How to Turn a PDF Plan Set Into an Estimate in CostKit

If a general contractor sends you a plan set, you no longer have to retype the schedules into your estimate by hand. Upload the PDF and CostKit reads the parts of the drawings that are written down — the title block, the schedules, and noted quantities — and fills in your estimate for you to review. Here is exactly how it works, and just as importantly, what it does not do.

What it actually does

CostKit is a pre-estimating reader, not an automatic takeoff engine. It pulls the information that is stated on the sheets:

• The title block — project name and location.
• Schedules — fixture, panel, luminaire, door/window, and finish schedules, plus solar module and inverter counts. It reads each row and cites the sheet it came from.
• Noted quantities — counts and areas that are written on the plans.

It then prefills your new-estimate form with those quantities as scope notes, so your priced, phase-by-phase estimate starts from what the plans say instead of a blank page.

What it does not do

It does not count symbols off the drawings or measure wire and conduit runs. If a device count only exists as symbols on a floor plan — not summarized in a schedule — CostKit will tell you it couldn’t read it and that you need to do that takeoff by hand. That honesty is the point: every number it gives you is a first pass you review, never a final answer you send blind.

Step by step

1. Start a new estimate and choose Upload plans (PDF) at the top of step one.
2. Pick your plan PDF — up to 10 MB and 100 pages. Export just the sheets for your trade if the full set is larger.
3. CostKit reads the document and prefills the project type, name, location, and square footage where they’re stated, and lists the quantities it found (with the sheet each came from) in your scope notes.
4. Review every field and quantity. The card also shows a “not readable” list — the things you need to fill in yourself, like unmeasured runs.
5. Fill in anything missing, then generate. Your reviewed quantities flow into a full estimate priced with current labor and material data for your region.

Which plans work best

Anything with real schedules or a bill of materials is where this shines — solar permit sets (module, inverter, and optimizer counts), electrical sets with fixture and panel schedules, and door/window/finish schedules on architectural sheets. Clean vector PDFs read best; low-resolution scans still work but CostKit will flag the pages it’s less sure about so you know where to double-check.

Try it

Plan upload is available on every plan, including the free tier. Create an account, start a new estimate, and upload a plan set you’re quoting this week. Treat the first run as a test on a job you already know well — that’s the fastest way to see where it saves you time and where your own eye is still the check.