What is commercial use?
Commercial use means income-generating use of any kind, whether direct or indirect. If you use an item for your business, that is a clear case of commercial use.
It can still mean commercial use if you are not earning money. For example, adding a graphic on your personal website or your CV does not bring you income directly, but it improves your image towards the visitors of your website or potential employers who are checking your CV. This can bring you income in the future.
As a rule of thumb, if there is a trace of commercial interest in your project, then it is considered commercial use.
What is personal use?
It is the case when you do not get any income from using the item, not directly nor indirectly. It means that you use items for your own personal amusement.
For example, if you are designing the invitations for your own wedding or you're creating something for your kids, then it is personal use.
Can all icons and illustrations on Iconfinder be used for commercial use?
The answer is: not all, but most of them. There are what we call "premium" content (they are paid) and free content (they are offered for free). All premium content on Iconfinder are suitable for commercial use. The license agreement (which contains the rules of how you can use the icons) of the premium content is the Basic license.
In the case of the free content, some are licensed for commercial use, while some others are allowed for personal use only. You need to pay attention to the license of these free content. The license info is shown on the right-hand side of the item. Usually, if you hover the license, there will be an expanded view of what you can do and cannot do with the item.
More about licenses
To learn more about licenses, check out our License overview.