Yes, you can use free icons in commercial work without attribution, as long as you pick the right set. Lucide, Heroicons, Phosphor, Tabler, Bootstrap Icons, Material Symbols, Remix Icon, the free Hugeicons and Untitled UI sets and our own free Pikaicons all allow paid products and client projects with no visible credit. Font Awesome Free does ask for credit, but the comment already inside each file counts.
The places that do need a credit line are the big download sites and design communities. Flaticon's and Noun Project's free tiers require one, and so does any free icon kit on Figma Community, unless its creator offers a second license.
This is a plain-language reading of the licenses, not legal advice. If a project has real legal exposure, have a lawyer read the license you ship with.
Credit and notice are two different things
Most confusion comes from two separate duties that both get called attribution. A credit is something your users can see, like "Icons by…" in a footer or an about page. A notice is the copyright and license text that has to stay inside copies of the files or code.
MIT and ISC, the licenses most free icon sets use, ask only for the notice. When you install an icon package, that notice is the LICENSE file that comes with it, and you keep it by not deleting it. Nobody has to see it in your interface.
So a search for "icons no attribution required" is really a search for no visible credit, and that part is easy to find. The notice is a smaller duty that matters most when you hand the files themselves to someone else, in a package or a public repository.
Eleven free sets that need no visible credit
Here is what eleven widely used free sets ask, read from each project's own license file or license page. Every one allows commercial use.
| Icon set | License | Credit in your product? | What else it asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pikaicons free | Pikaicons License | No (appreciated) | Don't share them as a pack or inside another icon set |
| Lucide | ISC | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Heroicons | MIT | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Phosphor | MIT | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Tabler Icons | MIT | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Bootstrap Icons | MIT | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Hugeicons free | MIT | No | Keep the license notice in copies of the code |
| Material Symbols | Apache 2.0 | No (Google would like it) | Keep the notice and mark changes if you redistribute |
| Font Awesome Free | CC BY 4.0 (icons) | Yes, but the comment inside each file counts | Don't remove the comments; brand icons only for their brand |
| Remix Icon | Remix Icon License 1.0 | No (appreciated) | No icon packs, competing libraries, logos or app icons |
| Untitled UI free | Untitled UI Standard License | No | Don't redistribute the files or build a competing kit |
None of them needs a credit in your product, and where a credit exists at all, it lives in the files. The last column is where sets that look equally free start to differ, and most of the differences are about repackaging the icons rather than using them.
If you want to get started with one, these are the official homes. Download from the project itself rather than a mirror, so you get the current files and the license that comes with them.
- Pikaicons free: 500+ icons in five styles, copied as SVG or JSX
- Lucide, Heroicons, Phosphor and Tabler Icons
- Bootstrap Icons and Material Symbols
- Hugeicons, Remix Icon, Untitled UI free icons and Font Awesome
For how these sets compare on size, styles and upkeep rather than license, see the best free icon libraries.
What each license asks, in plain words
MIT and ISC allow commercial use, modification and redistribution. Their one condition is that the copyright and license notice is included in "all copies or substantial portions" of the software, and neither asks for a credit in your interface. (MIT, ISC)
Apache 2.0, used by Material Symbols, works the same way for everyday use, with two extra conditions when you redistribute the files: keep the notice and say what you changed. It also grants no trademark rights, a point that comes back with brand logos below. (Apache 2.0)
CC BY 4.0 is the one that really does ask for credit: you must credit the creator, link to the license and say if you made changes. It lets you do that "in any reasonable manner", which is why Font Awesome says the comments embedded in its free files are sufficient attribution, and asks you not to strip them. (CC BY 4.0)
Font Awesome Free is a useful reminder that one download can carry several licenses. Its SVG and JavaScript icons are CC BY 4.0, its web and desktop font files are under the SIL Open Font License, and the rest of the code is MIT.
