Autodesk’s Revit is the most widely used BIM tool among architects, engineers and construction (AEC) industry professionals. Packed with powerful features, it makes designing buildings and collaborating on plans easier and more efficient. 

But getting access to all those features doesn’t come cheap. Licences for Revit cost a lot - you can typically expect to pay in the region of $2,900 for a full annual subscription. 

In 2021, Revit announced a new licensing model called Flex. This pay-as-you-go approach can significantly save on your Revit subscription bill. And we estimate that today about 15% of all Revit users have a Flex license. 

To decide if it’s right for you, we’ve crunched the numbers to show how you can use Flex licenses to cut your Revit costs. 

What does a Revit subscription cost?

A standard Revit subscription will cost you in the region of $3,000 per year. The exact amount you pay varies depending on a number of factors, such as:

• How many licenses you purchase (discounts may be available for larger orders)
• How long your subscribe for (multi-year subscriptions costs less than Revit’s monthly cost)
• What country you’re in

What exactly is Revit Flex?

Revit Flex is a pay-as-you-go licensing model for Revit. To use Revit Flex, you buy tokens to get access to Revit. For a single 24-hour pass, the token costs $30. 

Revit Flex is a popular option

Flex licensing is a relatively new way of using Revit. Despite only being on the market since 2021, it has already gained a lot of traction. 

We did a snap poll in the 500,000-strong Revit Users LinkedIn group to find out how many organisations use this model. 

We asked members of the group “What percentage of your Revit users have an Autodesk Flex license (as opposed to subscriptions)?”. The results showed strong early adoption for this model:

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It’s important to note that our sample size was small - we only received 67 responses. 

Nonetheless, the results show there is clearly interest in this model among AEC firms. Overall, 39% of people who responded worked at a company that uses Revit Flex. 

LinkedIn allows us to analyse the data in a little more detail to identify trends:

• Large companies are leading the charge: A significant 60% of companies with over 500 employees were using Revit Flex, compared to the average of 39%. This is likely to do with the more structured approach that large companies take towards IT purchasing strategy. 

• Regional trends: Revit Flex appears more popular in North America and APAC, where around 50% of companies use Revit Flex, compared to 39% of firms in Europe. 

• Vertical trends: Civil engineering companies appear to have a particularly high adoption of Revit Flex (57%), followed by architecture (42%) and construction (35%).

Based on an analysis of the data, we estimate that about 15% of all users are on Flex. 

How much can Flex licenses save on your Revit cost?

The exact amount that Flex licenses can save on your Revit cost per year will vary depending on how much you use them. But we estimate that many companies could save in the region of $500 per user per year by shifting some of them to Flex licenses. 

Flex licenses are a little like day passes at a golf course. Costing $30 per day, they’re ideal for occasional or short term users. On the other hand, full annual or multi-year Revit subscriptions are like membership at a golf club. They cost a lot more up front, but work out cheaper if used every single day. 

So, how do you decide if you should use Flex licenses? We’ve crunched the numbers to find out. 

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Our calculations show that Flex licenses will reduce your company’s Revit costs if you give them to employees who use the software for less than 100 days per year. 

When would Flex licenses save you money?

Flex licenses can definitely reduce many companies’ Revit costs. 

To decide if you’d be better off using Revit Flex, the most important thing to do is to study your usage data. From your Revit account, admins can export usage data and work out very quickly how many days individual employees are using their Revit licence every year. 

You might be surprised by what you see. 

Many employees who have full Revit licenses will actually be using the software far less often than would justify paying the full Revit cost. If your historical data shows that individual users consistently open Revit for less than 100 days per year, it’s time to shift them over to Flex licenses. 

Flex should be the de facto option for some types of workers

Revit Flex should also be your standard option for certain types of workers. Examples include:

• Contractors: If you are using contractors on projects that last less than four months, then Flex licenses are a far cheaper option than paying the full Revit subscription cost. 

• Part time employees: If any of your designers are on part time contracts (say two days per week), then Flex licenses will be cheaper in most cases. 

• Occasional Revit users: Most AEC companies will have numerous employees who only use Revit occasionally - Flex licenses are best for them. This could be project managers, salespeople, or even design department managers (who spend more time in meetings than in ‘the trenches’ doing design work). 

• Temporary workers: Any students, interns or temp staff who are only joining your company for a few weeks do not need a full Revit subscription - Flex is usually best for them. 

Cut Revit costs further with DaaS

We estimate that many AEC companies could save hundreds of dollars per user, per year, by shifting to Flex licenses. And you can cut those costs even further by using Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS). 

With the DaaS model, you ‘rent’ a powerful BIM/CAD computer which is accessed over the internet. Users simply login using any device (including personal laptops or standard office desktops). They then launch their Revit Flex licenses and can begin working immediately. 

The DaaS model for CAD and BIM can save AEC firms significant sums of money. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for high-spec machines with a high total cost of ownership, DaaS provides very low pay-as-you-go rates (typically around $2 per hour). We estimate that, when used annually, this works out at $1000 per user per year: twice of what you save with Revit licenses. This makes DaaS the ideal option for Revit Flex license users. 

In the bonus section we have included a detailed calculation to explain how we have arrived at this number. 

Stop overpaying to use BIM and CAD 

Until relatively recently, AEC businesses often had no choice but to pay maximum fees to use BIM and CAD software - even if many of their users didn’t actually need their licenses full time. 

However, thanks to new pricing models like Autodesk Flex, it’s much easier to reduce your company’s Revit costs. And, when combined with DaaS solutions that remove your hardware fees, there’s simply no reason for anyone to pay more.

Bonus section: How much can Desktop as a service save?

Just like with Flex licenses, your savings with Desktop As a Service will vary depending on the usage pattern. But we estimate that many companies could save an additional $1000 per user per year by shifting the Flex licenses also to Desktop-as-a-Service. 

We came to this conclusion as follows: the total monthly cost of owning a workstation for Revit is $323 per month - regardless of how much or little the workstation is in use. 

The monthly cost for Desktop-as-a-service for a similar workstation running in the cloud is $2 per hour, and $30 per user, per month. Since each “Flex” user is working a maximum of 100 hours per month on Revit, their monthly maximum spend for Desktop as a Service is 100 times $2, plus $30 for the monthly fee. The maximum monthly is therefore $230, or about $100 less per month in comparison to the $323 for the workstation.