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RunMat License

The RunMat runtime is open source under the MIT License — the same license used by Julia, VS Code, TypeScript, and Bun. Free to use, modify, and redistribute for any purpose.

Open Source (MIT)

Free for everyone — individuals, academics, and companies of any size

No Restrictions

Use commercially, modify, redistribute. No attribution display required.

AI Assistant Separate

The Dystr AI assistant is a commercial product — like VS Code + Copilot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is RunMat open source?⌄

Yes. The RunMat runtime is licensed under the MIT License, which is approved by the Open Source Initiative. It is the same license used by Julia, VS Code, TypeScript, Bun, and Node.js.

Can I use RunMat for free?⌄

Yes. The MIT License lets anyone use RunMat for any purpose:

  • Individual researchers, scientists, and engineers
  • Academic institutions and educational organizations
  • Students for learning and coursework
  • Companies of any size, including direct competitors
  • Open source projects and their maintainers
  • Government agencies and non-profits

There are no fees, no usage limits, and no field-of-use restrictions.

Can I use RunMat in a commercial product?⌄
Yes. The MIT License explicitly permits commercial use. You can embed RunMat in proprietary software, ship it inside paid products, integrate it into internal tools, or use it as a dependency in any commercial context. Your own code that uses RunMat remains your own — RunMat does not impose copyleft on derivative works.
Can I fork RunMat or modify it?⌄
Yes. You can fork, modify, redistribute, and sublicense RunMat. The only requirement is that you preserve the MIT copyright notice in source files. There are no attribution requirements in startup messages, documentation, or user interfaces.
What about the Dystr AI assistant — is that open source?⌄

No. The Dystr AI assistant and Dystr Cloud are commercial products built on top of the open-source RunMat runtime.

This is a standard open-core model, similar to VS Code (open source under MIT) paired with Pylance and GitHub Copilot (commercial). The runtime is free forever; the AI assistant is a paid Dystr product.

See runmat.com/pricing for details on the AI assistant.

Do I need to credit RunMat?⌄
Beyond preserving the copyright notice in source files (a standard MIT requirement), no. We appreciate attribution in your README or about page, but it is not legally required.
Is the MIT License OSI-approved?⌄
Yes. The MIT License is one of the original licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative and is on every major enterprise legal team's pre-approved license list. RunMat can be adopted at organizations that require formally OSI-approved open-source software.
Will the license ever change?⌄
We have no plans to change the license of the RunMat runtime away from MIT. Past releases will always remain available under the MIT terms they were originally published under, regardless of any future changes.
Is "RunMat" a trademark?⌄

Yes. "RunMat" is a trademark of Dystr, Inc. The MIT License covers the source code but does not grant rights to the RunMat name or logo.

You can fork the code freely; please don't call your fork "RunMat". For trademark questions, contact legal@dystr.com.

Full License Text

MIT License Copyright (c) 2024-2026 Dystr, Inc. and RunMat contributors Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Questions about commercial products or trademarks?

The MIT License covers the runtime. For questions about the Dystr AI assistant, Dystr Cloud, enterprise agreements, or trademark use, get in touch.

New to MATLAB? Read the primer What is MATLAB?.

legal@dystr.com