CC0 asks for nothing at all. The author has waived their rights as far as the law allows, so you can use the work commercially without permission or credit. (CC0)
Custom licenses are what Remix Icon, Untitled UI and Pikaicons use. They tend to be generous about using the icons and strict about republishing them, so they're worth two minutes of reading each.
Where free still means credit us
The big icon download sites are the ones that ask the most in return. Their free tier is a trade: you get the icon, and they get a link from your product.
Flaticon. Its pricing page says free members must add a link to Flaticon and credit the author, as "Designed by Flaticon" or with the author's name. A Premium subscription removes the requirement.
Noun Project. Icons that aren't public domain are free under CC BY 3.0, so you credit the creator, or pay a fee or subscribe to Noun Pro to drop the credit. For items you sell, its terms ask for either a paid license or "full attribution in legible font" on the item itself, and a paid license covers up to 1,000 units.
Figma Community. Free Community files, icon kits included, are published under CC BY 4.0, and Figma says members "need to give credit to the original creator". A creator can add a second, looser license, so check the file's page before you treat a Figma icon kit as credit-free.
None of these is a trap if you read the terms. The trouble starts when an icon from one of them lands in a shared design file without its license, and six months later nobody knows it needed a credit.
Client work, apps, print and open source
Client projects
Every set in the table above allows client work, and none of them asks the client to buy anything. Our own license names it outright: the free icons can go in work "for yourself or a client".
Paid sets are different, and it's worth knowing where the line moves. With the paid Pikaicons, for example, a freelancer's client needs a license of their own by the time the project is delivered, because they'll keep editing the icons afterwards (section 6 of our license).
Apps and websites
Shipping icons inside a website or app is ordinary use under all of these licenses, even though the code you deliver technically contains them. Remix Icon's license says it plainly: for icons used inside compiled apps, websites or presentations, "no copyright notice is required".
MIT and ISC sets are less explicit, so the careful habit is cheap. Keep the LICENSE files in your repository, and if your app has an open-source licenses or acknowledgements screen, list the icon set there.
Print and merchandise
Nothing in MIT, ISC or Apache 2.0 treats print differently from screens, so a poster, a menu or packaging is fine. The custom licenses draw their line at the icon being the product. Remix Icon allows physical products where the icons are "decorative or functional elements", and our license counts printed items as long as the icons are part of a larger design.
That puts the case people ask about most, a T-shirt or sticker whose whole design is one icon, in doubt under both, because there the icon is the product. For that, read the license with the question in mind, or pick a set under MIT.
Open-source projects
MIT and ISC sets can go into a public repository, as long as the license file travels with the icons. The free Pikaicons are allowed in open-source projects too (section 5 of our license), while the paid ones aren't, because anyone could take the files out of a public repository.
Four lines that still limit you
Republishing the icons as icons
Using icons in your product is one thing; publishing them as icons is another. Remix Icon forbids standalone or paid icon packs and competing icon libraries, Untitled UI forbids redistributing the files or building a competing kit, and our license asks that the free Pikaicons aren't shared as a pack or inside another icon set.
That rules out uploading them to an icon marketplace or shipping them as your own Figma icon kit. MIT and ISC sets are the exception: they allow redistribution as long as the notice travels with the files.
Brand logos
An icon license covers the drawing, not the brand. The GitHub mark in a free icon set is free to use as a drawing, but GitHub's trademark is still GitHub's, and its logo guidelines say not to use the mark as your own logo or modify it, which includes changing its colour.
Apple goes further: its guidelines for third parties say only Apple and its authorised resellers and licensees may use the Apple logo in advertising and promotional materials. Font Awesome's rule is a good default for every set: use a brand icon only to represent the brand it depicts, so a "Sign in with GitHub" button is fine and a GitHub mark recoloured as a decorative pattern is not.
Your own logo
A free icon makes a weak logo even where the license allows it, because anyone else can use the same drawing. Several licenses rule it out anyway: Remix Icon forbids using its icons as a logo, brand mark or app icon, and our license forbids using any Pikaicon in a logo or trademark. Start from a blank canvas for the mark people will remember you by.
