Unreal Engine Pricing 2026: Free Under $1M, $1,850 Seats & the 5% Royalty

Quick answer: per Epic’s Unreal Engine licensing page, the engine is free with all features if you made under $1 million in revenue; non-game companies over $1 million buy seats at $1,850 per seat per year (billed annually, no monthly price published); and games pay a 5% royalty on lifetime gross revenue above $1 million per product. If you only need renders of a building you already modeled, Render a House is the more efficient alternative for architecture, a no-GPU, browser-based option that renders from your own design, starting free with 3 credits a day; failed renders don't use credits, and each render includes up to 2 free retries if the result isn't right.

Updated October 2026. Every Unreal Engine, Twinmotion and RealityScan figure on this page comes from Epic’s own licensing pages and FAQs, checked on 27 October 2026 and linked inline. Render a House figures come from our live plan configuration.

Figures per Epic’s licensing page and Unreal Engine FAQ. Epic adds that it supports other currencies and has adjusted pricing for certain locations, with the final price shown during checkout.

Free — under $1M in revenue

The free licence covers game developers until royalties start, individuals and small businesses under $1 million in annual gross revenue, and educators and schools with no revenue limit. Per the licensing page, it includes access to the source code, all platforms and features, and the forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community. There is no feature-limited tier and no watermark mentioned: the free and paid licences use the same engine.

Royalty — 5% for games and apps

If you ship a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and is licensed to third-party end users, you pay royalties and do not buy seats. The rate is 5% of lifetime gross revenue above the first $1 million per product; Epic Games Store sales are royalty-free. Epic’s FAQ says the rate can drop to 3.5% under its Launch Everywhere with Epic program and that payments are due 45 days after each calendar quarter.

Seats — $1,850 per seat per year

Companies using the engine commercially, over $1 million in the past 12 months, and not shipping a runtime app to end users pay a seat fee of $1,850 per seat per year. Seats are managed in the Epic Developer Portal, can be assigned to external contractors, and include MetaHuman from Unreal Engine 5.6 under the same licence. If you stop renewing, Epic’s FAQ says you keep your tools and projects, but the EULA requires renewal to keep using the engine unless your revenue falls back under $1 million.

Epic’s architecture page positions Unreal Engine for CAD and BIM import via Datasmith, real-time and path-traced stills, films with Movie Render Queue, VR, and browser delivery via Pixel Streaming. For an architecture practice the pricing question comes down to one number: annual gross company revenue. Under $1 million, the engine is free for the whole team. Over $1 million, each user needs a seat. The royalty path only applies if you sell or license an interactive app, such as a configurator, to third-party users; films and other linear content are covered in Epic’s FAQ as a separate question.

Epic only publishes the yearly price, so the monthly column is our division, not a monthly plan: one seat at $1,850 per year works out to $154.17 a month. Monthly billing: Not published (checked October 2026). Ten seats is the threshold for buying Epic Pro Support, and above 25 seats Epic asks you to contact sales for custom terms.

Students and schools pay nothing. Epic’s Students and Schools page says Unreal Engine is free to download and use for education, and its education FAQ lets academic institutions install it on any of their computers, such as labs. Students who ship a class project as a commercial game follow the standard EULA, including the 5% royalty above $1 million. A separate student discount on seats is not published (checked October 2026) because none is needed.

For companies over the revenue line, the licensing page offers a 30-day trial next to the Buy seats button. Trial limits beyond the 30 days: Not published (checked October 2026).

• Hardware. Epic’s hardware and software specifications recommend Windows 11, a quad-core 2.5 GHz CPU, 32 GB of RAM and a DirectX 12 graphics card with 8 GB or more of video memory. A workstation that meets that is usually the biggest cost for a firm on the free licence.
• Epic Pro Support. Optional, for companies with 10 or more seats or custom terms. Price: Not published (checked October 2026).
• Royalties. Only if you distribute a runtime app to third-party users and it earns over $1 million.
• Other Epic tools. Twinmotion and RealityScan are licensed separately; see the next section.

Twinmotion is Epic’s simpler visualization tool, which its FAQ describes as powered by Unreal Engine. It follows the same $1 million rule but costs less above it: the Twinmotion licence page lists seats at $445 per seat per year, which also unlock Twinmotion Cloud, and states that Twinmotion alone creates no royalty obligation. RealityScan, Epic’s photogrammetry app, has its own licence page at $1,250 per seat per year. The Unreal Engine licensing page does not say its $1,850 seat includes Twinmotion or RealityScan (checked October 2026).

Unreal Engine is good value when you need what only a game engine does: interactive walkthroughs, VR reviews, configurators, Pixel Streaming to clients, or cinematic films of a large scheme. For a firm under $1 million it costs nothing but hardware and learning time. Over $1 million, $1,850 per seat per year is the price of a full real-time platform, and the Twinmotion pricing breakdown is worth reading first if your team mostly needs stills and walkthrough videos.

Render a House is an AI rendering tool for architects and real estate. It is the no-GPU, browser-based alternative when the job is a still or short clip of a design you already have: upload a SketchUp .skp directly, a GLB, GLTF, OBJ or STL model, a sketch, a photo, or a plan exported to PNG/JPG, and a render takes about 30–60 seconds. There is no scene setup, lighting rig or workstation to buy, and large images are downscaled automatically.

A standard 1K render costs 1 credit, 2K costs 1.5 and 4K costs 2, so one Pro credit is about $0.16 billed monthly. A bad render gets up to 2 free retries. There are no team seats or roles, but projects can be shared by email with edit access, and support is available through chat in the app and the support page. It is not a replacement for an interactive Unreal walkthrough. Estimate a project with the render cost calculator or see plans.

How much does Unreal Engine cost in 2026?

It is free for students, educators, hobbyists and companies under $1 million USD in annual gross revenue. Above that, non-game companies such as architecture firms buy Unreal Subscription seats at $1,850 per seat per year, while games and runtime applications licensed to third parties pay a 5% royalty on lifetime gross product revenue above $1 million, per Epic's licensing page.

Is Unreal Engine free for architects?

Yes, if the firm made less than $1 million USD in gross revenue in the past 12 months. Epic's licensing page lists the free licence for individuals and small businesses under that line with all platforms and features. Over $1 million, an architecture firm that is not shipping a runtime application to third-party users needs a seat for each user.

Can I pay for Unreal Engine monthly?

Epic publishes only an annual seat price: $1,850 per seat per year, about $154.17 a month if you divide it by 12. A monthly billing option is not published (checked October 2026).

Do architects pay the 5% royalty on Unreal Engine?

Usually not. Epic's FAQ ties the royalty to products that incorporate Unreal Engine code at runtime and are licensed to third-party end users, such as games. Firms that use the engine for stills, films and design reviews and earn over $1 million a year buy seats instead.

Is Unreal Engine free for students?

Yes. Epic's Students and Schools page says Unreal Engine is free for students and schools, and its education FAQ lets academic institutions install it on any of their computers, such as computer labs. Students who later ship a commercial game fall under the same EULA terms as other developers.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Unreal Engine for architectural renders?

If you need stills or short clips of a design you already modeled, Render a House renders in the browser with no GPU: upload a SketchUp .skp, GLB, OBJ, a sketch or a photo. It starts free with 3 credits a day at 1K with a watermark, and Pro costs $39/mo billed monthly or $312/yr billed annually.

• Twinmotion pricing
• Twinmotion system requirements
• Lumion pricing
• D5 Render pricing
• Enscape pricing
• 3ds Max pricing