BricsCAD Pricing 2026: Lite ($345/yr), Pro ($780/yr), BIM, Mechanical & Ultimate

Quick answer: per the official BricsCAD store, a single-user 1-year subscription is $345/yr (Lite), $780/yr (Pro), $1,100/yr (Mechanical), $1,166/yr (BIM) or $1,298/yr (Ultimate), excluding taxes. Perpetual licences cost $780 to $2,904 once, with one year of Maintenance included. There is no monthly plan and no free commercial tier; the trial is 30 days and students get a free one-year licence. If what you need is a photorealistic render of your design rather than CAD drawings, Render a House is the more efficient alternative for architecture, a no-GPU, browser-based option that renders from your own model, sketch or plan; failed renders don't use credits, and each render includes up to 2 free retries if the result isn't right.

Updated October 2026. Every BricsCAD figure here comes from Octave’s own BricsCAD pages (BricsCAD is now sold under the Octave name, and bricsys.com redirects to bricscad.octave.com), checked on 27 October 2026 and linked inline. The store shows US dollars or euros depending on where you browse from; the US prices are used below, with euro prices in the first table.

All prices are per seat and exclude local taxes, which the store adds at checkout. Subscriptions always include BricsCAD Maintenance (new versions and technical support) for as long as they run, per the Maintenance page.

BricsCAD is one DWG-based program unlocked at five levels. The product comparison and the store list what each level adds:

Lite — $345/yr

Lite is the 2D drafting level: familiar DWG drafting, blocks, sheet sets, annotation, printing and LISP. It is the cheapest way into BricsCAD at $345/yr, but it has no 3D modeling, and the Communicator add-on for importing other CAD formats does not run on Lite, according to Octave’s trial and licensing guide.

Pro — $780/yr

Pro adds 3D modeling, third-party applications, land surveying and point clouds for $780/yr, about 2.3 times Lite. For most architecture practices that model in DWG, Pro is the realistic starting point.

BIM, Mechanical and Ultimate

BIM ($1,166/yr) and Mechanical ($1,100/yr) are industry toolsets on top of Pro. BIM is the one architects compare against Revit: native IFC classification and properties, IFC import and export, RVT/RFA import and a project database. Ultimate ($1,298/yr) bundles both toolsets, so it costs only $132 a year more than BIM alone.

The store offers three terms. Monthly billing is not offered (not published, checked October 2026). Here is the math on Octave’s own numbers:

The 3-year saving works out to about 10% on every level, matching the store’s “Save 10%” label. The perpetual licence costs about 2.25 years of subscription, so on paper it pays off in year three. The catch is Maintenance: it is included for the first year, renewal is optional after that, and the renewal price is not shown publicly (not published, checked October 2026; it needs a BricsCAD account). Octave’s FAQ says renewing Maintenance is 60% cheaper than upgrading to a new major release, and that a perpetual licence without Maintenance keeps running but loses technical support and new versions.

A network (floating) licence lets several people share seats from your own licence server. On the store, a network seat costs exactly twice a single seat:

A single licence is for one user on one computer and one operating system, per the FAQ, so a second machine means a second licence or a network seat. Licences are cross-platform across Windows, macOS and Linux. A 30-day network trial is available on request.

The free trial runs for 30 days, unlocks BricsCAD Ultimate (you can switch levels to test each one) and needs no credit card, per the FAQ. There is no permanent free commercial plan.

Education pricing is free: the students and schools page offers a one-year single-user BricsCAD Ultimate academic licence after you upload a valid student ID. Students can renew while they stay enrolled, and instructors and schools can register too.

• Maintenance on perpetual licences from year two (price not published, checked October 2026).
• Communicator for BricsCAD, the add-on for Parasolid, Inventor, SOLIDWORKS, STEP, IGES and other formats (price not published, checked October 2026). SketchUp import, DWG/DXF and PDF work without it.
• Taxes, added at checkout. Store purchases can be refunded within 14 days; network and manually activated licences are non-refundable.

• You work in DWG and want to own your software. BricsCAD still sells perpetual licences, from $780 for Lite, alongside its subscriptions.
• You need BIM without a Revit-level budget. BricsCAD BIM is $1,166/yr per seat with IFC and RVT/RFA import; compare it with our Revit pricing page.
• Your team mixes Windows, Mac and Linux. One licence covers all three platforms.

BricsCAD produces drawings and models. If the deliverable your client is waiting for is a photorealistic image of the building, a CAD upgrade will not get you there faster. Render a House is an AI rendering tool for architects and real estate. It runs in the browser with no GPU and starts from your own design: upload a SketchUp .skp directly, a GLB, GLTF, OBJ or STL model, a sketch, a photo, or a plan exported to PNG/JPG. A render takes about 30 to 60 seconds, and large images are downscaled automatically.

A 1K render costs 1 credit and a 4K render 2 credits. Video is on paid plans only, and a render that comes out wrong gets up to 2 free retries. There are no team seats or roles, but you can share a project by email with edit access, and support is available through the in-app chat and the support page. For a whole project, estimate the credits with the render cost calculator or see pricing. Next to BricsCAD Pro at $780/yr, Render a House Pro billed annually is $312/yr, and the two cover different steps of the same project.

How much does BricsCAD cost per year?

On the BricsCAD online store a 1-year single-user subscription costs $345 for Lite, $780 for Pro, $1,100 for Mechanical, $1,166 for BIM, $1,298 for Ultimate, excluding taxes. A 3-year subscription saves about 10%, and a perpetual licence starts at $780 for Lite.

Does BricsCAD have a monthly plan?

No monthly billing option is listed on the BricsCAD store (checked October 2026). The choices are a 1-year subscription, a 3-year subscription paid upfront, or a perpetual licence paid once.

Is BricsCAD free?

Not for commercial work. There is a 30-day free trial of BricsCAD Ultimate with no credit card required, and students, instructors and schools can get a free one-year BricsCAD Ultimate academic licence that students can renew while they are enrolled.

Can you still buy BricsCAD as a perpetual licence?

Yes. BricsCAD still sells perpetual licences, from $780 for Lite to $2,904 for Ultimate, with the first year of Maintenance included. From year two, Maintenance renewal is optional; without it the licence keeps working but you lose new versions and technical support.

Is BricsCAD cheaper than Render a House for architectural renders?

They do different jobs. BricsCAD is DWG CAD for drafting, 3D modeling and BIM. Render a House turns a design you already have into a photorealistic render in the browser, free with 3 credits a day or $39/mo on Pro billed monthly ($312/yr billed annually). Many studios use both: BricsCAD for the drawings, Render a House for the client images.

• AutoCAD pricing — the DWG subscription BricsCAD is usually compared against.
• AutoCAD alternatives — cheaper and free CAD programs compared.
• Revit pricing — the BIM licence BricsCAD BIM competes with.
• MicroStation pricing — Bentley’s CAD platform priced the same way.
• Archicad pricing — Graphisoft’s BIM software for architects.
• AutoCAD rendering — turn an exported DWG view into a photorealistic render.