Electrical estimating services: what you actually get for the money
Electrical estimating services take your PDF plan set and return either a quantity takeoff (devices, fixtures, conduit and wire counted and measured) or a full priced estimate with material and labor. Published prices we found run from $29 a sheet for a checked takeoff1 to $300 and up for a priced single-trade estimate2, and $1,500 a month for a dedicated estimator3, with 24 to 48 hour turnaround being the norm.435 They work best for overflow bids and trades you rarely price; the risk is that the service uses its own labor data and doesn't know your scope habits.
What does an electrical estimating service deliver?
The word "estimating" covers two very different products, and the price gap between them is large. Before you send plans to anyone, know which one you are buying.
A quantity takeoff
Counts and lengths pulled off the drawings: receptacles, switches and fixtures by type, panels and gear, conduit and wire by size. You get a spreadsheet, laid out much like our electrical takeoff sheet, and marked-up sheets, and you still apply your own material prices, labor units and markup. This is what most outsourced electrical takeoff services sell, and it is the cheaper option because the service never touches your pricing.
A priced estimate
The takeoff plus material pricing, labor hours and often a recap with overhead and profit. Apex, for example, says its deliverable includes labor-hour calculations from regional productivity data and zip-code-based material and labor pricing.4 That saves more of your time, but the labor and pricing are the service's numbers, not yours.
A dedicated remote estimator
A monthly arrangement where the same person or team works your bids. Electrical Estimators sells a monthly package at $1,500 with a dedicated senior estimator, and Premium Estimating offers a retainer that uses your templates and labor rates.32 This is the closest thing to an electrical estimator for hire without adding payroll.
What separates a takeoff from an estimate is covered in detail in our guide to electrical estimating. The short version: the count is mechanical, the labor and pricing are judgment, and judgment is where outsourcing gets risky.
How much do electrical estimating services cost?
Most electrical estimating companies quote after they see the drawings, so a published price is the exception. These six services state a price or a pricing model on their own site. We left out the many that only say "affordable" or "competitive".
| Service | How it prices | Published price | Turnaround | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BuildVision (Done For You) | Per sheet, only sheets in your trade | $29 a sheet; a 25-sheet set is $7251 | Up to 40 sheets within 24 hours1 | Counts, lengths and areas marked on the drawing, checked by an estimator. Quantities only, you price them1 |
| Apex Electric Estimating | Flat fee, quoted after plan review | From $65 for one system; $400 to $1,000 for residential or light commercial4 | 24 to 48 hours; 3 to 5 business days for full GC packages4 | Takeoff, labor hours from regional data, zip-code pricing, Excel and marked-up plans4 |
| Premium Estimating | Quote per project, or monthly retainer | Single-trade estimates from $300; 50% deposit, 50% on delivery2 | Delivery date set in the quote2 | Takeoff, material and labor pricing, Excel by CSI section, marked-up plans. Retainer can use your templates and labor rates2 |
| Electrical Estimators | Per trade, or monthly package | About $200 for a single-trade takeoff; $1,500 a month for the package3 | 24 to 48 hours3 | Takeoff and estimate with zip-code material and labor costs; a dedicated estimator on the monthly package3 |
| The Takeoff Company | Hourly | Starting at $10 an hour5 | 24 to 48 hours5 | Quantity takeoff of conduit, wire, boxes, devices, fixtures, panels and gear5 |
| Best Bid (freelance estimating) | Quoted per job | Not published: send the job for individual pricing6 | Not published6 | Estimating from the company that sells Best Bid software6 |
Three pricing models show up again and again. Per sheet is the most predictable: you know the cost before you send the set, and BuildVision only bills sheets in your trade, never covers, specs or empty pages.1 Flat fee per project is the most common: the service reviews the plans and sends a firm number. Hourly is the least predictable, because you can't check the hours. A low hourly rate doesn't mean a low total.
"From" prices are floors. Apex's $65 covers a single system or division, and a full commercial set lands in a higher row of its own table.4
Outsourced, in-house or software: the cost per bid
To compare a service with doing the work yourself, you need the cost of an in-house estimating hour. The median cost estimator at an electrical contractor earned $44.67 an hour in May 2025.7 Wages are 69.5% of total compensation in construction, so benefits push the loaded cost to about $64 an hour.8
$44.67 ÷ 0.695 = $64.27 per loaded estimator hour
Now take one example bid: a 25-sheet electrical set. Assume it takes your estimator 8 hours to count and measure it by hand. That figure is an assumption for the math, not a measured average; time your own last three bids and replace it.
| Option | Math | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| In-house, by hand | 8 hours × $64.27 | $51478 |
| Per-sheet takeoff service | 25 × $29 | $7251 |
| Per-trade takeoff service | Single-trade takeoff | About $2003 |
| AmpCount plus review time | $149 a month (no sheet limits) + 1 hour of review × $64.27 | $213 for the first bid, about $64 for each one after it that month |
The comparison changes with volume. A service costs the same on your tenth bid of the month as on your first. Software costs the same whether you bid once or twenty times, and the hour of review stays yours. The hour of review is also an assumption: on a clean vector set it can be less, on a messy set with many fixture types it can be more.
