Frequently asked questions

You describe a project — the type of work, where it's located, square footage, finish level, and any scope notes — and CostKit generates a complete, phase-by-phase estimate with line items, labor, materials, overhead, and contingency in under 60 seconds. Free PDFs include the CostKit watermark; Starter and above remove it.

Most estimates complete in 8–15 seconds. The slowest first PDF download after an idle period can take 3–5 seconds for the rendering service to warm up; subsequent PDFs are near-instant.

Yes, on paid plans. You can adjust quantities, unit costs, and descriptions, add or remove line items, tweak overhead and contingency percentages, and change the project name, client name, location, duration, summary, notes, and phases. The estimate recalculates automatically, and your PDF and client link update when you save. Free-plan users get the generated estimate as-is.

CostKit covers residential general contracting, remodeling, roofing, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, painting, concrete and flatwork, siding, drywall, framing, and demolition. If you can describe the scope of work, the AI adapts the phase structure to your trade.

Yes, on every plan. Upload your logo in Settings and it appears on every estimate PDF you generate. Free PDFs also carry the CostKit watermark, which paid plans remove. Custom colors, fonts, and section visibility are available on the Pro plan via the template builder.

Our pricing model layers several sources. We start with a published cost reference used by professional estimators. On top of that we use current US government data on construction labor wages by trade and state, and current material producer price index data so prices reflect this year, not the year the reference was printed. We also incorporate climate-zone requirements, flood and wind-zone construction overhead, and regional labor-market signals (residential building permit activity) so a hot Texas market doesn't get priced the same as a soft Ohio market. Finally — and this is the part that compounds over time — contractors who use CostKit can record what a job actually cost when they finished it, and those anonymized outcomes feed back into the pricing model.

CostKit creates a first-pass estimate for contractor review. The internal benchmark checks synthetic scenarios against reference-derived ranges, not completed-job invoices. We do not yet publish a validated final-cost error rate or confidence interval. A reference citation means the AI selected a supplied reference, not that the price is independently verified. Confirm scope, quantities, local labor costs, and supplier quotes before committing to a bid. Read the methodology at costkit.ai/estimate-accuracy.

A general-purpose chatbot can produce a number when you describe a project, but it has no idea what materials cost in your zip code, no way to enforce a real phase structure, and no mechanism to ground its output in current market data. The result is a confident-sounding paragraph that's wrong in ways you'll only catch after you bid the job.

CostKit is currently tuned for residential and light-commercial work — single-family homes, multi-family up to about 12 units, small office build-outs, and trade-specific projects in those segments. Heavy commercial, industrial, and civil work need different cost models and aren't covered yet.

Every estimate is adjusted for the state and city you enter. We apply state-level labor wage adjustments, regional material price differentials, hurricane/seismic/flood-zone construction premiums where applicable, and energy-code premiums (e.g., Title 24 in California, stretch codes in MA, hurricane bracing in FL). A premium kitchen in Manhattan is not priced like a premium kitchen in Tulsa.

Free forever (2 estimates/month, watermarked PDFs), Starter ($39/mo, 25 estimates/month, no watermark), Pro ($89/mo, unlimited estimates, custom templates and cost adjustments), Team ($179/mo, everything plus 5 seats and shared estimates). Annual billing saves 20% on all paid tiers.

Each time you generate a new estimate by submitting the wizard, that's one estimate against your monthly count. Re-downloading the PDF, editing line items, duplicating an existing estimate, or regenerating a PDF after edits doesn't cost an additional estimate.

Yes. Cancel from Settings → Subscription. You keep access to paid features through the end of your current billing period, then revert to the Free plan. No cancellation fees, no contracts.

If something is broken on our end and you can't use the product, email us within 7 days of your charge and we'll refund you. Outside of that window we don't offer refunds — but you can cancel anytime to stop future charges.

Yes. Open Manage Subscription in Settings to change plans in the billing portal, which shows you the details before you confirm.

Yes — all paid plans have a yearly option that saves 20%. Pick monthly or yearly when you subscribe; you can switch later from Settings.

You do. CostKit holds your estimates so you can read them back on the dashboard and re-download PDFs, but the content belongs to you.

No. Your estimates, project descriptions, and client information are not used to train any AI model. The cost-data improvement loop is opt-in and only uses anonymized actuals (you choose to record what a finished job cost) — never client names, addresses, or estimate notes.

Authentication is handled by Firebase. Data is stored on Cloudflare's edge platform with TLS in transit and encryption at rest. PDFs are served via short-lived signed URLs (7-day expiry). Stripe handles all payment information — we never see your card number.

Yes. Click 'Continue with Google' on the signup or login page. Same account works either way — you can switch between email/password and Google sign-in.

Email us from your account address and within 30 days we'll close your account, delete any feedback you sent, and take down your profile and estimates, including their client links, so they can no longer be opened. This is a manual process. There is no self-serve delete button.

A clean, professional document with your logo, project summary, phase-by-phase breakdown, line items with quantities and unit costs (optional), overhead and contingency, and terms. Three template presets are included; Pro users can build custom templates with their own colors, fonts, and section visibility.

Yes, on Starter and above. Click "Send" on the estimate detail page, enter your client's email, write a personal message if you want, and CostKit sends a branded email with a link to view the estimate online. The estimate page shows when they first open it.

Yes, on Starter and above. Each estimate has a private shareable link. Send it to your client and they see a clean web view (no login required) with the same figures as a PDF from your default template, and easier to read on mobile. It shows your company name and contact details, not your logo.

Yes. Mark each estimate as sent, won, lost, or expired from its estimate page, and see each one's status on the dashboard. On any plan, you can also record what a won job actually cost once it wraps, and the estimate page shows the variance against what was estimated.