A free alternative to Togal.ai, honestly.
Togal.ai lists at $299 per user per month on an annual plan. If you typed "togal.ai free alternative" into a search bar, you probably want one of three things: a free trial, a free tier, or a tool that costs a lot less. Here is what actually exists for each, without the sales gloss.
Is there a free alternative to Togal.ai?
There is no free AI takeoff tool that reads a full plan set and hands you quantities for nothing. What does exist: free manual measurement in a PDF viewer, free single-purpose calculators, free demos on your own drawings, and per-plan pricing that gets you most of the way to free without a seat licence. Pilars is the last of those at $100 per trade, per plan set.
I want to be straight about this because the "free" results for takeoff software are mostly bait. Someone gets you to a page with "free" in the title, and the free thing turns out to be a 14-day trial with a credit card on file. Togal.ai itself is a good product with a clear price: the Growth plan is $299 per user per month, billed annually, which is $3,588 a year for one estimator. Whether a free trial is on offer changes from one source to the next, so check the current terms on their site before you plan around it.
The rest of this page walks through what is genuinely free, what "free" costs you in hours, and why we think a per-plan price with no seats is the closest you will get to free while still having software do the takeoff for you.
What is actually free
Three categories, and each one is worth knowing about even if you end up paying for something.
1. Manual measurement in a PDF viewer
Every estimator has done a takeoff with a PDF reader, a calibrated scale and a highlighter. Bluebeam Revu is the tool most people mean when they say this, and it is not free ($260 to $440 a year per user depending on tier, Windows only now that the Mac version is gone). But plenty of free PDF viewers have a measure tool and a count stamp. It works. It is also exactly what Togal.ai was built to replace, because on a 60-sheet set it eats a working week. Free in dollars, expensive in Fridays.
2. Free calculators for the piece you are stuck on
We publish a set of free takeoff calculators that will stay free: window takeoff, sprinkler head counts to NFPA 13 spacing, ROI on estimating time, and more. They do not read a drawing. They take numbers you already have and do the arithmetic properly. If your question is "how many heads on a 12,400 sf ordinary hazard floor" rather than "take off this set", a calculator is the right free tool.
3. Free run on your own set
The Pilars demo runs on your own plan set, not a canned sample. Upload a real PDF and you get the actual takeoff summary back to review. That is free. What is not free is doing it on every bid, week after week, which is where the $100 per trade comes in. We do not have a permanent free tier and we would rather say so than hide it behind a "Get started free" button.
If you want a longer list of no-cost tools, we keep one at free construction takeoff software, and a sober comparison of free AI takeoff tools vs paid.
Why there is no free AI takeoff that does the whole set
People sometimes assume AI takeoff should be free the way a chatbot is free. The economics are different. A plan set is not a paragraph. Reading a 40 to 120 sheet set at the resolution needed to tell a duplex receptacle from a quad, following a keynote to the schedule it points at, and cross-checking a fixture count against the spec section is a lot of compute per project. Then there is the part nobody sees: models have to be trained on real drawings, by trade, and re-trained as they get things wrong. That is why every AI takeoff vendor charges, and why the ones that call themselves free are either a limited trial, a credit bucket that runs out, or a tool that only measures one thing.
So the honest question is not "which AI takeoff is free" but "which pricing model wastes the least money for the way my shop bids". There are two models in the market: per seat and per plan. Togal.ai, Kreo, STACK and the old desktop tools are per seat. Pilars is per plan set, per trade. We wrote up the trade-offs in per-trade vs per-seat takeoff pricing, but the short version is below.
Free manual tools vs Togal.ai vs Pilars
| What you compare | Free manual (PDF viewer) | Togal.ai | Pilars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 in software | $299 per user per month, billed annually | $100 per trade, per plan set |
| Who does the takeoff | You, by hand | AI detects and measures spaces; you confirm | AI reads the full set and spec book; you review confidence-scored quantities |
| Time on a 60-sheet commercial set | Roughly 40 to 80 hours | Fast for spaces and areas | Minutes, then review |
| Best at | Anything, slowly | Floor-plan spaces and areas for GCs | Trade counts, lengths, schedules, spec cross-checks |
| MEP device counting | Manual count stamps | Not its focus | Trade models for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire protection and more |
| Extra users | Free | Another seat | Free, unlimited |
| Mac | Depends on viewer | Browser, yes | Browser, yes |
| Free trial | Not applicable | Check current terms | Free demo on your own set |
Comparison based on public documentation as of 2026. Togal.ai is a trademark of its owner; this is an independent comparison.
