Autodesk Inventor Pricing 2026: Inventor Professional and the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection

Inventor is a subscription. Autodesk publishes four ways to pay for it: monthly, annual, a three-year term, and pay-per-day Flex tokens. The collection is sold on the same monthly, annual and three-year terms.

Autodesk states the Inventor numbers in its own words on the Inventor overview FAQ: the subscription costs $320 monthly, $2,585 annually, or $7,755 for three years. The Flex rate comes from the Inventor buy page, which lists Inventor at 8 tokens a day, and the Autodesk Flex page, which sells tokens starting at $99 for 33. The collection page lists no Flex option, so Flex users pay for each product they open, day by day.

Two quick reads of that table. First, the "$216 a month" figure in Autodesk's headline is an annual commitment divided by twelve; paying month to month costs $320, which is 48% more. Second, the gap between Inventor alone and the full collection is only $790 a year on annual billing, so the collection is worth pricing before you buy a single Inventor seat.

Inventor Professional is Autodesk's 3D mechanical design software for engineers and product designers. Autodesk describes it as a tool for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization and documentation, used to build a virtual model of a product and validate its form, fit and function before it is manufactured.

What the seat includes

The Inventor overview page lists the main capabilities a subscription unlocks:

• Parametric, direct, freeform and rules-based modeling in one application.
• Specialized machine-design tools: sheet metal, frame design, tube and pipe, and cable and harness.
• Model-Based Definition, so dimensions and tolerances can live on the 3D model rather than only on 2D drawings.
• Dynamic simulation, plus component generators and calculators for parts such as shafts, gears and fasteners.
• Multi-CAD translation for non-native data and native DWG drawings.
• Autodesk Assistant inside Inventor Professional, which Autodesk says can help find information, explain processes, automate tasks and generate renders, exports and documentation.

The license terms matter as much as the feature list. According to Autodesk's Inventor FAQ, a subscription lets you install Inventor on up to three computers, but only the named user can sign in, and only on one computer at a time. It also gives access to the three previous versions, which is useful when a supplier or customer is still on an older release.

What happened to Inventor LT

There is no cheaper Inventor tier for new buyers. Autodesk's Inventor LT page states that new subscriptions to Inventor LT and Inventor LT Suite ended on November 7, 2020, and that there would be no Inventor LT 2022 release. Existing perpetual LT licenses keep working at their current version. For new buyers, Autodesk points to Fusion as the similar-priced alternative, or to Inventor Professional when a customer requires native Inventor files.

That is why "Autodesk Inventor Professional" and "Autodesk Inventor" now mean the same purchase. Any price you find for Inventor LT is a legacy renewal price, not something you can buy today.

The Product Design & Manufacturing Collection (often shortened to PDMC) is Autodesk's industry bundle for mechanical engineers. Autodesk describes it as a set of extended capabilities for Inventor, Fusion and AutoCAD for engineers who design complex and custom products, equipment and systems.

Autodesk's included-software page groups the products into three workflows. The same product appears in more than one group; you get each product once.

The collection FAQ on the overview page gives the full product list as Inventor, AutoCAD, Fusion, Navisworks Manage, 3ds Max, Vault Basic, ReCap Pro, Factory Design Utilities, Inventor CAM, Inventor Nastran, Inventor Tolerance Analysis, Autodesk Drive and Autodesk Rendering. Autodesk does not publish standalone prices for most of the Inventor add-ins on that page, so the only clean way to value the bundle is against the products it does price separately.

Yes, as soon as you need a second Autodesk product. The collection page shows its own comparison against three standalone subscriptions, and the 3ds Max price comes from the 3ds Max buy page:

Autodesk's comparison shows a saving of $4,140 a year against those three products. The more realistic test is smaller: if you need Inventor plus just one more priced product, the collection already wins. Inventor plus AutoCAD is $4,680 a year on separate subscriptions; Inventor plus 3ds Max is $4,595. Both are more than $1,200 above the collection's $3,375.

The collection is not worth it if Inventor is the only Autodesk product anyone on the seat opens. In that case you are paying $790 a year for tools you will not use. Check what the team actually launches before renewing: if AutoCAD is the only other product anyone uses, that single need already covers the difference.

