Nanome is licensed per user. A seat is assigned to one person's Nanome account by email and covers that person on any headset, PC or browser they sign in from, under the Named User License in Nanome's License Agreement. On a shared headset each student signs in with their own account, and working in a headset takes a Full or Collab seat on that account (setup guide). A shared classroom needs one seat for each student who wears a headset in the same lesson, which comes to the number of headsets in use when the same students keep them all lesson. Students who only watch from a browser can stay on free accounts, and admins move seats to new students as units change.
Nanome is a collaborative platform for molecular visualization and drug discovery. It works in any browser and on Quest 3 or 3S, Galaxy XR, Vision Pro, or a Quest tethered to a Windows PC by Meta Link. The seat types are set out in the academic license update, and prices and the volume bonus are in how much does Nanome cost.
How a seat, an account and a headset connect
A seat sits on an account, and the account goes wherever the student signs in. The headset in the middle carries no license of its own, since a Named User License can be installed on any number of devices and used only by the person it's assigned to.
| Layer | What it is | What it's tied to |
|---|---|---|
| Seat | The license: a Full Seat, a Full Web Seat or the Free Web Seat | One Nanome account, assigned by that account's email |
| Nanome account | One person's sign-in, plus the projects and workspaces they build at app.nanome.ai | One student |
| Device | A headset, a PC or a browser tab | Whoever is signed in; a device code signs a student in, and Log Out hands it to the next |
| Meta account | The headset's own platform login | Nothing in Nanome licensing; Shared Mode lets a class use headsets with no personal Meta accounts |
Seats come from a pool owned by a license-admin account at home.nanome.ai. That admin account doesn't need a seat of its own, and the one seat that lands on it at the start can go to a student, per the help center FAQ.
One pool can serve several class sections. The seats sit on whichever students are in their headset unit, then move to the next section's students when its unit starts.
The sizing rule
The number that sets the seat count is the most people in headsets at the same moment. A class of 30 with 8 headsets in use at once starts from 8, whatever the enrollment and however many headsets sit in the cupboard.
That number is a floor. A seat moves when an admin reassigns it and the new holder confirms the email Nanome sends (setup guide), which suits a change between units or terms. Inside one lesson, a student who takes over a headset signs in as themselves and needs a seat on their own account. A brand-new account's 14-day Full license trial covers a headset too, for those first 2 weeks only.
Students who stay in the browser to watch need no paid seat, since the Free Web Seat includes view-only collaboration with XR users. Students who edit from a browser fit a Full Web Seat, which also raises the AI credits for MARA, Nanome's scientific co-pilot, from the free account's 50 to 1,000 a month. Academic plans sell the Full Web Seat only at the Department tier, with a 50-license minimum (pricing).
Worked examples
24 students in groups of 3, on 8 headsets: 8 seats. One student per group wears the headset, signed in to their own account with a seat. The other 2 follow that view from a laptop on free accounts, since the Free Web Seat includes Follow. At the next unit, the admin moves the 8 seats to the next 8 students. If all 3 in each group take a headset turn inside the same lesson, each signs in as themselves, and that unit needs 24.
One teacher in VR, the class in the browser: 1 seat. The teacher holds a Full Seat and runs the session from a headset. Students join the teacher's workspace from laptops with its code, view-only on free accounts, and follow the teacher's view (session guide). Links, codes and permissions each get a section in the team-sharing guide, and the mixed room itself in teaching a class where most students have no headset.
2 sections sharing 8 headsets in different units: 8 seats. Section A's 8 headset users hold the seats through its unit. When section B's unit starts, the admin moves them to B's 8 headset users, who confirm the email and sign in. The same 8 seats cover as many sections as the year has headset units that don't overlap.
Why each student signs in as themselves
The setup guide asks for one Nanome account per user, shared headsets included.
The work lives in the account. The web app at app.nanome.ai holds each account's projects, workspaces and loaded structures (setup guide), and the seat on it sets how many recent files and how much MARA chat history it keeps (pricing).
Edit rights can go to one person. A workspace's code admits everyone at a single global level, while named users get their own level by email, which is how one student edits while the rest stay Viewers (session guide). A teacher can promote one student for a hands-on turn only when that student is signed in as themselves.
The terms run per person as well. The License Agreement ties each login to the person it was issued to and rules out shared passwords. With a device code, a student confirms the headset sign-in from a phone or laptop and never types a password in the headset (setup, step 7), and the classroom headset walkthrough handles the rest of the setup.
What each seat covers in class
The pricing page's feature comparison sets out what a student can do on each seat.
| In class | Free account (Free Web Seat) | Full Web Seat (department tier) | Academic Full Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Join a live session with headset users | View only | Yes | Yes |
| Follow another user's view | Follow only | Follow, and spotlight their own view | Follow, and spotlight their own view |
| Edit in a teacher's or classmate's workspace | View only | Yes | Yes |
| Own projects and workspaces | 1 project, 3 workspaces | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Work in a headset | No | No | Yes |
Editing also depends on the workspace, whose owner sets each person to Viewer or Editor (session guide). Academic plans come in 2 tiers, Classroom / Personal and Department. Both sell the Full Seat, the Department tier adds the Full Web Seat, and the Collab seat is listed for commercial plans only (pricing). The full tier comparison, trial included, is in is Nanome free.
Moving seats mid-year
A seat moves in 2 steps. An admin unassigns it from one account and assigns it to another by email (licenses guide), and it goes live once the new holder confirms.
The student whose seat moves keeps their account and sign-in. What's left is a free account, and the Free Web Seat lists browser access, 1 project and 3 workspaces, and view-only collaboration (pricing).
Work built past those caps is worth exporting before a move, and support@nanome.ai can confirm what stays open afterward. The web app exports each structure as a single-frame PDB or SDF file, and the supported formats page lists no file format for a workspace or its scenes.
FAQ
Is a Nanome license per user or per headset?
Per user. A seat is assigned to one person's Nanome account by email and covers that person on any headset, PC or browser they sign in from (License Agreement).
Do students who only watch need a seat?
Not a paid one. The Free Web Seat joins sessions with headset users view-only and follows another user's view (pricing), and a shared workspace link opens in a browser with no login at all (the new front door to Nanome).
Can one seat run on two headsets at once?
No. A seat covers one person, and the License Agreement limits each login to the person it was issued to. Two headsets in use at the same moment means 2 people and 2 seats, though the same student can sign in on a different headset the next day.
Do commercial viewers need Full seats?
No. Commercial plans list a Collab seat, which covers XR visualization and collaboration and joins other workspaces view-only, and a Full Web Seat for browser work, alongside the Full seat (pricing). The Full seat adds the XR chemical builder, MARA voice commands and MCP server calls.