Licenses change
A license applies to the version you got, and projects do change them. Remix Icon moved from Apache 2.0 to its own Remix Icon License in January 2026, so older articles that describe it as Apache 2.0 are out of date. Before you depend on a set, open the license file in the version you're installing, and save its link and the date.
How to credit, if you want to
Where credit is optional, a line costs very little and helps the people who draw these icons keep drawing them. The usual places are a site footer, an about or credits page, an app's settings or acknowledgements screen, and the README of an open-source project.
For a set with no required format, the set's name and a link is plenty. Remix Icon suggests Icons by Remix Icon (https://remixicon.com), and for ours, Icons by Pikaicons linking to pikaicons.com is all we'd ask.
Where credit is required under Creative Commons, the license's own advice is to include the title, author, source and license, linked where you can, which Creative Commons shortens to TASL. In practice it looks like this:
"Bell" by Author Name (link to the icon), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (link to the license)
What we chose for Pikaicons
Our 500+ free icons can be used in personal and commercial work, including client projects and open-source code, and credit is optional. Credit was required until October 2026, when we dropped it because we didn't want anyone to feel locked in.
Every icon you copy carries a short comment saying where it came from, which you're free to delete. This is exactly what you get when you copy the heart as SVG:
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none">
<!--
Pikaicons: heart (Stroke), free for personal and commercial use (https://pikaicons.com/free-icons)
Credit is optional but appreciated: "Icons by Pikaicons" linking to https://pikaicons.com
License: https://pikaicons.com/license
-->
<path transform="translate(2 3)" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M10 18C11 18 20 12.98 20 5.94C20 0.51 13.16 -2.34 10 2.43C6.83 -2.35 0 0.5 0 5.94C0 12.98 9 18 10 18Z"/>
</svg>The one condition is the republishing rule above: use the icons, but don't redistribute them as a set. If you need more than the free set, the full library has 5,000+ icons across five styles, from $99, paid once (pricing), and the full terms are in section 5 of the license.
A short checklist before you ship
- Read the license file in the version you install, not a blog post about it, this one included.
- If an icon came from Flaticon, Noun Project or Figma Community, check whether its free license needs a credit.
- Keep license notices in any code you redistribute, such as a package or a public repository.
- Use brand icons only to refer to the brand, and check that brand's own guidelines.
- Don't publish the icons as a pack, kit or library unless the license explicitly allows it.
- Save the license link and the date, so you can show what applied if anyone asks.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use free icons for commercial use without attribution?
Yes, with most open-source icon sets. Lucide, Heroicons, Phosphor, Tabler, Bootstrap Icons, Material Symbols, Remix Icon and the free Pikaicons are among the sets that need no visible credit in a commercial product; the table above lists eleven.
Do MIT licensed icons need attribution?
Not in your interface. The MIT license asks that its copyright and license notice stays in copies of the software, which in practice means keeping the LICENSE file that comes with the package and listing the set on any open-source licenses screen your app has.
Are Flaticon icons free for commercial use?
Yes, but on the free plan you must link to Flaticon and credit the author. A Premium subscription removes the credit requirement.
Do icons from Figma Community need credit?
Free Figma Community files are published under CC BY 4.0, so yes, unless the creator has added a second license that says otherwise. Check the file's page for one.
Can I use free icons on T-shirts or other products I sell?
Under MIT, ISC and Apache 2.0, yes. Custom licenses such as Remix Icon's and ours allow icons as part of a larger design but not as the whole product, and Noun Project asks for a paid license or a printed credit on items for sale.
Can I use a free icon as my logo?
Often not, and rarely a good idea. Remix Icon and Pikaicons forbid it outright, and even where a license allows it, anyone else can use the same icon, so it can't be yours alone.
For more on choosing icons once the license question is settled, see outline vs filled icons and the best icon libraries, or browse the free icons and copy one into your next project.
