Academia SinicaReleased Apr 2020Custom

YOLOv4

We don't benchmark YOLOv4.

It is an open-weight model from Academia Sinica under a custom license; check its commercial-use terms.

YOLOv4 Overview

YOLOv4 is an object detection model developed by Alexey Bochkovskiy, Chien-Yao Wang, and Hong-Yuan Mark Liao at Academia Sinica, released in April 2020 via the Darknet framework. It combines a CSPDarknet53 backbone, PANet neck, and YOLOv3 detection head with a large set of training improvements — Bag of Freebies and Bag of Specials — that improve accuracy with minimal inference cost increase.

YOLOv4 License

Custom License · Model-specific license

YOLOv4 ships under a custom, model-specific license rather than a standard permissive or restrictive one, so the YOLOv4 license has to be read directly. Custom model licenses range from effectively permissive to research-only.

Commercial use: Varies. Custom model licenses commonly restrict commercial use, cap monthly active users, or carve out specific industries — check the YOLOv4 terms before you build on it.
Modification: Usually permitted for fine-tuning, but check whether derivative weights inherit the same license and naming requirements.
Redistribution: Often restricted. Look for attribution, naming, and acceptable-use requirements that apply to any copy you share.

Uncertainty around licensing can delay or stop a project, and acceptable-use policies attached to custom licenses are binding terms rather than guidance. Review them alongside the YOLOv4 license before production deployment.

Do I need a commercial license for YOLOv4?

If the custom terms rule out your use case, a commercial license from the rights holder is the way through. Roboflow's licensing page lists the supported models whose commercial license is included in a Roboflow plan, so it is worth checking whether YOLOv4 — or a permissively licensed alternative — fits your deployment.

Do not hesitate to reach out with questions for your commercial project. Our team will help you start solving business problems on the first call. See Roboflow commercial licensing for the models included in each plan.

Talk to sales

The original Darknet implementation of YOLOv4 is released under the permissive YOLO License (a public-domain-style license), so it can be used commercially, including in closed-source products, with no license fee. Some PyTorch reimplementations use different licenses, so check the license of the repository you use.

Yes. The original Darknet YOLOv4 code has no commercial restrictions.

Custom licenses are model-specific. Always check the per-model License Notes section above and the linked official license text.

License information is provided as a guide and is not legal advice.