Using FFmpegKitNext in Commercial Applications

This page is a practical licensing overview, not legal advice. Have your legal counsel review your exact build, distribution model and target countries before shipping a commercial product.

FFmpegKitNext can be used in commercial applications, but the obligations depend on how you build it and which libraries you enable.

Default LGPL Builds

FFmpegKitNext is licensed under LGPL v3.0. The generated bundles are also LGPL v3.0 by default:

• Android: .aar containing shared native libraries (.so)
• Apple platforms: shared frameworks or xcframeworks
• Linux: shared native libraries (.so)

This is the recommended mode for proprietary commercial applications. Do not pass --enable-gpl and enable only libraries whose licenses are acceptable for your application.

At a minimum, plan to:

• Include the relevant license texts and third-party notices
• Provide the corresponding source code for FFmpegKitNext, FFmpeg and enabled external libraries, including the exact changes and build configuration used for your binaries
• Preserve required copyright and license notices
• Avoid license terms that prohibit reverse engineering or replacement of LGPL components where the LGPL requires those rights
• Make sure users can exercise the LGPL rights that apply to the distributed libraries

App-store distribution can make LGPL replacement or relinking requirements harder to satisfy. Review that path before release.

GPL Builds

If you build with --enable-gpl, the generated FFmpegKitNext bundle becomes subject to GPL v3.0.

This includes builds that enable GPL libraries such as:

• libvidstab
• rubberband
• x264
• x265
• xvidcore

Commercial distribution is still possible under the GPL, but proprietary closed-source distribution is usually not compatible with GPL obligations. If your application uses a GPL-enabled build, be prepared to provide the corresponding source code and redistribution/modification rights required by GPL v3.0.

Non-Free Libraries

FFmpegKitNext build scripts configure FFmpeg with --enable-version3 and do not enable FFmpeg --enable-nonfree builds. If you add custom libraries or local patches, you are responsible for checking whether they change the license status of the resulting binary.

Patents

Licenses and patents are separate issues. Multimedia codecs and formats may be covered by patents in some countries.

Review patent risk separately, especially when enabling codec libraries such as openh264, x264, x265 or kvazaar. OpenH264 source builds, for example, do not automatically receive the same patent treatment as Cisco-distributed binary modules.

See also:

• FFmpeg License and Legal Considerations
• OpenH264 FAQ