Adobe API for Automated License Assignment

[Sigit_Surya Kusuma9264]

Hi, is there an Adobe API that can be used to automatically assign Adobe licenses to users? Because the licenses frequently need to be transferred to different users, and the manual transfer process is very time-consuming.

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

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[Anshul_Nautiyal · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sigit_Surya Kusuma9264,

Thank you for reaching out.

Based on your query, it appears you’re looking for an Adobe API to automate user license assignments. Adobe offers the User Management API (UMAPI), which provides programmatic access to the Adobe Admin Console. This API is designed for enterprise organizations to automate user provisioning, including user creation, group management, and product license assignments.

By using UMAPI, you can streamline the license transfer process, significantly reducing the time and effort involved in manual user and license management.

For more information, please refer to the following resources:

• UMAPI Overview and Guide

• UMAPI Technical Documentation

We hope this helps. If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Regards,
^AN

[davszp]

Why is it not documented anywhere that using UMAPI requires an Enterprise license, and also WHY the heck does it require an Enterprise license just to see and or assign licensing? Wouldn't maxmizing license review and assignement so we can buy more licensing be in Adobe's best interest to promote and enable for everyone? I had to chat with support (the chat AI was too stupid to even know what an API was) to even find out why I was blocked from all the developer console stuff even following all the directions that nowhere state Enterprise licensing is (stupidly) required.

[Anshul_Nautiyal]

Hi @davszp,

Thank you for your feedback and appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. You're right that clearer documentation would help, though the UMAPI page does note that it's intended for Enterprise customers for tasks like user provisioning, directory sync, and license management.  

"With the Adobe User Management API, Enterprise customers can automatically provision users, synchronize user directories, and grant and remove access to Adobe products from a central management application."

You can refer to the documentation here: UMAPI Overview

To address your core question: UMAPI is specifically designed for Enterprise organizations that need to manage users and licenses at scale. It enables programmatic access to the Admin Console for large-scale provisioning, license assignment, and identity integrations with systems like Azure AD and Okta. These capabilities align with enterprise-level deployment needs, which is why access is scoped to Enterprise plans.

That said, your point is well taken. We agree that streamlined license management can benefit organizations of all sizes. We’ve shared your feedback with the relevant product teams as we continuously look for ways to improve both documentation and accessibility.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions — we’re here to help.

Regards,
^AN

[davszp · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the detail. I would argue that the use of "Enterprise customer" does not automatically imply a specific license required, and certainly large businesses are not the only ones needing automated license management. A managed service provider with multiple clients would benefit just as much if not more from being able to automate licensing for clients of all sizes, especially (what I'm looking for) at least a read-only automated way to assess what specific license is assigned to a specific user and email address, in order to provide a proper report to a client showing how licensing is assigned and for that client to properly audit and account for purchases.

This is more important now that Adobe has moved to an auto-renewing subscription model where newly purchased and renewed licensing should be easy to report to the client around renewal before lock-in is created for another year. And there's no indication in the billing data from the distributor what licenses are even assigned much less to which user, requiring manual effort currently to gather and report that information prior to the annual auto-renewal being processed.

There's no reason I can identify why Adobe should gate this basic assignment information behind an exceptionally high-priced upgrade that smaller clients do not need, to provide basic license managment automation and reporting. Even license assignment should be possible via API as automation is commonly used by MSPs to deploy software across a large number of smaller clients and there's no reason to require manual intervention to assign said license to a new user (or to deprovision the license as part of an automated user offboarding), but there's no justification at all I can see for blocking read access to the currently assigned users, it should be a basic billing function with all software for all organization sizes.

I would further disagree that Entra ID sync and identity integration should also be a basic included feature with all multi-user licenses, including provisioning, for similar reasons that organizations of almost any size could benefit, but that's separate from my basic API argument, and the documentation for UMAPI still does not explicitly state "this feature requires the purchase of Enterprise-class licensing from Adobe," it merely claims (regardless of correctness--as I've argued against above) that "...Enterprise customers can..." which does not imply a specific license requirement, only that Adobe thinks the benefit is only for some types of customers (we implement things for clients of all sizes things that are originally designed for larger enterprises all the time).

I appreciate the acknowlegement of the benefit to smaller organizations as well and appreicate the opportunity to clarify my reasons the policy is not justified, and my issues with the documentation being unclear. I hope Adobe updates their policy here to benefit their customers as well as themselves when users are better able to administer and report on the Adobe licenses, reducing friction for product use and adoption.

[Anshul_Nautiyal]

Thank you again for your thoughtful and detailed response. We genuinely appreciate the time you've taken to share your perspective and use case. 

You're absolutely right that the current phrasing in the UMAPI documentation ("Enterprise customers can…") may be interpreted more broadly and doesn’t clearly convey the underlying license requirement. We've taken note of this and have shared your feedback with our documentation and product teams for further review and clarity improvements.

Please continue to share your experience—your input helps us shape better solutions for all our customers.

Regards,
^AN