Software · Office & notes

JabRef

Name: JabRef
Author: JabRef

Graphical Java application for managing BibTeX and biblatex (.bib) databases.

Completely free
Windows and Linux
Open source
No account

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Geographic availability: No geographic restriction found in our sources; availability is not checked country by country.

Technical details

Pricing: Completely freeconfirmed by Flathub, Winget (Windows Package Manager)
License: MIT — Open source (permissive)confirmed by Flathub, Winget (Windows Package Manager)
Open source: Yes
Commercial use: Yesconfirmed by Flathub, Official plan pages (pricing, licence, terms), Winget (Windows Package Manager)
Account required: Noconfirmed by Winget (Windows Package Manager)
Credit card required: Noconfirmed by Flathub, Winget (Windows Package Manager)
Watermark: Not applicable
Ads: not documented
Platforms: Windows and LinuxEstablished by Linux: Flathub · Windows: Winget
Publisher: JabRef
Latest version: 5.15 (10 July 2024)
Latest activity: 20 May 2026
Source code: github.com/jabref/jabref

Overview

JabRef is a reference manager, available on Windows and Linux.

Overview written by LicitPro from the documentation published by the authors and the cited sources; we have not tried the resource ourselves.

Excerpts that establish this information

“JabRef is a free, open-source reference manager for collecting, organizing, and citing research.” — official website, 10 November 2026

At a glance

All of JabRef is free: no feature is locked behind a paid plan, and its code is open.

Its licence (MIT) is a permissive open source licence: use, modification and redistribution are allowed, including in commercial projects.

Strengths

Open source code
No account needed
Commercial use allowed

About

JabRef is an open-source, cross-platform citation and reference management tool. Stay on top of your literature: JabRef helps you to collect and organize sources, find the paper you need and discover the latest research.

Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

Sources and checks

Facts collected from Flathub (credit card, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) — 9 November 2026
Facts collected from Official plan pages (pricing, licence, terms) (commercial use) — 9 November 2026
Facts collected from Winget (Windows Package Manager) (credit card, account, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) — 7 November 2026
Last technical check: 7 November 2026
Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

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