RDS CAL Pricing: How to Count Them, With Worked Examples
If you already know what an RDS CAL is and when your server needs one, the remaining question is arithmetic: which model, how many, and what does it actually cost. This article answers that with real numbers rather than principles.
One thing to fix in your head before we start, because it is the most expensive misunderstanding in this whole area: an RDS CAL is in addition to a regular CAL, not instead of it. A person using Remote Desktop needs both. The server will serve sessions happily for 120 days on the grace period, which is exactly long enough for everyone to forget.
User or device: the rule in one line
- User CAL: licensed to a person, who may connect from any number of devices.
- Device CAL: licensed to a machine, which may be used by any number of people.
You count whichever number is smaller. That is the entire rule. The complication is that most people count the wrong number first, because headcount is the figure that comes to mind.
| User CAL | Device CAL | |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed to | A person | A machine |
| Count you need | Number of people using RDS | Number of devices running sessions |
| Cheaper when | People have several devices each | Several people share each device |
| Typical setting | Office and hybrid work | Shift work, shared terminals, kiosks |
| Stability of the count | Changes when you hire | Changes when you buy hardware |
Worked example 1: twenty people, their own laptops
A twenty person team. Everyone has a company laptop, most also connect from a home desktop occasionally, and a few use a phone or tablet for approvals.
Count the devices: twenty laptops, plus maybe fifteen home machines, plus a dozen phones. Call it forty seven, and note that the number moves every time somebody buys a tablet.
Count the users: twenty. It does not move when they buy a tablet.
Answer: 20 User CALs. Devices outnumber users more than two to one here, and the device count is unstable. This is the common case for office and knowledge work.
Now the cost. Our five pack of RDS User CALs is 350 USD, which is 70 USD per user. A single RDS User CAL is 220 USD. So twenty users bought as four five-packs comes to 1,400 USD. Bought as twenty singles it would be 4,400 USD.
That is not a rounding difference. The pack size changes the total more than the licensing model does. Buy singles only to top up an odd number, never as the base.
Worked example 2: twelve shared stations, three shifts
A production or dispatch environment. Twelve terminals on the floor, running three shifts, with thirty six people rotating across them. Nobody has an assigned machine and nobody connects from home.
Count the users: thirty six.
Count the devices: twelve.
Answer: 12 Device CALs. Three times fewer than the user count, and the number only changes when you add a terminal.
Cost: our five pack of RDS Device CALs is 350 USD, so 70 USD per device. Twelve devices means two five-packs plus two singles, or three five-packs if you want two spare. Two packs plus two single device CALs comes to 1,140 USD. Three packs comes to 1,050 USD and leaves you three spare.
Read that again: three packs cost less than two packs plus two singles, and give you three spare licences. When your count lands just above a pack boundary, rounding up is usually both cheaper and more useful.
Bought as twelve singles the same requirement would be 2,640 USD.
The mixed case, and why it is allowed
You can use both models on the same server environment. The office staff take User CALs, the shop floor terminals take Device CALs, and each population is counted its own way.
This is worth doing when the two groups genuinely behave differently, which in practice means a company with both desk workers and shared stations. It is not worth the administrative overhead to save one or two licences.
A counting checklist
- Count humans who will use Remote Desktop, not total headcount. The people who never open a session need a regular CAL, not an RDS CAL.
- Count devices that will run sessions, including thin clients and any personal machine you actually permit.
- Take the smaller number and pick that model.
- Round up to the next pack boundary, then check whether one more pack is cheaper than the singles you would otherwise buy.
- Add your regular CALs separately. They are a different product and everyone needs one.
- Do not rely on the 120 day grace period as a planning tool. It is there to let you deploy before purchasing, not to defer purchasing.
Where this sits in the bigger picture
RDS CALs are the fourth item on a bill with four items: core licences for the server, an edition choice, regular CALs for everyone, and RDS CALs for the Remote Desktop users on top. Miss any one of them and the deployment is unlicensed, regardless of how carefully you counted the others.
The full model, with a worked example that puts all four together for a forty person office, is in our Windows Server 2022 licensing guide.
Prices quoted here are our catalogue prices at the time of writing and will drift. Check the product pages for the current figure before you build a quote on them.