Selling prints from Thingiverse
The uploader attaches a secondary licence to each thing — Thingiverse's own word — and that, not the site, decides whether a print can be sold.
On this page
Who grants the right to sell
The designer. Thingiverse hosts the file, but the person who uploaded it decides whether prints can be sold, model by model. So two models on the same site can have opposite answers.
Where to find it
This section is about the platform's web pages, not its terms, so the terms can't confirm it. We haven't checked it against the live site recently, so treat it as a starting point and check the site yourself.
- The thing's page shows the secondary licence the uploader selected.
- Check the variant rather than the family. The difference between one Creative Commons licence and another is the difference between a sale you may make and one you may not.
- There are a lot of older uploads here. A licence chosen years ago still applies, however old the model is.
What the labels mean
- Secondary licence
- Thingiverse's term for the licence the uploader picks, separate from the licence they grant the site. It is the one that tells you what you may do with the model.
- All Rights Reserved
- You will see this one here. It means nothing is granted, and you would have to contact the uploader for any permission at all.
- A licence containing NC
- Non-commercial. Selling prints is outside it.
- A licence containing SA
- Share-alike. If you publish a modified version it carries the same licence, which constrains what you can then do with your own remix.
Worth knowing
- Thingiverse says outright that enforcing the secondary licence is not its responsibility, and that it cannot guarantee other users observe it. The licence is between you and the uploader. Thingiverse isn't part of it and won't settle disputes.
- Separately, the licence Thingiverse grants you for the SITE is personal and non-commercial. That governs using the site, not the model — but it catches people out, because it sits above the per-model licence and reads like a blanket ban.
What to keep
Terms change, and in a dispute what counts is what you agreed to on the day. Save a copy when you buy, not when someone asks for it.
- A copy of the thing page showing the secondary licence on the day you downloaded it.
- The uploader's name for attribution.
- The thing URL and its ID.
The authority
This page describes how licensing works here in our own words. It is not a statement of what you are permitted to do, and it does not reproduce anyone's terms. Read the Thingiverse terms
Confirmed against the platform's own terms on 12 Sept 2026. Their document was last updated 3 Jan 2023 — if that date has moved, so may this page have.