The cost worked example
Take an electrical sub that bids ten jobs a month. Same shop, three ways.
Manual, free software
Ten bids at 40 to 80 hours each is 400 to 800 estimating hours a month. Nobody actually does that; what happens is you bid fewer jobs, or bid them with less care. The software is free. The bids you did not send are not.
Togal.ai, three estimators
Three seats at $299 each is $897 a month, or $10,764 a year on the annual plan. It is the same number in a slow month with two bids as in a busy month with fifteen. Add an estimator and it is $1,196. And for a sub whose takeoff is mostly devices and circuits rather than room areas, a lot of that seat is buying the wrong strength.
Pilars, per plan
Ten bids, one trade, is $1,000 that month. Two bids in a quiet month is $200. Three estimators or six, same price, because there are no seats. You are paying for takeoffs, not for the right to open the software.
Where it flips
If one person on one seat runs more than about three plan sets a month through Togal, their seat is cheaper per set than Pilars, and if their work is space and area takeoff on architectural plans, Togal is a fine buy. The per-plan model wins when work is lumpy, when several people need access, or when the takeoff is trade quantities rather than square footage.
You can plug your own volume into the takeoff ROI calculator rather than take our example on faith.
What "closest to free that still does the work" means
Pilars is not free, and you should hold anyone who says their AI takeoff is free to a very specific question: free for how many sheets, for how many projects, for how long. What we mean by closest to free is this. You upload the set. The system reads every sheet and the spec book together, resolves the door, window, fixture and equipment schedules, counts the devices, measures the lengths and areas, traces the runs, flags the code issues it sees against NEC, IPC, IMC, ADA and NFPA, and hands you a quantity list with a confidence score and the sheet each number came from. You review it, fix what needs fixing, export to Excel. That costs $100 for that trade on that set, and it costs nothing when you have no bids to run.
On accuracy, we would rather point at a number than an adjective. On a real power plan, our fine-tuned model counted duplex receptacles at 97.5%, against 84% for Togal.ai and a 65 to 88% spread across twelve other systems. The method and the plan are on the duplex receptacle benchmark page. Togal is a strong tool for the job it was designed for; device counting was not that job.
If you want to see Pilars before spending a dollar, that is what the demo on your own set is for. And if the free calculators solve your problem, use them and keep your money.
Questions estimators actually ask
Is there a free alternative to Togal.ai?
Not a free AI takeoff that reads a whole plan set. Free options are manual measurement in a PDF viewer, free calculators such as the ones at pilars.ai/takeoff-calculators, and free demos on your own drawings. The lowest-cost automated option is per-plan pricing like Pilars at $100 per trade per plan set, with no per-seat fee.
Does Togal.ai have a free trial or free plan?
Togal.ai's public pricing is $299 per user per month billed annually for the Growth plan, with a custom Business plan for larger teams. Free-trial availability has been inconsistent across public sources, so check the current terms on their site.
What is the cheapest Togal.ai alternative that still uses AI?
Pilars is priced at $100 per trade per plan set with unlimited users, so a shop running five bids a month in one trade pays $500 that month and nothing in a month with no bids. Togal.ai is $299 per seat per month billed annually regardless of volume.
Can I do a takeoff for free in Bluebeam or a PDF viewer?
Yes, manually. Bluebeam Revu costs $260 to $440 a year per user, but many free PDF viewers have measure and count tools. Expect a commercial set to take 40 to 80 hours by hand, which is the time AI takeoff is meant to remove.
Why isn't there a truly free AI takeoff tool?
Reading a 40 to 120 sheet set at drawing resolution, following references to schedules and specs, and training trade-specific models costs real compute and real labelling work. Vendors that say free usually mean a limited trial, a credit bucket, or a tool that measures only one thing.
Is Pilars free?
No. Pilars has no permanent free tier. The demo on your own plan set is free, and the takeoff calculators are free forever. Running takeoffs on every bid costs $100 per trade per plan set.
Togal.ai alternative free for electrical or MEP counts?
For MEP counting specifically, the free route is count stamps in a PDF viewer. Among paid tools, Pilars has trade models for electrical, plumbing, HVAC and fire protection and scored 97.5% on a duplex receptacle benchmark where Togal.ai scored 84%.