Accurate and faster estimates at your fingertips

Upload your drawings.
Get every line item.

Truecost reads your plans, extracts every quantity, and builds a trade-level estimate with labour hours, material specs, and live Australian supplier rates. Here's exactly what happens.

1
Upload

Drop in your plans

Upload your PDF plans — architectural, engineering, finishes schedules, whatever you have. Truecost works with any level of documentation. The more you upload, the tighter the accuracy band.

Any level of plan

Concept sketches to full construction sets. Truecost adjusts its assumptions based on what's available.

Quality level selector

Choose Investor grade, Standard, High, or Luxury finishes to calibrate material specs and services.

Optional engineering and finishes schedule

Upload separately or Truecost detects from your building plans.

Drop your building plans

PDF files up to 20MB

PDF
Architectural_Plans_v3.pdf8.2 MB
PDF
Structural_Engineering.pdf4.7 MB
PDF
Finishes_Schedule.pdf1.3 MB

Processing your plans

38 min estimate
Measuring all items

Every element measured — linear, area, and volumetric

Extracting quantities

Quantities compiled into a structured takeoff

Understanding building methodologies

Interpreting how elements are built...

Generating line items

Every item required for the build

Applying live rates

Australian supplier rates & location adjustment

We'll email you when it's ready

2
Process

Truecost reads every page

The system ingests your entire document set, measuring all items, extracting quantities, understanding building methodologies to create every line item required for the build.

Measuring all items

Every element across your document set is measured — linear, area, and volumetric.

Extracting quantities

Quantities pulled from every page and compiled into a structured takeoff.

Understanding building methodologies

The system interprets how elements are built to generate every line item required for the build.

3
Review

Explore your estimate

Your estimate lands in an interactive dashboard. Browse by trade, element, or location. Expand any trade to see every line item — labour hours, material quantities, unit rates, and cost types. Edit anything.

View at every level

Summarise and view detail by trade, element, sub task and location. See costs the way you think about them.

Fully editable

Click any row to adjust quantities, rates, or scope. The estimate recalculates in real time.

123 Demo Street, Melbourne

525.92 m² · New Build
$1,876,281
Trade View
Element View
Location View
Demolition
32 items
$192/m²
$100,761
Windows ▾
9 items
$78/m²
$41,173
DescriptionQtyUnitRateTotal
Alum. awning windows — labour10.00hrs$65.00$650 Labour
Alum. awning windows — supply6.00ea$820.00$4,920 Material
Sliding door 2.4m — supply & install3.00ea$2,100$6,300 Material
Insulation
20 items
$49/m²
$25,863

Interactive dashboard

Keep exploring online. Filter, sort, edit, and compare estimates over time.

XLS

Export to Excel

Download every line or at a summary level. Trade breakdown, labour summary, material list and equipment schedule.

4
Export

Export what you need

Export your estimate into Excel or explore within the dashboard. Use it for client proposals, subcontractor scoping, or internal review. Everything your QS would give you.

More drawings, more accuracy

Accuracy scales with input completeness.

Architectural only
±10–15%

Good for feasibility checks and qualifying leads. Upload a floor plan and get a ballpark in 40 minutes.

  • Floor plans
  • Elevations
+ Engineering
±6–9%

Structural and services drawings sharpen quantities. Suitable for tender submissions.

  • Floor plans + elevations
  • Structural drawings
  • Services layout
Most accurate
Full drawing set
±5–8%

Complete documentation narrows the band to near-QS accuracy. Every assumption validated.

  • Floor plans + elevations
  • Structural + services
  • Finishes schedule
  • Specifications

Frequently asked questions

Truecost works with any level of input. Architectural plans alone produce an estimate accurate to ±10–15%. Add engineering drawings and a finishes schedule to narrow the accuracy band to ±5–8%.

Every line item is editable. Adjust quantities, rates, or assumptions and the estimate recalculates in real time. You can also delete entire trades, locations or elements or add line items manually.

Credits are valid for 12 months from purchase. Use them at your own pace — no monthly pressure. If you have a quiet month, your credits are still there when work picks up.

One credit = one full project estimate. That includes the interactive estimate dashboard, editable versions of the original estimate, Excel exports, trade-level line items, labour forecast, material list, and equipment schedule. All for a single project upload.

Accuracy scales with input completeness. Architectural plans only: ±10–15%. With engineering drawings: ±6–9%. Full set including finishes: ±5–8%. Our estimates have been validated within $10–15K of manual QS pricing on live projects.

You’ll gain instant access to the platform and can immediately start generating estimates.

See it for yourself

Explore a real Truecost estimate with full trade breakdowns, line items, and material lists. Or run your own plans.