The MIT license explained for designers
A clause by clause reading of the MIT license for designers, covering what it lets you do with icons, its one condition, and what it leaves out.
5 min read
The MIT license is one of the most common licenses for open source code, and plenty of icon sets use it too, including the web3icons artwork behind this site. It fits on one screen, but its legal phrasing leaves designers with practical questions. Do you need an on-screen credit? Can you sell a UI kit that contains the icons? Does it let you use a brand's logo however you like? This guide goes through the license one part at a time.
This is general information, not legal advice. If a project depends on a particular reading of a license, ask a lawyer.
The whole license, in three parts
The MIT license is a copyright line followed by three paragraphs, and each paragraph does one job.
The grant:
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...
The condition:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
The disclaimer: a paragraph in capitals saying the software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, and that the authors and copyright holders aren't liable for any claim or damages arising from it.
The text says "the Software" because MIT was written for code. When an icon set is released under it, the icon files are what's being licensed, and the same terms apply to them. The canonical text is published by the Open Source Initiative.
What the grant lets you do
The list of verbs is broad, and "without limitation" means it's a set of examples, not an exhaustive list. Mapped onto design work:
| Right | What it means for icons |
|---|---|
| Use | Put the icons in websites, apps, slides, client work and internal tools |
| Copy | Add them to your design system, your repository or a shared drive |
| Modify | Resize, recolor, simplify, crop or redraw details |
| Merge | Combine them with your own icons into one set |
| Publish | Show them publicly, in a product or in documentation |
| Distribute | Ship them inside your app, template or download |
| Sublicense | Pass the files on to others under your own terms, as part of your product |
| Sell | Include them in something you charge for |
The license makes no distinction between personal and commercial use, and charges no fee. A paid dashboard template that includes MIT-licensed icons is within the license, provided you meet the one condition.
The one condition: keep the notice
The only requirement is that the copyright notice and the permission notice go wherever the files go. In practice, the license text, usually a file called LICENSE, stays with any copy of the icons you pass on.
How that looks depends on what you ship:
- A website or app that uses the icons. A common practice is to include the license text on a third-party notices or open source licenses page, or in a licenses file shipped with the build. The license doesn't require a visible credit next to the icons.
- A repository or package that contains the icon files. Keep the original
LICENSEfile beside them, for example atvendor/icons/LICENSE. - A UI kit, Figma file or template you distribute. Put the license text in the file or bundle itself: a credits page, a text layer, or a
LICENSEfile in the download.
The license doesn't define "substantial portions". Whether one or two icons count is unclear, and people read it differently. Including the notice costs almost nothing, so the simple approach is to include it whenever you redistribute icon files. The guide on how to credit an icon set has example wording and placements.
No warranty
The disclaimer means you take the files as they are. If an icon is outdated after a rebrand, malformed, or shows a brand that objects to how you use it, the authors haven't promised otherwise and aren't liable. For icons this is mostly theoretical, but it's a good reason to check logos against official sources before using them anywhere that matters.
What the MIT license doesn't cover
The license is about copyright in the files. Several things sit outside it.
Trademarks. This is the important one for crypto logos. The MIT license says nothing about trademarks, and the people who drew an icon set don't own the brands the logos represent. The license lets you copy and modify the drawing of a token's logo; it gives you no rights to the brand behind it. Whether a particular use of a project's logo is acceptable is a trademark question between you and that project, covered in crypto logos and trademarks.
Patents. MIT doesn't mention patents. Some other licenses, such as Apache 2.0, include an explicit patent grant. For icon files this rarely matters.
Endorsement. Using MIT-licensed files doesn't mean the authors, or the brands pictured, endorse your product. Don't imply that they do.
Common questions
Can I use MIT-licensed icons in client work? Yes. Keep the license notice with the source files or on the project's licenses page.
Can I sell a template that includes them? The license allows selling copies. Include the notice in what you sell. Trademark questions about the logos themselves still apply separately.
Can I modify the icons and release my versions under another license? You can put your own changes under your own terms, but the original copyright and permission notice has to stay with the parts that came from the original set. Many people keep a modified set under MIT to avoid confusion.
Do I have to say what I changed? MIT doesn't require it. Some licenses do: Apache 2.0 for modified files, and CC BY 4.0 for adapted material. The comparison of open source icon licenses lists these differences.
Is the ISC license the same thing? Not word for word, but close in practice. ISC is shorter and grants broad permission on the same condition: the copyright and permission notice must appear in copies.
Do I need to credit the icons on screen? Not under MIT. The notice has to travel with copies of the files; a visible credit is a courtesy, not an obligation.