How Much Does SolidWorks Cost?

Published on July 7, 2026 | Written by Alec Pow
This article was researched using 14 sources. See our methodology and corrections policy.

SolidWorks is desktop mechanical CAD for parts, assemblies, drawings, manufacturing documents, and engineering checks. Paid business access now sits in the low-to-mid four figures per user per year before tax, with the final bill shaped by license type, CAD tier, reseller path, student or maker eligibility, and modules. As of June 2026, the listed U.S. annual online prices run from $2,820 to $4,716 for SOLIDWORKS Design with Cloud Services before local taxes.

The bill is built from the seat, the CAD tier, cloud services, support, taxes, renewal timing, and any separate tools such as PDM, Simulation, CAM, or Visualize. Exact totals may stay private when a buyer needs perpetual licensing, shareable network licensing, training, multi-product bundles, or reseller help.

Dassault Systèmes, SOLIDWORKS Standard, SOLIDWORKS Professional, SOLIDWORKS Premium, 3DEXPERIENCE, SOLIDWORKS for Students, SOLIDWORKS for Makers, and the SOLIDWORKS for Startups program all sit inside the same buying question. GoEngineer and Hawk Ridge Systems show why reseller pricing still matters, while Onshape and Autodesk Fusion give buyers a way to compare desktop CAD, browser CAD, collaboration, and engineering documentation before choosing a yearly seat.

How Much Does SolidWorks Cost?

Jump to sections

• Entry, Standard lists at $2,820 (equivalent to 2.4 workweeks at $30 per hour, or about $1,100 in 1990 dollars) per year, Professional at $3,456, and Premium at $4,716 on the annual seat comparison.
• Mid, the same annual billing converts to $235, $288, and $393 per month when billed annually in the annual-billing checkout display.
• Low, SOLIDWORKS for Students Premium is $60 per year before local taxes, with named features in the student access terms.
• Personal, SOLIDWORKS for Makers is $48 per year or $15 per month for users under $2,000 in annual project revenue, according to the personal-use plan terms.

What you’re actually buying

SOLIDWORKS is a mechanical design environment for modeling parts, building assemblies, creating 2D drawings, checking manufacturability, and handing clear files to shops, suppliers, and engineering teammates. It is strongest when the work needs parametric history, mating parts, sheet metal, weldments, production drawings, and repeated revisions tied to a real product.

It is not the same as a casual drawing app, browser-only whiteboard, or maker-only hobby license. Compared with Onshape, SOLIDWORKS keeps much of the core CAD work in a Windows desktop workflow. Compared with Autodesk Fusion, it is often purchased around deeper assembly, documentation, and mechanical engineering needs rather than light personal projects. That difference is why license type matters as much as the sticker price.

Published online plans

The cleanest public path is the annual online checkout for Standard, Professional, and Premium. Standard covers core parts, assemblies, and drawings. Professional adds productivity and documentation tools. Premium adds engineering checks, routing, and simulation features. Those published prices are useful for a one-seat budget, but they are not the full market.

SOLIDWORKS says yearly licenses can be purchased online or through a reseller, but quarterly, perpetual, and shareable licenses are handled through a reseller partner on the licensing options page. That is the dividing line. A freelancer buying one yearly seat can use checkout math. A machine shop or product team that wants network use, legacy perpetual rights, multiple products, or local technical support should expect a quote.

Buyer path	How the bill is set	Best fit
Online yearly seat	Published annual price plus local tax	Solo business user or small team adding a seat fast
Reseller term quote	Package, support, deployment, training, and partner terms	Teams that need help choosing CAD, PDM, Simulation, or CAM
Education or personal route	Eligibility rules decide whether the lower plan is allowed	Students, hobbyists, makers, and noncommercial projects

Tiers that change the bill

The jump from Standard to Professional is about workflow depth, not only extra menus. Professional adds an intelligent CAD library, photorealistic rendering, automatic cost estimation, CAD standards checking, and technical support in the tier feature comparison. Premium then adds items such as routing, linear static analysis, time-based motion analysis, and surface flattening.

The first computed spread is simple. Premium at $4,716 (about $1,900 in 1990 dollars) minus Standard at $2,820 equals $1,896 more per year, so a buyer should need Premium-only work such as routing or built-in simulation before treating that upgrade as automatic. The second check is the monthly display. $288 times 12 months equals $3,456, which matches the Professional annual price shown in the checkout data above.

Student, Maker, and Startup 

The cheapest legal path depends on how the file will be used. A student can use the education route for coursework and learning, a hobbyist can use the Maker route for personal projects, and a company selling products needs commercial licensing unless it qualifies for a startup program. The low-price routes are not substitutes for a paid business seat.

The startup route is worth checking before a hardware founder buys retail. SOLIDWORKS lists Year 1 as free, Year 2 at 70% off, and Year 3 at 50% off, with eligibility tied to a physical product, less than $1M (about $400,000 in 1990 dollars) in revenue, and age of not more than 5 years in the startup access rules. If revenue or funding is between $1M and $5M, the page says the company may be treated as a scale-up and offered a 70% discount.

