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Licensing FAQs

If you previously purchased or licensed a MasterFormat edition, you can continue using that edition under its existing license. If you need MasterFormat 2026+, including version-aware lookup, change history, and crosswalks, you'll need access to CSI Dynamic Standards. To reduce confusion, CSI Dynamic Standards distinguishes between (1) access for normal project work (writing specs and issuing project deliverables) and (2) commercial licensing for organizations that embed or distribute CSI standards content inside enterprise products, platforms, or reusable libraries. And, licenses now apply to the entire firm, large or small.

You don't have to “rebuy” a license if your organization bought MasterFormat for all the relevant users in your organization, and you are using the standards consistent with the license agreement.

You'll need to buy a subscription to CDS if:

  • You want MasterFormat 2026 or updated versions of OmniClass and UniFormat as they are released.
  • You want the lookback or crosswalk tools.
  • You want regular and more frequent updates to the standards.
  • You want to reduce the risks of staying with older editions—outdated section numbers/titles or classifications can lead to coordination errors, RFIs, rework, and addenda as teams and partners move to newer versions.
  • You have others in your firm besides you that are using MasterFormat, UniFormat, or OmniClass who have not purchased their own copies (and licenses) previously.

CDS can save time when it comes to others asking you to take your time to look up numbers, titles, or relationships for them.

IMPORTANT: CDS licenses cover all users in your firm, whereas past licenses were for individuals.

No. CSI's intent is not to charge individual specifiers simply to write project specifications, as has always been the case. The confusion came from an early webpage that didn't clearly separate everyday project use from commercial redistribution/embedded use. Everyday project use includes using CSI numbers/titles/classifications as part of delivering a project (specs, drawings, schedules, internal coordination), within your firm's work product for that project.

MasterFormat® has been a copyrighted CSI publication for decades, historically accessed by purchasing the book/PDF (with standard “no reproduction/distribution” restrictions), not treated as unrestricted public content. By at least 2010, MasterFormat editions explicitly directed anyone using the numbers/titles in commercial applications, educational programs, or publications to obtain a copyright license, and CSI later formalized clearer “Terms of Use” (2013) and digital EULAs (2016–2020) that permit project-delivery use while restricting redistribution, downloading/sharing beyond the licensed user(s). CDS licenses cover all users in your firm, whereas past licenses were for individuals.

CSI Dynamic Standards pricing is based on a firm's revenue, regardless of team size, with member1 pricing tiers available for firms with $10MM or less in annual revenue. The pricing is available on our pricing page, and if you are a CSI member, login with your CSI member email address to receive member pricing. CDS licenses cover all users in your firm, whereas past licenses were for individuals.

1 Member pricing is for active students and professionals: Professional Member, Emerging Professional, Distinguished Member, Lifetime Member, and Student Member. Pricing tiers available on our pricing page.
Spec-writing tools (MasterSpec, RIB SpecLink, etc.) that use CSI standards within their platforms must purchase a license. That platform license covers the standards features inside the tool and cannot be sub-licensed to a third party. If an organization uses CSI Standards or reproduces/embeds CSI identifiers outside the platform (exports, shared templates, deliverables, other systems), it would necessitate a CSI Dynamic Standards organizational license for that broader use. If the platform is not licensed, that too would necessitate a license for the platform.
CSI plans to provide clearer, digital, and interactive access options. For non-subscribers, a limited lookup of MasterFormat numbers and titles will be available. Subscribers to CSI Dynamic Standards will have detailed lookup and lookbacks for MasterFormat 2026 and earlier versions. This format enables CSI to upgrade standards much more frequently and see that revisions automatically flow across standards.
If you previously purchased/licensed a printed or PDF edition of MasterFormat, you may continue using that edition under its existing license. CSI Dynamic Standards adds capabilities that static editions can’t provide, including version-aware lookup, change history, and lookbacks/links to prior versions, so teams can stay aligned as standards evolve. Going forward, CSI’s primary delivery model will be digital through CSI Dynamic Standards; static media will not be the ongoing distribution format.
No. MasterFormat®, UniFormat®, and OmniClass® are copyrighted works identified by registered trademarks. CSI, as owner of all three, does not identify copyrighted works or trademarks as “open source.” The right to use CSI’s copyrighted work is granted through licenses. CSI protects the standards, including the time and effort used by members and other stakeholders to develop them, and to keep them reliable and consistent for the industry.

In the past, single practitioners and groups of specifiers within a design professional's studio paid for use of the copyright by purchasing a copy of MasterFormat, the expectation being that each specifier would maintain the latest copy of MasterFormat at their desk to comply with copyright requirements stated on the cover of the standard. CDS licenses cover all users in your firm, whereas past licenses were for individuals.

MasterFormat® has been a copyrighted CSI publication for decades, historically accessed by purchasing the book/PDF (with standard “no reproduction/distribution” restrictions), and not treated as unrestricted public content. By at least 2010, MasterFormat editions explicitly directed anyone using the numbers/titles in commercial applications, educational programs, or publications to obtain a copyright license, and CSI later formalized clearer “Terms of Use” (2013) and digital EULAs (2016–2020) that permit project-delivery use while restricting redistribution, downloading/sharing beyond the licensed user(s).

Commercial use means embedding or distributing CSI numbers, titles, or classifications as part of a product, platform, reusable library/template set, publication, or paid service, especially when others rely on CSI identifiers for search, navigation, comparison, or the exchange of information. Examples include software platforms, paid template libraries, and manufacturer/distributor catalogs (PIM/eCatalogs and BIM content) distributed broadly.

Most issues are not with individual specifiers. The common gaps are:

  • Missing or incorrect attribution (which is easy to fix), and/or
  • Individuals or entities using all or parts of a CSI copyrighted work without entering into a license.
Using CSI-provided language that identifies to the public the CSI Trademark or copyright and the basis for that use, especially in published or distributed materials, templates, libraries, platforms, or marketing collateral. Many licensed users already do this (e.g., “The trademark MasterFormat® and copyrighted work MasterFormat® are used under license from The Construction Specifications Institute, Inc. (CSI)”).

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