Non-Compete Agreement Template
A non-compete agreement restricts a former employee, contractor or consultant from working for, or starting, a competing business — not just from approaching old customers or coworkers, which is what a narrower non-solicitation agreement covers. Download the ready-to-fill template below, or read the checklist first.
Check your jurisdiction before you rely on this document
Non-compete agreements are not enforceable everywhere, and in some places they are not enforceable at all. Californiavoids nearly all employee non-competes by statute (Business and Professions Code §16600), regardless of what the document says or which state's law it claims to apply. Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma take a similar position. Several other states — including Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and Virginia — restrict non-competes to workers above or below an income threshold, cap how long they can last, or require advance notice before signing.
Outside the US, treatment varies just as widely — some countries require ongoing payment to the restricted party for the entire restricted period, others limit non-competes to senior or highly compensated roles only. This template cannot tell you which rule applies to your situation. Check the law where the restricted party lives and works, or have a local employment lawyer review it, before you send it for signature.
Download the Non-Compete Agreement
A complete, ready-to-fill PDF — 12 clauses, blanks for every detail, and a signature block for both parties. Free, no email, no account. Read it and adapt it before you use it; the cover page explains what it can and cannot do for you.
Need the other party to sign it too? Send it for signature with a full audit trail and a tamper-evident seal on the finished file — they never need an account. See pricing.
This is a template, not legal advice
This document is a general-purpose template provided for information only. It is not legal advice, it does not create a lawyer–client relationship, and nobody has reviewed it against your situation.
Laws differ by country, state and province, and they change. A clause that is standard in one place can be unenforceable — or illegal — in another. Terms that are ordinary between two businesses can be void in a consumer or employment context.
Read every clause before you use it, fill in every blank, and delete anything that does not apply. For anything high-value, unusual, or that you could not afford to lose a dispute over, have a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction review it before it is signed.
This kind of document is regulated differently almost everywhere. Many places require specific notices, disclosures or statutory wording, and some make clauses like these unenforceable outright. Treat this template as a starting point to take to a local lawyer, not as a document to sign as-is.
What a non-compete agreement needs
Company & Restricted Party names
The company's full legal name and the individual's full legal name, plus the role or position they hold — an employee, contractor or consultant.
Definition of "Competing Business"
What the restricted party is actually barred from doing — named by product, service, or business, not left as "anything competitive," which courts routinely strike down as unenforceably vague.
Scope of restricted activity
Owning, managing, working for, or consulting for a competing business — spelled out so the restricted party knows exactly what conduct is off-limits, not just which companies.
Geographic area
Where the restriction applies — a mile radius, a list of states, or a country. Limited to where the restricted party actually worked or had customer contact, not "everywhere the company does business."
Duration
How long the restriction lasts after the relationship ends — commonly six months to two years. Longer periods draw more scrutiny and are more likely to be narrowed or struck.
Consideration
What the restricted party receives in exchange — employment itself, continued employment, or a separate payment. Several states require extra consideration if the agreement is signed after employment has already started.
Carve-outs (permitted activities)
What the restriction does not cover — passive stock ownership below a set percentage, general skills and experience, and activity the law does not allow the company to restrict at all.
Severability / blue-pencil clause
A statement that a court should narrow an overbroad restriction to what the law allows, rather than voiding it outright — this is what saves an agreement that overreaches on one axis.
Enforceability check by jurisdiction
Non-competes are banned outright in some places and heavily restricted in others. Check the law where the restricted party lives and works before relying on this document at all.
Signatures & date
Both parties sign and date it. Where the company is the signing entity, the signer must be authorized to bind it — it isn't binding until both have signed.
The three questions a court asks: scope, geography, duration
Where non-competes are enforceable at all, courts don't evaluate them as a single yes-or-no clause. They test three specific dimensions — together sometimes called the "reasonableness" test — and an agreement that overreaches on any one of them is the one most likely to be narrowed by a court or thrown out entirely.
Scope
What activity is actually restricted — a named field, product or service, not "any competitor" in general. The template's "Competing Business" and "Restricted Activity" definitions exist to make this specific.
Geography
Where the restriction applies — limited to the area the restricted party actually worked in or had customer contact with, not the company's entire market or every place it might someday expand to.
Duration
How long it lasts after the relationship ends — commonly six months to two years. Longer periods need a stronger justification and draw more scrutiny.
The template above builds in a dedicated clause for each of the three, a severability clause asking a court to narrow rather than void an overbroad restriction, and a separate clause stating plainly that it does not restrict soliciting customers or employees — that's a distinct, narrower restriction covered by a non-solicitation agreement instead.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Writing the restriction as "cannot work for a competitor" with no definition of what counts as one. Courts read an undefined restriction against the party that wrote it — usually the company — and an undefined "competitor" is the single most common reason a non-compete gets struck down.
- Making the geographic area or duration bigger than the business actually needs. A national restriction for a role that only ever worked one metro area, or a five-year term for a fast-moving industry, reads as punitive rather than protective — and punitive is what gets a court to void the whole clause instead of narrowing it.
- Signing it after employment already started with no extra consideration. In several states, a non-compete added mid-employment needs something more than "keep your job" behind it — a raise, a bonus, a promotion, or a separate payment — or it can fail for lack of consideration.
- Treating it as a substitute for a non-solicitation or confidentiality agreement. A non-compete restricts competing outright; it doesn't, by itself, stop a former employee from calling old customers or poaching former colleagues who never signed anything about it. That needs its own clause or its own document.
- Not checking the law before sending it. Several US states ban most employee non-competes entirely — most notably California, where they're void by statute regardless of what the document says — and using an unenforceable one can itself carry legal risk in some states. Assuming it's fine everywhere is the mistake that undoes the rest of the document.
Get it signed
Once you've confirmed the restriction is enforceable where the restricted party lives and works, fill in the template above and send it for signature with a free Evenseal account — 5 documents a month, no card required. Only need your own copy signed? Self-sign for free with no account at /sign-pdf.
Not legal advice — non-compete enforceability varies materially by state and country, and is void outright in some. Have a local employment lawyer review it before signing.