Renewal and cancellation rules

Online buying lowers friction, but it makes renewal timing matter. The Dassault Systèmes professional FAQ says yearly and quarterly subscriptions have a 15-day cancellation policy, but trial offers, monthly subscriptions, quarterly renewals, and yearly renewals are not covered by that same cancellation rule in the refund and renewal policy. A buyer testing SOLIDWORKS for the first time should confirm the order type before assuming refund rights.

This is also where local tax enters the bill. Public U.S. prices are shown before local taxes, so the card charge can exceed the listed plan. For teams, cancellation is less useful than license planning. Put the renewal date, admin owner, seat assignment, and reseller contact into the same budget file so a role change does not leave a paid license unused.

Add-ons that raise the total

Many buyers start with CAD and then discover that file control, simulation, rendering, CAM, electrical design, or training is the real budget driver. Professional includes some productivity tools, and Premium includes some simulation and routing capability, but larger teams may still price PDM Professional, Simulation products, Electrical, Composer, Visualize, training, or local partner support.

Hidden-costs callout. Public reseller context from GoEngineer places SOLIDWORKS term licenses from $846 for 3 months and perpetual licenses from $4,195, before the extra cost for one year of subscription services, in its published reseller buyer notes. That creates a visible public span of $846 to $4,195 before tax, training, upgraded support, PDM, or specialized modules. Teams comparing heavy simulation budgets can also use ANSYS license budgeting as a separate benchmark for solver-heavy work.

What users pay in real use

Budget case, a hobby user making personal 3D prints uses Maker rather than a business seat, pays the Maker plan listed above, and stays under the stated project revenue limit. Student case, a qualified learner uses the Student route for coursework or portfolio practice and does not pay for commercial rights. Business case, a solo mechanical designer buying Standard online budgets for one annual seat, then adds tax and any training.

Team case, a small engineering group with one Standard seat and one Premium seat has a software base of $2,820 plus $4,716, which equals $7,536 before tax using the annual plan figures already listed. The itemized version is plain: Standard seat, $2,820, Premium seat, $4,716, pre-tax software base, $7,536. That does not include workstation upgrades, onboarding time, reseller services, or add-on modules.

Who this spend makes sense for

SolidWorks makes sense when the paid work needs production drawings, assemblies, supplier handoff, revision discipline, and native SOLIDWORKS files. It also makes sense when a shop or customer already uses the format and switching costs would exceed the license savings. Teams using cloud construction or design platforms can compare seat logic with BIM 360 pricing patterns, since both bills grow through named users, modules, and admin control.

Onshape is a nearby comparison for browser-first CAD. As of June 2026, Onshape lists Standard at $1,500 per user per year and Professional at $2,500 per user per year in the browser-CAD price list. That does not make either product cheaper for every shop. It shows the tradeoff: SOLIDWORKS favors entrenched desktop mechanical CAD workflows, and Onshape favors browser access and built-in collaboration.

• Makes sense if your team exchanges native SOLIDWORKS files with customers or suppliers.
• Makes sense if you need assemblies, drawings, manufacturing documentation, or Premium engineering checks.
• Makes sense if reseller support can prevent downtime during deployment or license changes.
• Doesn’t make sense if your work is personal and fits Maker limits.
• Doesn’t make sense if your school already gives you the needed education access.
• Doesn’t make sense if browser CAD and lower admin work matter more than desktop file compatibility.

Article Highlights

• Business buyers should start with Standard, Professional, or Premium annual seat pricing, then add tax and any reseller services.
• Premium adds $1,896 per year over Standard before tax, so it needs a real routing, motion, or simulation reason.
• Maker and Student routes are much cheaper, but they are restricted and should not be treated as commercial substitutes.
• Reseller quotes matter for perpetual, shareable, quarterly, multi-seat, PDM, Simulation, and training-heavy purchases.
• The safest budget has a seat count, renewal owner, module list, and tax assumption before purchase.

Answers to Common Questions

Can I still buy a perpetual SOLIDWORKS license?

Yes, but the public online path is mainly for yearly access. Perpetual and shareable license paths are reseller-led, so buyers should request a quote rather than relying only on checkout pricing.

Is SOLIDWORKS cheaper for students?

Yes. The Student route can be far lower than a business license, but it is for education use and does not replace a commercial seat for paid product work.

Is the Maker plan enough for a side business?

Only if the work fits the Maker rules and stays under the stated annual project revenue limit. Once the work becomes a real commercial operation, a business license is the safer path.

Why do reseller quotes differ from online prices?

Quotes can include deployment help, partner support, training, multi-product bundles, PDM, Simulation, perpetual licensing, or shareable licenses. That is why two buyers with the same CAD tier can see different totals.