3ds Max Pricing 2026: Monthly ($255), Annual ($2,010/yr), Indie ($330/yr) & Flex

Quick answer: one 3ds Max user costs $255/month billed monthly or $2,010/year billed annually (shown as $168/month), per Autodesk’s 3ds Max buy page. Three years cost $6,025, paid annually. Pay-per-day Flex starts at $99 for 33 tokens at 6 tokens a day. 3ds Max Indie is $330/year for eligible individuals, the free trial lasts 30 days, and education access is free for a renewable year. If your architectural output is a render from a building design rather than a 3D modeling tool, Render a House is the more efficient alternative for architecture: it renders your own design in the browser with no GPU; failed renders don't use credits, and each render includes up to 2 free retries if the result isn't right.

Updated Oct 2026. Every Autodesk and Chaos figure on this page was read from the vendor’s own pages in October 2026 (US prices in USD, before tax) and is linked inline. Render a House figures come from our live plan configuration.

Autodesk does not publish render credits, output resolution caps or watermarks for any paid 3ds Max plan: every paid tier is the same full application, and the price buys time and one named user. Per the 3ds Max overview, a subscription can be installed on up to three computers, but only the named user can sign in, on one computer at a time. There are no multi-seat bundles on the buy page; each extra person is another subscription. A team plan price is Not published (checked October 2026).

Twelve months at $255 is $3,060. The annual subscription is $2,010, so paying yearly saves $1,050, about 34%. The break-even is short: if you will keep 3ds Max for eight months or more, annual is cheaper than monthly.

The three-year term is $6,025, or about $2,008 a year, essentially the same as three annual renewals at today’s price. Its value is locking that price for three years, not a discount.

Flex is the outlier. At the minimum pack, a token costs $3 and a day of 3ds Max costs $18, according to Autodesk Flex and the buy page. Use it 14 days or fewer in a month and Flex wins; use it more and the monthly plan is cheaper. Tokens expire one year after purchase, so buy only what you will use.

Autodesk’s 3ds Max Indie page says Indie has the same features and functionality as full 3ds Max. The Buy button leads to Autodesk’s checkout, which listed $330 for a one-year term in the US, $1,680 a year less than the standard annual subscription.

The limits are about who you are, not what the software can do: annual gross revenue from creative work under $100,000 USD (the threshold varies by country), projects valued at no more than $100,000 USD, and one license per user or organization. Indie is an annual subscription only, has no free trial of its own, and does not cover freelance work for a client above the revenue threshold.

There is no free commercial plan. The 3ds Max free trial runs for 30 days with all capabilities of the latest version, and the buy page adds a 30-day return policy on annual and multi-year subscriptions and 15 days on monthly ones.

Students, educators and school IT administrators at qualified institutions get free educational access for one year, renewable while they remain eligible. Autodesk is explicit that education licenses may not be used for commercial, professional or other for-profit work, so graduating into paid projects means moving to Indie or a standard subscription. A discounted paid student plan is Not published (checked October 2026).

The subscription covers modeling, animation and rendering, and the overview lists Arnold integration. Most architectural visualization studios still add a Chaos renderer, which is billed separately per license:

Prices and credits are from Chaos’s V-Ray and Corona buy pages, exclude taxes and carry a 14-day money-back guarantee. Solo is a named license; Premium and Collection are floating.

A realistic single-seat arch-viz stack is therefore $2,010 + $540 = $2,550 a year with V-Ray Solo, or $2,424 with Corona Solo. On Indie, the same stack drops to $870 or $744.

Hardware is the other hidden cost. The 3ds Max overview lists Windows 10 and Windows 11 only, so Mac users need a Windows machine, and production rendering runs on your own workstation, which you pay for on top of the licenses.

3ds Max makes sense when you build and own the scene: detailed modeling, animation, a renderer you control down to the material, and a pipeline other studios expect. If that is your job every day, the annual plan, or Indie if you qualify, is the rational way to pay.

It is a lot of software if what you need is a convincing image of a building you already designed elsewhere. Render a House is an AI rendering tool for architects and real estate. It runs in the browser with no GPU and renders from your own design: upload a SketchUp .skp file directly, a GLB, GLTF, OBJ or STL model, a sketch, a photo, or a plan exported to PNG or JPG, and a render comes back in about 30 to 60 seconds.

The free plan gives 3 credits a day at 1K with a watermark and no card. Pro is $39/mo billed monthly or $312/yr billed annually ($26/mo). A standard 1K render costs 1 credit and a 4K render, available on Pro, costs 2 credits. Video is on paid plans only. A bad render gets up to two free retries, and support is via in-app chat and the support page. There are no team seats or roles, but projects can be shared by email with edit access. It will not replace 3ds Max for animation or material-level control, but for a client-ready still it replaces the license, the renderer and the workstation.

Estimate a project with the render cost calculator or compare plans on the pricing page.

How much does 3ds Max cost per month?

Autodesk’s 3ds Max buy page lists $255/month on a monthly subscription, or $168/month paid annually, which is $2,010/year for one user. A three-year term is $6,025 for one user, paid annually.

Is there a free version of 3ds Max?

There is no free commercial plan. Autodesk offers a 30-day free trial of the full product, and free one-year educational access, renewable while eligible, for students and educators at qualified institutions. Educational licenses cannot be used for commercial or for-profit work.

Who can buy 3ds Max Indie?

Autodesk says Indie is for individuals with annual gross revenue under $100,000 USD from creative work, on projects valued at no more than $100,000 USD, with one license per user or organization. It has the same features as full 3ds Max, is sold as an annual subscription only ($330 for a one-year term in Autodesk’s US checkout), and has no free trial of its own.

Does 3ds Max include V-Ray or Corona?

No. V-Ray and Corona are Chaos products sold separately. Billed annually, V-Ray Solo is $540/year and Corona Solo is $414/year per license on Chaos’s buy pages, before taxes. Autodesk lists Arnold integration as part of 3ds Max.

Is 3ds Max cheaper with Autodesk Flex?

Only for occasional use. Flex tokens start at $99 for 33 tokens and 3ds Max uses 6 tokens a day, about $18 per day of use. Above 14 days in a month, the $255 monthly subscription is cheaper. Tokens expire one year after purchase.

Is there a cheaper way to render an architectural design without 3ds Max?

If the goal is a photorealistic image of a design you already modeled, Render a House renders a SketchUp, GLB, GLTF, OBJ or STL model, sketch or photo in the browser with no GPU. It starts free with 3 credits a day at 1K with a watermark, and Pro is $39/mo billed monthly or $312/yr billed annually.

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