AlphaFold 2
Original AlphaFold; monomer and multimer structure prediction from sequence.
Developer: Google DeepMind
Overview
- Developer
- Google DeepMind
- Category
- Structure and complex prediction
- Commercial rights
- Commercial OK
- Commercial cost
- Free commercially
- Compute
- Heavy GPU
- Open weights
- Yes
- Last verified
Capabilities
Predicts protein structure from sequence. Input: FASTA (monomer or multimer); output: 5 ranked all-atom models with pLDDT and PAE, plus MSAs. Still the workhorse for binder-design filtering and the engine inside BindCraft/ColabFold.
When to use it
Still the workhorse for monomer and protein-protein complex prediction and the engine inside many binder pipelines. Weaker on ligands and nucleic acids than AF3/Boltz-2, and MSA generation is the slow step.
Input / Output
- Input
- FASTA (monomer or multimer)
- Output
- 5 ranked all-atom models with pLDDT and PAE, plus MSAs
Compute
Heavy GPU. Other tools with this compute profile →
Commercial Licensing
Commercial rights — may a company use it?
Commercial use OKLicence as writtenApache License 2.0 (code); CC BY 4.0 (model parameters)
README's 'Model Parameters License' section states parameters are made available under CC BY 4.0, which replaced the earlier CC BY-NC 4.0 terms; attribution required. Some mirrored MSA databases carry their own CC BY-SA 4.0 terms.
The licence read at the source allows use by a company. Attribution or copyleft conditions may still apply — read the note.
Commercial cost — is commercial use free of charge?
Free for commercial useFree: code Apache-2.0, parameters CC BY 4.0 (changed from CC BY-NC in January 2022). Attribution is the only cost.
Price and rights are separate: this panel is about money, the panel above is about permission.
- Commercial OK ≠ Free of charge. A tool can be licensed for company use and still need a paid licence for a dependency (BindCraft → PyRosetta).
- Free download ≠ Commercially licensed. Weights you can download at no cost may still forbid commercial use (AlphaFold 3).
- Unverified ≠ Commercially permitted. If no published statement settles it, treat it as unknown — not as a yes.
- Every component counts. Each status considers the code licence, the model-weights terms, required dependencies and any terms of use.
Model Weights
Open weights. A separate weights licence is Not documented as its own field; where weights carry different terms from the code, that is stated in the licence explanation above.
Dependencies
Not documented as a separate field. Any dependency that affects commercial use (for example a paid PyRosetta licence) is named in the licence and cost explanations above.
Official References
- Official site / repo
- github.com/google-deepmind/alphafold
From the makers of FoldScout
From AI Design to Wet-Lab Validation
Designed a promising protein or antibody? Seq2Study helps translate AI-generated sequences into experimental data.
- Protein Expression
- Protein Purification
- Binding Affinity
- Aggregation Assessment
- Stability Evaluation
- Developability Assessment
Get told when a licence changes
Licences on these tools do change. One short email when a status flips or a tool is added. No other use of your address.