# How do Experience Cloud Licenses work?

CloudFiles offers named and unnamed (login-based) licenses for Salesforce Experience Cloud users. This article explains how each is counted, where to see usage, and what happens if you exceed your allowance.

> Kind: FAQ · Updated: Oct 2, 2026

CloudFiles supports Salesforce Experience Cloud, so your portal and community users can view, upload and download files on the records they can see. Experience Cloud users need a CloudFiles Experience Cloud license, which is separate from your internal user licenses. This article explains the two license types, how usage is counted, where to see it, and what happens if you go over your allowance.

## Before you begin

Experience Cloud is an add-on to CloudFiles Document Management. CloudFiles enables it for your account, so it cannot be switched on from the admin panel.

To check that it is enabled, open the CloudFiles app, select Document Management, then select Experience Cloud. The Sharing with Experience Cloud Users card shows an Enabled badge. If it shows Available as Add-On, contact your CloudFiles account manager.

![The Experience Cloud page under Document Management in the CloudFiles app, showing the Enabled badge and the Licenses, Usage and Settings tabs](https://media.help.cloudfiles.io/faq-how-do-experience-cloud-licenses-work-sf/ffa052d5.png)

## License types

CloudFiles offers two Experience Cloud license types. Your plan can include either one or both.

|  | Named license | Unnamed (login-based) license |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | A specific Experience Cloud user, identified by email | Any Experience Cloud user who logs in |
| How it is counted | One seat per named user | One unique login per user per day |
| Limit | Number of seats in your plan | Monthly login allowance in your plan |
| Best for | Users who access the portal regularly | Users who log in occasionally or unpredictably |

CloudFiles Experience Cloud licenses work with all Salesforce Experience Cloud license types, including Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Relationship Management and External Apps.

## Named licenses

Named licenses are managed in the CloudFiles app under Document Management > Experience Cloud, on the Licenses tab, in the Named Licenses sub-tab.

CloudFiles does not create named users automatically when someone opens the CloudFiles widget on your Experience Cloud site. A user who has not been added as a named user is counted as an unnamed login.

## How unnamed logins are counted

Unnamed licenses do not need to be assigned to individual users. CloudFiles counts each Experience Cloud user once per day, however many times they log in. For example, a user who logs in 12 times in a day uses one login. The count resets at the start of each day.

1. **Open the Experience Cloud page** — In the CloudFiles app, select Document Management, then select Experience Cloud.
2. **Open the unnamed license count** — On the Licenses tab, select Unnamed Licenses.

Experience Cloud Logins shows the dates of the current month and the number of unique logins so far.

## Review usage over time

1. **Open the Usage tab** — In Document Management > Experience Cloud, select the Usage tab.
2. **Choose the license type** — Use License Type to view all Experience Cloud users together, or one license type on its own.
3. **Choose the interval and period** — Set Interval to Day, Week or Month, and choose the time period, such as Last 30 days.

Total number of active users shows the total for the selected period, and the chart shows the number of active Experience Cloud users in each interval.

## What happens if you exceed your allowance

Your users keep access. If your named users or unnamed logins go over your plan's allowance significantly and consistently, month after month, the CloudFiles team will reach out to your billing contact about an upgrade.

## Licenses are org-specific

Experience Cloud licenses belong to the Salesforce org they were provisioned in. If you move to a new org, the licenses must be assigned there. Your automations and Flows can be moved with change sets or your usual deployment process.

## Related articles

- Experience Cloud
- Quick start to share files in Experience Cloud