Intuitive Takeoff vs OpenTakeoff
Intuitive Takeoff
intuitivetakeoff.comOpenTakeoff
opentakeoff.kentucky-ai.comSide by side
| Figure | Intuitive Takeoff | OpenTakeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $22.92/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Construction Takeoff Software | 8.5 (#12) | 8.6 (#11) |
| Documentation depth | User-manual pages document page management, grouping, OCR passes and revision comparison workflows. | The repository provides separate user and agent manuals, an MCP reference, changelog, feature map, wiki and contributor guidance. |
| Exports | Projects export annotated PDFs, configurable Excel and CSV files, plus branded quotes, RFQs and invoices. | The app exports CSV, Excel and marked PDF files. |
| Intended users | The product is presented for general contractors, civil contractors, estimators, and project managers. | The privacy policy says the service is intended for construction professionals and developers, not children under 13. |
| Purpose | Intuitive Takeoff measures lengths, areas, and counts from construction plans and supports pricing from saved rates. | OpenTakeoff is a construction takeoff engine for measuring quantities from building plans, with a browser canvas for people and an MCP server for AI agents. |
| Support | The maker says its support team can help with technical questions and workflow advice. | Users can contact Michael Edlin by email or open a support issue; the policy notes that GitHub issues are public. |
| What it does | Intuitive Takeoff measures construction-plan lengths, areas and counts, prices them from saved rates, and produces reports. | OpenTakeoff measures construction-plan quantities for human estimators in a browser canvas and for AI agents through MCP. |
Plans
Intuitive Takeoff
- Standard$25 a month
- Advanced$50 a month
- Standard$275 a year
- Advanced$550 a year
In their own words
Intuitive Takeoff
Intuitive Takeoff is a Windows application for measuring lengths, areas and counts from construction plans, then pricing work with saved rates. Its 2D workspace groups and aligns sheets, assembles pages by match line and compares revisions with overlays. Nineteen markup types include clouds, callouts, dimensions, stamps and signatures. Exports include annotated PDF, Excel and CSV, with branded quotes and invoices available. The Utilities & Civil module models connected pipe networks and calculates elevations, depth, slope and trench quantities. Smart Plan Detection names sheets, classifies pages, parses indexes and detects schedule tables locally. The Advanced plan adds a Claude connector that can build takeoff items and reference schedule data, but not draw pipe runs, edit placed-run hydraulics or set trench profiles. Plans render locally without uploads. Standard costs $25 a month; Advanced costs $50 a month.
OpenTakeoff
OpenTakeoff measures quantities from building plans through a browser canvas for people and an MCP server for AI agents. Its browser app opens PDF, PNG, JPEG and ZIP plan files, processing them locally without an account or plan upload. Measurements include square feet, square yards, linear feet and each, with waste-adjusted order quantities, supporting-material lists and roll-goods cuts. Exports include CSV, Excel, JSON, PDF and DXF. Drawing OCR is supported. The MCP server runs through `npx -y opentakeoff-mcp` and works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other stdio MCP clients; agent measurements need a person’s approval in the browser canvas. The default workspace keeps plans, measurements, annotations, materials and project settings in browser storage on the device. Optional connections include Google Drive, Microsoft 365, configured AI providers and a scanned-schedule service that can send a selected image to Google Gemini. OpenTakeoff is free, with no account required, and Apache-2.0 licensed. It runs on web, Linux, macOS and Windows, with an API and self-hosting options. One-Click Area is temporarily gated, and the default MCP build does not register room-detection verbs.