What “AI takeoff” actually means
Regular digital takeoff means you trace areas, lengths and counts on a PDF plan yourself, and the software does the math. AI takeoff adds features that find things for you. Depending on the product, that includes detecting rooms and walls and measuring their areas and lengths, counting repeated symbols such as fixtures, devices or doors, and reading the drawing scale and sheet names automatically.
You still review everything. The AI gives you a fast first pass, and you're paid to know when it's wrong: a hatched area it missed, a symbol from a different legend, a scanned sheet that's slightly skewed.
Published prices
Here's what each vendor publishes. Most AI takeoff tools are sold on annual terms, so the monthly number is usually a yearly commitment.
| Product | Plan | Published price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| STACK | Free | $0 | 1 active project a month, up to 300 plan pages, 50 measurements per project. New accounts get 7 days of paid features. |
| STACK | Premium | $299/user/month, billed annually | Includes AI Takeoffs, symbol search and STACK IQ. 12-month terms; paying upfront saves 20%. |
| Kreo | Essential | $100/user/month, billed annually | Takeoff and estimating without the AI features. |
| Kreo | Pro | $175/user/month, billed annually | Adds AI takeoff for rooms, walls, doors and windows, plus auto symbol counting. 7-day free trial. |
| Kreo | Business | $15,000/year, 5 seats included | For teams of 5 to 20. |
| Togal.AI | Growth | $299/user/month, billed yearly | Unlimited automated takeoffs. Teams of 4+ get a custom quote. Access starts with a demo. |
| Beam AI | Do It Yourself | From $8,000/year per trade | HVAC, plumbing and steel. |
| Beam AI | Done For You | From $25,000/year | Their team returns QA-checked takeoffs. Priced by trade and volume. |
| Bluebeam | Core / Complete | $330 or $440/user/year | Manual measurement and markup, not AI takeoff. Many estimators already own it. |
| Bluebeam | Max | $590/user/year (introductory) | Adds AI drawing review and comparison. |
Will it pay for itself? A two-minute check
Don't take anyone's time-savings claim, including mine. Work it out from your own numbers:
For example, one seat at $299 a month billed annually is $3,588 a year. At a loaded cost of $60 an hour, it has to save about 60 hours a year, a little over an hour a week, just to break even. If takeoff is a few hours a month for you, it won't. If someone spends two days a week measuring plans, it very likely will.
The other side of the math is bids you can't get to now. If you pass on invitations because takeoff is the bottleneck, faster takeoff is worth more than the hours alone. Only you know whether that's true for your shop.
How to test before you commit
- Use a job you've already taken off by hand. You know the right answer, so you can check the AI's.
- Time the whole thing, including setup, scale calibration and fixing what the AI got wrong, not just the part where it runs.
- Compare quantities line by line. Note where it's off and whether you'd have caught it.
- Check the export. Make sure quantities land in your estimating sheet or software without retyping.
- Ask the commitment questions before the demo ends: Is it annual? What happens at renewal? Can you drop seats? Does it handle your trade's symbols?
STACK's free plan and Kreo's 7-day trial let you do this without a sales call. Togal.AI and Beam AI start with a demo.
Is there a free way to do this?
Partly. STACK's free plan covers one active project a month with a measurement cap, which is enough to learn digital takeoff and test it on a real bid. General chat tools like ChatGPT can read a plan PDF and describe it, but they're not a substitute for measured takeoff, so don't price a job from their numbers.
For many small trade contractors, the bigger win comes before takeoff: a clean estimating sheet, so quantities turn into a price fast. The ChatGPT estimating guide covers that setup.
Who should skip it for now
- Service and repair contractors who price from a site visit, not from plans
- Shops bidding a handful of plan-based jobs a year
- Anyone whose plans are mostly hand sketches or poor scans
For those businesses, the time usually goes into quoting, follow-up and paperwork instead. That's a different fix, and usually a cheaper one.
Sources
Prices are list prices in US dollars from each vendor's own page, checked October 21, 2026. Vendors change prices and plans often, so confirm on their page before you buy. I don't get referral fees from any tool mentioned here.