Togal vs STACK.
The headline price is the same number on both websites. What the number buys is not. One seat gets you AI that measures the plan and nothing after it; the other gets you a full takeoff, estimate and proposal workflow where much of the AI is sold separately.
Togal vs STACK: the direct answer
Togal.AI costs $299 per user per month, billed annually, and is AI takeoff only: unlimited automated takeoffs, no estimating. STACK Takeoff & Estimate is listed at "as low as $299 per user per month", has a free version, and covers takeoff, estimating and proposals, with Floor Plan AI sold as a STACK Assist add-on at a price you get from an account manager. Choose Togal if you only need AI quantities; choose STACK if you want the estimate and proposal in the same cloud seat.
STACK publishes its own "STACK vs Togal" page, and the review directories all have an auto-generated one. What is missing is a comparison written by someone who is not selling either product. This is that page, with the caveat that Pilars sells a third option, covered in one section near the end.
Pricing reviewed 13 November 2026, based on public documentation as of November 2026. STACK's page gives "as low as" figures and does not state the billing term. Togal.AI and STACK are trademarks of their owners; this is an independent comparison.
Comparison table
| Togal.AI | STACK | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI-assisted takeoff. No estimating or proposal tools | Cloud on-screen takeoff plus estimating and proposals, with AI assist features |
| Who reads the drawings | AI first pass on every plan; the estimator reviews and corrects | The estimator, by default. STACK Assist automates specific counts and floor-plan measurements |
| Platform | Browser | Browser |
| Pricing model | Per user, billed yearly | Per user; free version available |
| Public price | Growth $299 per user per month. 4 or more users: custom Business plan | Takeoff & Estimate as low as $299 per user per month. Full STACK Platform as low as $348 |
| Is the AI in that price? | Yes, unlimited | Partly. Floor Plan AI is an add-on with no published price. STACK IQ is included in paid plans |
| Best for | GCs and interior trades that need fast areas and lengths and price elsewhere | Subs and GCs that want takeoff, estimate and proposal in one subscription |
Same $299, different purchase
A buyer who puts the two pricing pages next to each other sees $299 twice and assumes a like-for-like choice. It is not.
With Togal, $299 a month (really $3,588 a year, since billing is annual) is the whole product. Automated takeoffs are unlimited, and so are the chat prompts and image or symbol searches. There is no smaller plan with the AI removed and no meter running.
With STACK, "as low as $299" is the Takeoff & Estimate product, and the words "as low as" are doing some work. STACK does not publish plan names or a billing term next to that figure, and third-party listings report more than one tier underneath it. What you definitely get is a mature manual takeoff tool, an estimating layer with items and assemblies, and proposal output. What you do not automatically get is Floor Plan AI. STACK's help documentation describes it as part of STACK Assist, "an add-on to your STACK subscription", and sends you to an account manager for the price.
So the fair comparison is Togal at $3,588 a year against STACK plus the Assist add-on at a number you have to ask for. Get that number in writing before you compare.
What the AI in each product covers
Togal
Togal's AI detects, measures and counts on the plan, and lets you search a set by image, symbol or plain-language question. The vendor lists GCs, painting, drywall, framing, flooring, glazing, doors and hardware, and electrical as its users. It is strongest where the quantity is a room, a wall or a finish. G2 reviewers, by third-party report, like the speed and also mention cleaning up AI results by hand and reworking exports for Excel.
STACK Assist and STACK IQ
STACK Assist automates counts for doors, windows and symbols, interior and exterior wall takeoffs, and gross and room areas. One detail matters for MEP trades: STACK documents its Symbol Counting AI as currently available only on electrical plan sheets. A plumbing or fire protection estimator should not expect it to count fixtures or heads.
STACK IQ is a different idea. It is a connector that lets Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot operate STACK on your behalf, and it is included in every paid subscription at no extra charge. It does not read drawings by itself; it drives the STACK tools you already have. For a team already using an AI assistant day to day, that is a real convenience and Togal has no equivalent listed.
"I only need quantities and I price in Excel"
This is the most common version of the question, and it has a clear answer. If your estimate is a workbook you have tuned for years and you have no intention of rebuilding it inside another product, most of STACK's value is something you will not open. You would be paying for an estimating and proposal layer to use the takeoff screen.
In that situation Togal is the more direct purchase. It produces areas, lengths and counts and gets out of the way. Budget some time for the hand-off: the Excel rework that reviewers mention is real, and a quantity sheet that does not match your workbook's line order costs you ten minutes on every bid until you build a mapping tab.