Hiring is the third path. AGC and NCCER report that 72% of construction firms with estimating openings find them hard to fill,9 which is why many contractors look at services in the first place. Our electrical estimator salary guide has the full pay data if you are weighing a hire.
The risks of outsourcing electrical estimates
Labor units that aren't yours
Your labor units reflect your crews, your region and the work you win. A service using RS Means or its own regional productivity data will produce a different labor number.34 And and labor is the part of an electrical bid that swings the total. If you buy priced estimates, ask whether they can use your labor units, or buy the takeoff only and price it yourself.
Scope knowledge
An outside estimator reads the drawings, not the general contractor. They don't know that this GC always pushes temporary power onto the electrical sub, or that the owner's spec on the last job allowed MC cable. Scope gaps cost more than miscounts, and you are still responsible for the exclusions in your proposal.
Checking the count
A takeoff you can't verify is a number you are trusting blind. Ask for marked-up sheets, not just a spreadsheet. Apex and Premium both list marked-up plans in their deliverables, and BuildVision marks every quantity on the drawing.421
Confidentiality
You are sending another firm bid documents and, if they price, your markup logic. Premium Estimating says it signs an NDA on every project.2 Ask any service for the same before the first set goes out, and ask whether they also estimate for your competitors on the same bid.
Electrical estimating services near me: does location matter?
Less than the search suggests. Outsourced estimating is remote work: you email a PDF or a Dropbox link, and the takeoff comes back by email. The services above list addresses in Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Wyoming and New Delhi, and all of them take plans by email or upload.24315 A quantity takeoff is the same in any zip code: a duplex receptacle is a duplex receptacle.
Location matters for the priced part. Local labor rates, prevailing wage requirements, union versus open shop, and which supply house quotes your gear all change the number. If you buy a priced estimate, ask how the service sets regional labor and material costs. If you buy only the takeoff, a remote service anywhere can do it, and you apply your local knowledge yourself.
Residential electrical estimating services
Residential and light commercial sets are smaller, and services price them accordingly: Apex lists residential and light commercial projects at $400 to $1,000 with 24 to 48 hour turnaround.4 For a single house, though, the takeoff is often a few hours of work, and many residential contractors price from a unit-price list rather than a full takeoff, then check the total against typical electrical costs per square foot. The math in the table above usually favors doing it in-house unless you are bidding a tract of homes or a multifamily building where the same unit repeats.
How to choose an electrical estimating company: questions to ask
- Is the price per sheet, flat per project or hourly? Get the total in writing before work starts.
- Is it a takeoff only, or priced? If priced, whose labor units and whose material pricing?
- Do I get marked-up sheets showing every count and run, or only a spreadsheet?
- Who does the work, and has that person estimated commercial electrical before? Ask for a sample on a project type you bid.
- What is the turnaround on a set this size, and what does rush cost?
- How are addenda handled, and are revisions included?
- Will you sign an NDA, and do you estimate for other contractors on the same bid?
- Can the output import into my estimating software, or will I retype it?
- What happens if the count is wrong? BuildVision, for one, states that a late or incorrect takeoff is free.1
A good first test: send a set you already bid, where you know the counts. Compare the result line by line. It costs one takeoff and tells you more than any sample on the service's website.
When to outsource, when to hire, when to use software
Many shops mix them: software for routine bids, a service for overflow. If you go the software route, AmpCount counts devices and fixtures from the legend on vector PDFs and checks fixtures against the schedule. It does not price, apply labor or measure conduit, so it replaces the counting part of a takeoff service, not a priced estimate. The electrical estimating software comparison covers the pricing suites that do the rest, and how to bid electrical jobs walks through the bid from takeoff to proposal.
Common questions
What is an electrical estimating service?
A company or freelancer that prepares electrical takeoffs or priced estimates from your drawings for a fee, so your own estimators don't have to. Delivery is usually an Excel file and marked-up PDFs.
Are outsourced electrical takeoffs accurate?
They can be, but every service claims high accuracy, and none of those claims can be checked from outside. Test with a set you already counted, and always ask for marked-up sheets so you can spot-check.
Can I hire an electrical estimator part time?
Yes. Monthly packages and retainers from estimating companies work like a part-time remote estimator, and freelance marketplaces list individual estimators. Check that they know commercial electrical, not only general construction.
Do estimating services find the bids too?
Some offer bid management, but finding and tracking bids is usually a separate tool. See electrical bidding software.
Count the devices, check the numbers
AmpCount reads the legend on a vector PDF set, counts every electrical device and fixture on every sheet, keeps uncertain marks out of the count until you confirm them, and checks fixtures against the schedule. $149 a month or $1,490 a year for a team of up to 3, cancel anytime, full refund within 14 days.
Keep reading
Sources
- BuildVision, construction takeoff services ($29 a sheet)
- Electrical Estimators, our pricing
- Apex Electric Estimating, professional electrical takeoff services (pricing and turnaround table)
- The Takeoff Company, electrical takeoff
- Best Bid Estimating Software home page (products, pricing, freelance estimating)
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Cost Estimators in Electrical Contractors (NAICS 238210), median hourly wage
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 4 (construction)
- AGC and NCCER, 2026 Construction Workforce Survey
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