Hi,
I am a new user of unity.
I came to know that I have to buy Unity3d pro license if my yearly income exceeds 10000USD.
If I upload my app to google play store as free in that case I will not earn by selling apps. But if I use any ad network like Admob and I earn more than 10000usd from ad revenue, what will happen then? How will unity detect my earning from admob?
$200,000. $100,000 for Plus.
Income is income. Whether it’s from ads or anything else is irrelevant.
The same way they detect your earnings from any source. (Namely, they make the NSA look like toddlers. They use the same tech that allows Santa Claus to instantly detect naughtiness anywhere on the planet.) Hope you’re not publicly announcing your plans to publicly rip off Unity! I hear that sort of thing ends with a hood, cement shoes, and deep water.
–Eric
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You’re wrong. You have to buy pro only if your income from using unity exceeds 100 000 (and not 10 000) usd from use of unity. Or if you’re an organization with yearly budget over 100 k usd.
https://unity3d.com/legal/terms-of-service/software
Also, now “unity plus” is also an option.
Unity runs built in analytics in your game. Plus there lisence terms give them the right to audit your account. So on the off chance a personal game gets a billion plays a month, they will ask questions.
But for the most part it’s an honour system.
Isn’t it income from the game not simply your annual income?
For individuals it’s your income from using Unity. For comapanies and not-for-profits its total revenue/budget.
So, if you have a itty bitty company and also a full time job doing something not at all related to gaming, you still have to count your personal income? I remember going through this so many times with Unity folks and I believe the money has to come from your use of Unity.
Only if you are somehow routing your job income through your company. This is rare, but its sometimes done by high income folks for tax purposes. In most circumstances individual income from doing a day job doesn’t count towards the threshold.
In general terms, a company is a separate legal entity from the individual(s) that run it. That means the company does not have to consider the income of individual(s). Nor do the individual(s) have to consider the income of the company.
Does that make sense?
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Yep, and this is what I expected. 
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As long as you have a business license and an actual company.
If publishing a game as an individual while still having a day job, a persons day job earnings are calculated as individual earned income along with earnings from a game.
One of many reasons why its smart to start a small business before publishing.
The 5.x lisence includes a specific provision that excludes income not related to Unity development.
So without a company for tax purposes your income from Unity and a day job are added together. But for lisence purposes they are seperate.
So for a hobbyist like me a company doesn’t make any real sense.
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Nope.
–Eric
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My mistake - thanks for pointing this out.
Though for professional reasons I would still form a business.
As strictly a hobbyist that is a very friendly clause offered by Unity not commonly offered by other popular software companies.
We complained enough about not having the clause in 4.x that it got added in in 5.x. Someone in legal was listening.
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Thanks, Eric! This is what I recalled from previous conversations. I appreciate you clarifying.
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Way I see it, if Unity helps me make 100k, I will GLADLY pay up.
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Where are you guys getting $10k/$20k revenue limit for Pro? https://store.unity.com/ shows $100k for Personal / $200k for Plus and Unlimited $$$ for Pro.
The OP left out a 0 I think. Everyone else has it right.
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