Adobe Licensing for Faculty and Staff

  • Faculty & Staff

Table of Contents

 

Eligibility

  • Permanent full-time and part-time faculty and staff are eligible for a University-provided Adobe license at no cost.  They can claim a license by follow the directions under licensing.

  • Student workers, temporary employees, and graduate associates are not eligible for a free license and will require a license to be purchased on their behalf. Supervisors must submit requests through the Brokered Product Request Survey. A valid budget code and Business Office (RBO) contact are required for all non-department-funded purchases. Staff paid on departmental (zero fund) accounts will have license costs covered through FY2027.
  • Emeritus faculty may purchase a license using University funds by submitting a request through the Brokered Product Request Survey, including a budget code and Business Office contact. If University funds are not available, licenses must be purchased directly from Adobe or a retailer such as B&H or Best Buy. Discounted rates are available for educators, including emeritus faculty.
  • Students who need Adobe for coursework or personal use should purchase a license directly through Adobe or another retailer.
  • Only Permanent Full-Time or Part-Time Faculty and Staff are eligible for a free University Adobe License.

 

Cost

Adobe Creative Cloud Full Time Faculty & Staff: no cost
Student Workers: $165/year. Renews May 28
Other Temporary workers: $179.09/year
Adobe Acrobat Full Time Faculty & Staff: no cost
Student and other temporary workers: $78.22 for a 3-year, non-transferable license
Adobe Reader Reader is free and can open, rotate, and sign PDF documents.
  Please note that SAS Computing will cover the cost of Adobe licenses for department-funded staff (zero fund) for a maximum of one year, ending at the close of fiscal year 2027.

Licensing

Full-Time Staff and Faculty

  1. Go to the Adobe Account Analysis self-service tool.
  2. Click Claim Adobe License.
  3. Once claimed:
  • You’ll receive the full Creative Cloud suite (including Acrobat).
  • Access apps via the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app.

 

Important Notes:

Licenses inactive for 90 days must be reclaimed.

  • Use to sign into Creative Cloud, Adobe.com, or individual applications. Do not use @sas or other subdomains (ex. @math, @english).  Using @upenn.edu will bring you to the Penn Single Sign-In page.
  • Avoid storing files in Adobe Cloud Storage (data may be lost if license is removed).

 

Installation

Personal Machine:
Log in at https://www.adobe.com with and download software.

University-Owned Machine:
Check if Creative Cloud is installed on your computer. If not:

From Creative Cloud you can download and install any of the Adobe software available under our license.

 

Log In Instructions

For eligible Faculty and Staff who are automatically eligible for a license:

To log into Creative Cloud or any of the Adobe Applications make sure you use as your email address where pennkey= your PennkeyName. This will bring you to the Single Sign In Log In site that you should already be familiar with.

  • Use as your email address (where pennkey = your PennKey name).
  • After entering your email, you’ll be redirected to the familiar Single Sign-On (SSO) page.
  • Sign in with your PennKey credentials and complete two-step authentication if prompted.

Part time Staff, student workers, and others will need to log in with the credentials created when the license was activated.

Troubleshooting 

Confirm You’re Using the Correct Login Format- this is for Permanent Faculty and Staff

  1. Make sure you’re signing in with your address — not your personal email or another format
  2. Go to adobe.com
  3. Click Sign In (top right)
  4. Enter
  5. If prompted, select “Company or School Account”
  6. You should then be redirected to the PennKey login screen

Check for Account Not Found or Access Errors

If you see “Account doesn’t exist” or “You don’t have access”, try these steps:

  1. Double-check the email address format (must be )
  2. Clear your browser cache and cookies, or try using a private/incognito window
  3. Try another browser (Chrome and Edge generally work best)

If the issue persists, go to the Adobe Account Analysis Self-Service Tool to verify your license status. If you see a button on this page that says Claim Adobe License, you will need to click on that to restore your access. 

If the analysis returns a result that indicates you are not eligible for a license but you are an active staff, faculty, or Emeritus professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, fill out the Adobe Survey to request a license. If you are eligible, one will be granted to you in 1-3 days.

Check for Dormant or Expired Licenses

If your license has been inactive for 90 days, it may have been automatically removed. You can reclaim your license using the Adobe Account Analysis Self-Service Tool.

Error: HTTP Status 400 – Bad Request 
This is an issue with the browser, try to log in via a different browser or clear your browsers cache for "all time".

  • For Google Chrome: Click the three dots in the top right corner, then go to More tools > Clear browsing data or Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data.
  • For Microsoft Edge: Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Clear browsing data or type edge://settings/clearbrowserdata into the address bar.
  • For Mozilla Firefox: Go to Menu > Preferences > Privacy & Security and find the "Cookies and Site Data" and "Cached Web Content" options.
  • For Safari: Go to Safari > Preferences.

Verify Internet Connection

Make sure you’re on a stable internet connection.

 

If you have any Adobe-related questions, please reach out to your LSP.