Personal use, and the promotional activity it usually excludes
Personal use marks the side of a licence where trade is not permitted. Where a document defines it, the definition usually reaches promotional activity for a business rather than paid advertising alone, which is wider than readers expect. As of 2026-09-22.
| Question | What the phrase answers |
|---|---|
| A bought placement | Inside the exclusion on any reading |
| An unpaid post on a company account | Inside it where the definition names business promotion |
| A portfolio piece for a freelancer | Near the edge, and rarely named |
| Something with no business behind it | Outside the exclusion, and rarely described |
Inclusion rule. Phrases that appear in more than one vendor's permissions documents and that change what a sentence means. A phrase used by a single vendor in a single clause is described on that vendor's own page instead. Order. Reading order: where you meet it, then what it settles, then what it does not.
1The word personal misleads on purpose or by accident
People hear personal and picture a hobby. A licence that excludes promotional activity for a business, a service or a product covers a marketing post that cost nothing to place, and the absence of money in the transaction does not help.
That is why a defined exclusion is worth more than an undefined grant. A document that says what falls outside can be acted on; one that says personal use and stops requires somebody to guess the boundary.
2Free tiers are where the word does its work
A personal use licence on a free tier is a common and coherent commercial design: the vendor gives away capability and keeps permission. It only becomes a problem when the tier is used by somebody who read the word and not the definition.
Occasionally the personal band reaches a paid plan as well, which catches readers who assume an invoice moves them across. The band is defined by the licence name on the card, not by whether money changed hands.
3The edges nobody drafts for
A freelancer's portfolio, an employee posting about the product they build, a studio pitching with unpaid sample work: all three sit close to the line and almost never appear in the wording.
A register can record the exclusion and quote it. Resolving an edge needs facts about a particular arrangement, and the useful move is to take the vendor's own sentence to whoever advises on those facts.
4From the making side
Alongside the terms behind “Personal use”, SceneMixer's guides describe the work itself this way:
On the end card, yes, along with the product name, the tagline and the call to action, in the language of the ad.
SceneMixer, AI Ad Video Generator — “Will my brand name appear in the video?” (read 2026-10-13)
The final cut ends on an end card: your main image plus four lines — Brand, Product name, Tagline, Call to action. The first two are read from your photo and your brief; the tagline and call to action are written with the script.
SceneMixer, The End Card (read 2026-10-13)
5Where the sourced wording is
A word page, not an entry in the register: nothing above is attributed to any vendor and nothing above is legal advice. The quoted clauses are on commercial use, the column this phrase turns up in is free tier, and the reading rules are on the reading page. Next words: Licence grant, Output ownership, Publishing rights.