use the most recent code right now.

How is Enterprise priced?

Annual license, scoped to your deployment. Pricing depends on number of instances, team size, and whether you embed ee/ modules in a product you sell. Reach out via the contact form and we send a quote within a business day.

Can I try Pro or Enterprise before committing?

Yes — we offer a 30-day evaluation license that unlocks SSO and RAG. Mention "evaluation" in the contact form.

Will Calame Cloud lock me in?

No. Cloud runs the same Calame binary as the self-hosted distribution. You can export your config and migrate to self-host any time.

From git clone to first MCP query

Ship your data to your AI clients in 15 minutes.

One Docker command. One profile. One MCP URL. Your database stays where it is — Calame just decides what your LLM is allowed to see.