There is one exception. If your volume is low, say a handful of small jobs a month, look at STACK's free version first. Manual on-screen takeoff at no cost can be the right answer for a shop that does not bid enough to earn back $3,588 a year.
Best for: who should pick Togal and who should pick STACK
Togal is the better pick for
- GC precon teams checking sub quantities across many bids
- Painting, drywall and flooring estimators whose work is mostly area and perimeter
- Anyone who wants the AI price published and the usage unlimited
STACK is the better pick for
- Subcontractors who want to go from plan to signed proposal without a spreadsheet in the middle
- Teams that want estimators and field staff on one platform (STACK also sells Build & Operate, listed as low as $49 per user per month)
- Shops that want to start free and add paid seats later
- Estimators who prefer to control every measurement and use AI only for the repetitive counts
STACK is the safer choice for a company replacing its whole estimating process. Togal is the sharper choice for a company that only wants to remove the measuring.
If you would rather not click at all
Both products above put an estimator in the tool for the first pass, whether tracing in STACK or steering the AI in Togal. Pilars takes the plan set and the spec book, reads them together in minutes with nobody drawing or clicking, and returns quantities with a confidence score and a sheet reference on each line.
The estimator still has the last word. Every detection can be opened and edited (swap a device type, delete a false count, add a missed one, redraw an area) and the totals recalculate. The saving is that the estimator starts from a finished draft, not that the estimator is removed.
Scope is the second difference. Togal is architectural-first and STACK documents its symbol-count AI as limited to electrical sheets; Pilars covers 19 trades from one upload, including plumbing, HVAC and fire protection. Price is the third, and it is not a saving: $300 per user per month, where a user is one estimator on one trade with unlimited takeoffs, billed monthly or annually. That is level with Togal's $299 and with STACK's "as low as $299", and STACK's free version costs less than either. An electrical sub with one estimator would spend $3,600 a year however many sets come through the door, and a contractor covering two trades needs two users at $600 a month. Pilars does not build your proposal, so a shop that wants STACK's estimate-to-proposal workflow would still keep an estimating tool next to it.
On accuracy there is one published test to point to: duplex receptacle counts on one real power plan, where Pilars scored 97.5%, Togal 84% and STACK 72%. Pilars ran it, so the method is laid out on the benchmark page for you to judge. See also Pilars vs Togal and Pilars vs STACK.
Questions estimators actually ask
Togal vs STACK: which is better if I only need quantities and already price in Excel?
Togal is the more direct fit for a shop that only needs quantities, because Togal is takeoff only and includes unlimited AI takeoffs for $299 per user per month billed annually. STACK also includes estimating and proposal tools that an Excel-based shop may never use, although the free version of STACK is worth a look at low bid volume.
Is STACK cheaper than Togal?
STACK can be cheaper because STACK has a free version and lists Takeoff and Estimate at as low as $299 per user per month. Togal is a flat $299 per user per month billed annually with AI included, while STACK Floor Plan AI is a paid add-on with no published price.
Does STACK have AI takeoff like Togal?
STACK has AI assist features called STACK Assist that automate door, window and symbol counts, wall takeoffs and room areas. STACK documents Symbol Counting AI as currently limited to electrical plan sheets, and Floor Plan AI is sold as an add-on, whereas Togal includes its AI in the base seat.
What is the difference between Togal and STACK?
Togal is an AI takeoff tool with no estimating, built to produce quantities quickly. STACK is a cloud takeoff and estimating platform with proposals, where the estimator measures on screen and AI features assist with specific tasks.
What is STACK IQ and does Togal have something similar?
STACK IQ is a connector that lets AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot operate STACK, and STACK includes it in all paid subscriptions. Togal offers chat prompts and AI plan search inside its own product but does not list an equivalent connector.
Can a plumbing or HVAC contractor use Togal or STACK for automatic counts?
Togal lists architectural and interior trades plus electrical as its focus, and STACK documents its Symbol Counting AI as available only on electrical plan sheets. A plumbing or HVAC contractor can measure manually in STACK, since neither Togal nor STACK documents automatic fixture or equipment counts for those trades.
Is there an alternative to Togal and STACK that covers MEP trades automatically?
Pilars takes off 19 trades, including plumbing, HVAC and fire protection, and runs the first pass automatically in minutes, with every detection editable by the estimator. Pilars costs $300 per user per month for one trade with unlimited takeoffs, billed monthly or annually, which is about the same as a Togal seat. On one published duplex receptacle test Pilars scored 97.5% against 84% for Togal and 72% for STACK.