CADshift connects an AI assistant to AutoCAD. It is an MCP connector: it runs alongside a live AutoCAD session and lets an assistant you already use read the drawing and change it. If you are a CAD manager considering it, the questions are what it can do in a drawing, how the connection works, and what it costs once you count your own AI subscription.
CADshift AutoCAD MCP
CADshift's product page lists support for AutoCAD 2025, 2026 and 2027. It describes three kinds of work: drawing queries, geometry changes and drafting-standard tasks (CADshift product overview). Those categories match everyday CAD work. A query might ask how many instances of an equipment block are on a layout. A geometry change might move or edit objects. Drafting-standard work brings layers, text and annotation in line with your office standard.
The documentation states one requirement clearly: AutoCAD must stay open (connection documentation). The assistant works through the session you have running, so CADshift is a tool you use while you work. You open the drawing, ask for what you need, review the result on screen and save as usual. If AutoCAD closes, the assistant can't reach the drawing again until you reopen it.
Local and relay connections
The documentation describes two ways to connect your assistant to AutoCAD, a local connection and a relay connection, and covers the setup for each. Which one suits you depends on the assistant you use and how your office is set up. Read the relevant section before you install, because it determines what has to be running and where.
Whichever route you choose, keep two questions apart. Commands run in AutoCAD on your machine. The conversation is handled elsewhere: your prompts, and whatever the assistant reads back from the drawing, are processed by your AI provider. A drawing that never leaves your workstation can still have its contents described to a cloud service. If your contracts restrict that, check the assistant's data terms as well as CADshift's, and read how the documentation describes the relay route if you use it.
Understand the listed prices
On November 13, 2026, CADshift listed two plans. Individual cost US$29 a month or US$290 a year. Team cost US$25 per seat a month or US$250 a year, with a five-seat minimum. The page also advertised a 14-day trial (CADshift pricing).
Some quick arithmetic helps. On the Individual plan, twelve monthly payments come to $348, so the annual plan saves $58. On the Team plan, the five-seat minimum means at least $125 a month on monthly billing, even if only two or three people use it at first.
The AI itself costs extra. The pricing page says the assistant runs on the customer's own AI subscription. Your real monthly cost is the CADshift plan plus the AI subscriptions of the people using it. If your staff already pay for an assistant that supports MCP, that part may be covered. If they don't, add it to the budget before comparing CADshift with tools that include the AI.
Pilot tasks for the trial
Fourteen days is enough to learn whether CADshift handles your drawings, as long as you test it on real work. Three tasks cover the three kinds of work it describes:
- Ask for an inventory you can check, such as a count of equipment blocks on a layout with their tag attributes, and compare it with the drawing.
- Bring a legacy drawing up to your layer standard. If your mapping from old layers to new ones isn't written down yet, our AutoCAD layer mapping guide shows how to build one.
- Make a small edit on a copy of a live drawing, such as moving one piece of equipment and updating its tag. Then open the saved DWG and check the layout at its plotted scale.
If all three come back right, you have a clear picture of how CADshift handles your drawings and your standards.
Where a connector fits, and where ArchiLabs differs
CADshift suits a team that wants to use its existing AI client in AutoCAD. The client can also supply outside context: CADshift's own page demonstrates a marked-up sheet becoming drawing edits. If your task spans a Revit model as well as the DWG, consider how you will handle that second application.
ArchiLabs Desktop brings native Revit and AutoCAD editing into one Windows application. It supports Revit 2023 through 2027. In the same conversation you can attach PDFs, spreadsheets, project documents, marked-up screenshots and narrated screen recordings, so the assistant sees the source material and the drawing together. It starts at $19 a month plus usage credits (pricing). If the same revision touches both a model and a drawing, try Desktop on that task.
Prepare a layer mapping table that handles object overrides, shared drawings, and exceptions before applying a CAD standard.