Free PDF markup tool
Mark up, measure and count on construction drawings in your browser. Your PDF never leaves your device.
Open the free workspaceYour drawing is read in this browser tab. It is never uploaded to ContractorCounter.
How it works
- 01
Open your drawing
Drag a PDF into the workspace, or start on the sample sheet already loaded. Nothing uploads — the file is read in your browser.
- 02
Set the scale
Calibrate against a known dimension once, and every length, area and volume you measure afterwards comes out in real units.
- 03
Mark up and measure
Clouds, callouts, dimensions, area and count tools — the same set the paid workspace uses, at full capability.
Free takeoff software, not just an annotator
Most free construction takeoff software stops at drawing on the page. Once the scale is calibrated here, the measure, area and count tools return real quantities, and a Bill of Quantities keeps the running totals beside the sheet — the same tools the paid workspace uses. What a free session cannot do is remember: it lives in this tab.
If you are taking off a whole job rather than a sheet, see quantity takeoff software and construction estimating software.
Questions
- Is it really free?
- Yes. The free workspace needs no account and no card. It is the full markup and measurement tool, not a viewer or a watch-only demo. Exports carry a ContractorCounter mark.
- Do I have to upload my drawing?
- No. Your PDF is opened and rendered inside your browser and is never sent to our servers. Close the tab and nothing of it remains with us.
- What do I get by signing up?
- Saving. A free session lives in the tab — sign up when you want the work to persist, to come back to it, or to share it with someone else.
- Is this a Bluebeam alternative?
- For markup, measurement and takeoff on construction PDFs, yes — and it runs in the browser on Mac, Windows and iPad with nothing to install.
- Can I use it as free takeoff software?
- Yes, for the measuring. Free construction takeoff software usually means quantities off a drawing, and that is exactly what the calibrated measure, area and count tools produce here, with a Bill of Quantities alongside them. The limit is not capability but memory: a free session lives in the tab, so a job you need to keep or come back to wants an account.