The annual term is the cheapest commitment for most buyers, and the three-year term does not save money on Inventor. Here is the math for one Inventor seat over three years:

On Inventor, the three-year term costs exactly three annual payments. What it buys is a fixed price for three years, paid upfront, instead of two more renewals at whatever the list price is then. On the collection, the three-year term saves $5 in total. Neither is a discount worth locking cash up for unless your finance team values the fixed price.

Monthly billing makes sense for a contract that will last a few months. Twelve monthly payments come to $3,840, so a full year on monthly billing costs $1,255 more than the annual plan.

Inventor on Flex tokens

Flex is Autodesk's pay-as-you-go option. You prepay for tokens, and each day you open Inventor uses 8 of them. Autodesk's Flex page lists 33 tokens for $99 and 500 tokens for $1,500, which works out to $3 a token at both sizes, and states that tokens expire one year after purchase.

In practice, Flex is the right answer for a manager who reviews models a few days a month, or for a contractor who opens Inventor only when a customer sends a native file. Anyone in Inventor more than about two days a week should be on a subscription. Autodesk notes that tokens are used each day a product is open, so closing Inventor at the end of a session matters.

Inventor has two free routes, and neither covers commercial work.

1. A 30-day free trial. Autodesk offers a 30-day trial of Inventor from the product page. The trial converts to a paid subscription from the trial screen.
2. Free educational access. Autodesk's education software page offers students, educators and school IT administrators free access to Autodesk products. Once eligibility is confirmed, access lasts one year and renews while you remain eligible.

The educational terms are strict: software under an educational license may be used only for educational purposes and not for commercial, professional or any other for-profit work. A student who freelances on a customer part needs a commercial seat or Flex tokens for that job.

There is no one-time purchase. Autodesk sells Inventor only as a subscription or on Flex, so budget it as a recurring cost for as long as you need to open native Inventor files.

The subscription is the floor of an Inventor budget. Two costs sit outside it for most product teams: images for people who do not read CAD, and the machine that runs it.

Product rendering and marketing images

Inventor is built to prove that a part fits and works. Marketing, sales and crowdfunding pages need something else: a photoreal product shot, a lifestyle scene, a material variant. Inventor has visualization tools of its own, but teams that ship a lot of product imagery usually add one of the options below.

The comparison that matters is per seat. A dedicated renderer is a second license on top of Inventor, and it usually wants the same powerful workstation. A rendering service has no software cost but charges per image and adds turnaround. For a full side-by-side of renderers, see the best product rendering software; for what studios charge, see 3D product rendering services.

Hardware, OS and seats

Inventor runs on Microsoft Windows only, according to Autodesk's Inventor FAQ, so a design team on Macs needs Windows machines before the subscription is usable. Large assemblies and simulation are demanding; Autodesk publishes the current processor, memory and graphics numbers on its Inventor system requirements page.

The seat itself is per named user. One subscription can be installed on three machines, but two engineers cannot share it at the same time. A team of three needs three subscriptions or a Flex pool.

Here is what one year costs for three common setups. Every license line is an Autodesk or Render a House list price; nothing here includes tax, hardware or training.

The pattern is the same as other Autodesk products: the per-seat license dominates, and the cheapest saving is matching the term to how often someone actually opens the software. The AutoCAD pricing guide runs the same math for the drafting seat that often sits beside Inventor, and Revit pricingcovers Autodesk's BIM side.

Render a House is a browser-based rendering tool. It does not model parts, check tolerances or produce drawings; Inventor does that. It covers the step after the model exists, when someone needs a photoreal product image for a website, a pitch deck or a customer review.

The workflow from Inventor takes four steps:

1. Export what you have: a viewport screenshot as PNG or JPG, or a mesh such as STL or OBJ if your workflow already produces one. Render a House accepts PNG, JPG and WebP images and SKP, GLB, GLTF, OBJ and STL models.
2. Upload it in the browser. No GPU, render engine or Windows machine is needed.
3. Describe the scene in plain words: "on a walnut desk, soft morning light, shallow depth of field" or "matte black finish, white studio background."
4. Get the image back in about 30 to 60 seconds, then iterate on materials, lighting or setting with another sentence.

