Licenses are closing up

Download a MakerWorld model from 2023 and it was more likely than not under a Creative Commons license, one of the standard free licenses that spell out how a file can be reused: 79.7% of that year's uploads were. Download one posted this year and the odds have flipped. 66.4% of new uploads so far in 2026 use the Standard Digital File License or one of its variants, a license that isn't Creative Commons at all.

Printables is moving the same way, much more slowly.

We studied 1,004,137 public models from MakerWorld and Printables, two of the biggest sites for sharing 3D printing files: 327,759 from MakerWorld and 676,378 from Printables. Every number here describes those models, not every model ever posted.

What MakerWorld uses now

Across every MakerWorld model we studied, 59.1% carry the plain Standard Digital File License, and 60.4% carry it or a variant. The most common Creative Commons license in our sample, attribution, noncommercial, share alike, is a distant second at 14.0%.

Only 10.0% of the models we studied use a Creative Commons license that allows commercial use. Another 24.2% use one that doesn't.

By year

Most of the switch happened between 2023 and 2025. The Standard Digital File License or a variant went from 19.9% of new MakerWorld uploads in 2023 to 44.4% in 2024 and 63.0% in 2025. It has barely moved since, sitting at 66.4% so far this year. On Printables, where we found no variants, the license went from 1.2% to 8.1%.

What it replaced matters if you sell prints. Creative Commons licenses that allow commercial use fell from 23.8% of new MakerWorld uploads in 2023 to 7.1% in 2026. On Printables the drop was gentler, from 47.6% to 39.6%, and it started earlier: 55.0% of its 2022 uploads allowed it.

Re-creations

MakerWorld also lets a license decide whether someone else can post a re-creation of a model. 72.1% of models published in 2023 allow it. Of those published so far in 2026, 34.0% do. The plain Standard Digital File License is one of the licenses that says no, and its rise lines up with that drop.

Licenses on Printables

On Printables, 46.0% of the models we studied use a Creative Commons noncommercial license and 45.1% use one that allows commercial use. The Standard Digital File License is 4.3% of everything there.

One number went the other way. Public domain was 9.5% of new Printables uploads in 2019 and is 17.6% so far in 2026. Fewer creators are allowing commercial use, but more of the ones who do are giving up every right at once.

If you print to sell, check the license on every model before you start, and expect the answer to be no more often than it used to be. On MakerWorld only 7.1% of this year's new uploads say yes.