Home › Commercial use and licensing

Can you sell puzzles made with PuzzleBindery?

Yes. A Pro licence includes the right to sell what you make — on Amazon KDP, on Etsy, through print-on-demand, or anywhere else — and PuzzleBindery takes no share of your sales. Marketplace fees, taxes and printing costs still apply. This page sets out exactly what that covers, what the free version allows, and who owns the output.

What you may do with a Pro licence

• Publish and sell puzzle books on Amazon KDP, in paperback or hardcover.
• Sell printable PDFs on Etsy, Gumroad, your own site, or any other marketplace.
• Use puzzles in print-on-demand products, workbooks and activity books.
• Use them commercially in a classroom, library, care home, magazine or newsletter.
• Publish under a pen name or an imprint, in any territory, with no reporting to us.

There is no royalty, no revenue share and no per-title fee. One payment covers everything you make with it, for as long as you make it.

What the licence does not provide

Commercial permission from PuzzleBindery does not guarantee acceptance by Amazon, Etsy or another marketplace, or demand for your product. You are responsible for material you add, the marketplace rules and the final files. PuzzleBindery provides production tools, not keyword research or an automatic publishing service.

Inspect the exact workflow before purchasing: complete KDP book proof, Etsy printable pack, or classroom worksheet set. Current pricing is $49 once, plus applicable tax; checkout shows the final total.

What the free version allows

The free version is genuinely useful and it is not time-limited. Every generator works, the full book editor works, and so do the spine calculator and the blank cover templates. What it does not do is produce a file you can sell: interior exports carry a “PREVIEW” watermark on every page, and cover exports carry a small credit line.

So a teacher printing a word search for Friday needs nothing from us. Someone assembling a book to sell needs the Pro licence, and the boundary is the export, not the puzzle.

Are the puzzles exclusive to me?

No exclusivity is promised. A generated puzzle is defined by its seed and settings. Different seeds can produce different grids, but this does not guarantee that no other user will produce a matching or similar puzzle. Shared starter projects and example PDFs are also available to everyone.

Customize the vocabulary, selection, layout and presentation for your intended readers. Review your finished product before publishing. A sudoku having one valid solution is a puzzle-quality property, not proof of exclusive ownership or copyright protection.

Where the words and quotes come from

Two parts of the product involve text we did not generate, so they are worth being precise about.

• Theme word lists are ordinary vocabulary — the names of animals, foods, holidays. You can also paste your own list. Check rights to any supplied text, names, brands or other material you use in a product.
• Cryptogram quotes are drawn from a library of public-domain quotations, chosen for that reason. If you would rather use your own text, you can type it in.

What we do not claim

We do not claim ownership of, or a licence to, anything you produce. Book generation and PDF export run in your browser, and projects are saved on your machine. If you use optional connected features, review the privacy policy for the data they send. There is no account, so there is no library of your work sitting on a server of ours.

The practical consequence is that we cannot recover a lost book for you. That is the trade: the responsibility for backing them up is yours. Use Save file in the editor to keep a copy.

How this compares to free generators

Worth checking before you sell anything made elsewhere: a number of free puzzle generators restrict commercial use in their terms, and some permit personal and classroom use only. Others are silent, which is worse — silence is not permission, and a marketplace takedown is an expensive way to discover the answer.

If you are using any free tool for a book you intend to sell, find its terms page and read the commercial-use clause before you publish. That applies to ours as much as anyone’s, which is why this page exists.

Common questions

Do I need a separate licence per book?

No. One licence covers every book you make, with no limit on titles or copies sold.

Does the licence expire?

No. It is a one-time purchase, and it includes future updates. Books you have already published are unaffected by anything we do later.

Can I use it on more than one computer?

Yes — up to five browsers or devices. You can free a slot at any time from your customer portal, or by clicking “Deactivate on this browser” in the app.

Can I sell the puzzles on their own, not in a book?

Yes. Individual printables, worksheet packs and single-sheet products are all covered.

What if I stop paying?

There is nothing to stop paying. It is one payment, not a subscription.

Questions about anything on this page — including a use we have not listed — email support@puzzlebindery.com and a human will answer. This page describes the licence in plain English; it is not legal advice, and your own obligations to a marketplace still apply.

More: Open the Studio · KDP specs cheat sheet · Large print puzzle books · Puzzle book software compared · Publishing guides