A standard 1K render costs 1 credit and a Pro render costs 2. The free plan gives 3 credits a day at 1K with a watermark, no card. Paid plans are Basic at $19/mo for 120 credits a month, Pro at $39/mo or $312/yr for 240 credits a month, and Studio at $99/mo or $792/yr for 1000 credits a month. Video is on paid plans only. To estimate a month of product shots, use the render cost calculator; full plan details are in the pricing docs.

Pro on the annual plan is $312 a year, about 12% of one Inventor seat. If you want a 3D model to work from rather than a CAD export, the AI 3D model generator turns a product photo into a GLB, and the 3D model viewer opens GLB, OBJ and STL files in the browser. Teams already on KeyShot can use the KeyShot AI enhancer to restyle an existing render.

Render a House is not a CAD tool, and it is the wrong choice for some Inventor deliverables:

• It does not open native Inventor files. IPT and IAM files must be exported to an image or a mesh first.
• It is not dimensionally exact. AI rendering can change small details such as logos, labels, fasteners or proportions. When an image must match the SKU exactly, render from the CAD model in Inventor, 3ds Max or KeyShot, or use the product photo.
• It does not replace engineering visuals. Exploded views, section cuts and assembly instructions belong in Inventor, where they stay linked to the model.
• It does not simulate. Stress, motion and tolerance analysis stay in Inventor, Inventor Nastran and Inventor Tolerance Analysis.

Use it where the job is a convincing scene around a finished design: concept presentations, lifestyle images, colorway explorations and early marketing before a physical prototype exists.

For mechanical design, yes. At $2,585 a year, Inventor Professional gives one engineer parametric modeling, sheet metal, frame, tube and pipe, harness design, simulation and native DWG drawings in one application, with three previous versions included for supplier compatibility. If a customer requires native Inventor data, there is no substitute.

The pricing decisions are narrower than they look:

1. Pick annual billing over monthly unless the need lasts less than about eight months.
2. Move to the collection the moment anyone on the seat also needs AutoCAD or 3ds Max.
3. Put occasional users on Flex instead of a full seat.
4. Do not buy a second heavyweight seat just to make marketing images. Price a renderer, a service, or a browser tool against how many images you actually ship.

If product images are the gap, try Render a House on an exported view with the free credits before committing to anything.

Related guides for the rest of the budget:

• AutoCAD pricing: the drafting seat that most often sits beside Inventor.
• KeyShot pricing and KeyShot system requirements: the dedicated product renderer many Inventor teams add.
• Best product rendering software: renderers for product shots compared on price and workflow.
• 3D product rendering services: what it costs to outsource product images instead.
• Revit pricing and Rhino pricing: the same format for Autodesk's BIM seat and for the modeler you can still buy outright.
• Best rendering software: renderers across architecture and product design.

How much is Autodesk Inventor per year?

Autodesk lists Inventor (sold as Inventor Professional) at $2,585 per year for one user on an annual subscription, shown as $216 a month billed annually. The month-to-month price is $320, and a three-year term is $7,755. Prices are Autodesk US list prices, checked October 2026, before tax.

Is Autodesk Inventor the same as Inventor Professional?

Yes, in practice. Autodesk stopped selling new Inventor LT subscriptions on November 7, 2020, and the Inventor subscription it sells today is the full Inventor Professional product. When the buy page says Inventor, it is the Professional edition.

How much is the Product Design & Manufacturing Collection?

The Autodesk Product Design & Manufacturing Collection is $3,375 per year for one user ($282 a month billed annually), $420 month-to-month, or $10,120 for a three-year term. It includes Inventor, AutoCAD, Fusion, Navisworks Manage, 3ds Max, Vault Basic and more. Checked October 2026.

Is there a free version of Autodesk Inventor?

Not for commercial work. Autodesk offers a 30-day free trial, and eligible students and educators get free educational access for one year, renewable while they remain eligible. Educational licenses cannot be used for commercial or for-profit work.

Can you buy Autodesk Inventor as a one-time purchase?

No. Autodesk sells Inventor as a monthly, annual or three-year subscription, or by the day through Flex tokens. There is no perpetual license on the buy page, checked October 2026.

Do I need extra software to render Inventor models?

Not always. Inventor includes visualization tools, and the collection adds 3ds Max. Teams that need many marketing or lifestyle images often add a dedicated renderer such as KeyShot, outsource to a rendering service, or use a browser tool such as Render a House to place an exported view or model into a photoreal scene.