--- title: "The Free AI Site Analysis Tool For Architects — How Atlasly's Free Plan Actually Works" description: "Atlasly gives architects a free AI site analysis tool with no credit card, 5 full site analyses per month, unlimited Atlas AI chat, and a free MCP connector that plugs into Claude and ChatGPT. Here is exactly what is free, what is paid, and what the paid tiers add." canonical: https://atlasly.app/blog/free-ai-site-analysis-tool-for-architects published: 2026-04-19 modified: 2026-04-19 primary_keyword: "free AI site analysis tool for architects" target_query: "free AI site analysis tool for architects" intent: commercial --- # The Free AI Site Analysis Tool For Architects — How Atlasly's Free Plan Actually Works > Atlasly gives architects a free AI site analysis tool with no credit card, 5 full site analyses per month, unlimited Atlas AI chat, and a free MCP connector that plugs into Claude and ChatGPT. Here is exactly what is free, what is paid, and what the paid tiers add. ## Quick Answer Atlasly offers a genuinely free AI site analysis tool for architects: 5 full site analyses per month, unlimited access to the Atlas AI specialist AEC chatbot (trained on NPPF 2023, London Plan 2021, 40+ urban design frameworks), PDF and image exports, a 3D site context model, and a free MCP connector that plugs into Claude and ChatGPT. No credit card is required. Paid plans add unlimited analyses, CAD/BIM exports (DXF, DWG, SKP, IFC), and API access. ## Introduction Every architect has now tried ChatGPT for a site question and been burned — wrong NPPF paragraph, hallucinated flood zone, made-up council policy. The search for an AI tool that actually knows UK architecture is increasingly a serious one. This article explains exactly what Atlasly gives architects for free, how the free plan compares to the paid tiers, and what the realistic limits look like. No hype, no bait-and-switch — just the specifics of the free tool that over 1,200 architects across 40+ countries are already using. ## What the Atlasly free plan includes The Atlasly free (Starter) plan gives you: - **5 full site analyses per month.** Each one is the complete 17-step pipeline: geocoding, buildings, topography, land use, heritage, ecology, planning history, NPPF compliance, land registry, microclimate, transport/PTAL, and AI report synthesis. - **Unlimited Atlas AI chat.** The specialist AEC chatbot trained on NPPF 2023, London Plan 2021, 40+ urban design frameworks (Gehl, Jacobs, CABE, NACTO), and 6 sustainability certifications (BREEAM, LEED-ND, WELL, Passivhaus, NABERS, SKA). Answers include SVG diagrams, density tables, and cited sources. - **Interactive 3D site context model.** Building facades, roof geometry, terrain mesh, cascaded shadows. View only on free; exports to GLB / OBJ / IFC are on paid tiers. - **PDF and image exports.** Site intelligence report, shadow diagrams, walkability maps — all print-ready, no watermarks. - **Student portfolio PDF exporter.** Clean layout for coursework submission. - **30-day shareable links.** Every analysis gets a public URL you can send to clients or tutors. - **Free Atlasly MCP connector.** The hosted MCP at `https://mcp.atlasly.app/mcp` — paste into Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible AI client. Public tools work anonymously; authenticated tools use your free account. No credit card required. Sign up with email at https://atlasly.app/auth. ## The hard limits on the free plan **5 site analyses per month.** Reset rolls on the same day each month based on your signup date. Running a 6th analysis prompts an upgrade to Professional. **2 km maximum radius.** A full pipeline run covers the site plus a 2 km context zone. Most UK architectural feasibility work sits comfortably within this. Paid tiers unlock 5 km radius. **No CAD or BIM exports.** DXF, DWG, SKP, IFC, GLB, OBJ, FBX, STL, Collada — these are on Professional. Free plan exports PDF and PNG. **No financial feasibility calculator.** The FAR / density / cost-estimate calculator is on Professional. **Community support only.** Email support is on paid plans. **100 MCP tool calls / month via authenticated OAuth.** Anonymous MCP public tools are limited to 5 calls per 30-day anonymous-fingerprint window; signed-in MCP calls count against your Atlasly plan's quota. On free Starter, the authenticated tools inherit the 5-analyses-per-month limit. What you do **not** lose on free: accuracy, data coverage, Atlas AI depth, or feature quality. The 5 analyses you get are identical to a Professional plan's analyses — not a watered-down trial mode. ## What the paid plans add **Professional — £14.99 / month (billed monthly, cancel any time)** - Unlimited site analyses - All CAD / BIM export formats — DXF, DWG, SKP, GLB, OBJ, FBX, STL, Collada, IFC - Financial feasibility calculator - 5 km maximum radius (vs 2 km on free) - 100 API calls per month (for batch workflows or programmatic use) - Priority email support **Teams — £49.99 / month** - Everything in Professional - 5 seats included (additional seats priced separately) - Shared project collections - Collaboration features (comments, @-mentions on sites) - 1,000 API calls per month - Dedicated email support **Enterprise** - Custom quotas - SLA - Private deployment options - White-label MCP hostname - Contact via https://atlasly.app/pilot The price structure is deliberate: free covers student, trial, and occasional-use architects. Professional covers a solo practitioner's full workload. Teams covers small to mid-sized studios. ## Free vs the expensive alternatives Compared to the status quo, the free plan alone saves: **A consultant site report.** £3,000 to £8,000 per report in the UK, 1-2 weeks turnaround. Atlasly Free: free, 60 seconds per analysis. **A planning-intelligence subscription.** Services like Emapsite, Searchland, or LandInsight typically charge £2,000-£10,000 per year for similar data coverage. Atlasly Free: no charge. **ChatGPT Plus / Claude Pro.** £18-20 per month. Atlas AI is free and specialist-tuned — if you only need the AEC chatbot, you do not need a general-purpose subscription. **Archistar / TestFit / Autodesk Forma.** Starting at £100-500+ per month. Atlasly is feasibility-focused; the free plan is genuinely useful for option appraisal before those tools enter the workflow. The trade-off honestly: the free plan caps at 5 analyses per month. For an architect running one project per month, that is plenty. For a practice running 20 projects, the maths favours Professional. ## Free and working with the AI tools you already use The free Atlasly MCP connector is a specific advantage worth calling out. Paste `https://mcp.atlasly.app/mcp` into Claude's or ChatGPT's Connectors menu and the AI gets access to Atlasly's 7 public tools: `analyze_site`, `check_planning_constraints`, `get_flood_risk`, `get_planning_history`, `find_precedents`, `get_site_topography`, `check_walkability_transport`. No Atlasly account needed for those 7 tools. Anonymous usage is rate-limited to 5 calls per 30-day window, which matches the free-plan analysis quota. If you sign in (still on the free Starter plan), you unlock the 4 authenticated tools — project creation, site package runs, brief generation, Site Watch — metered against your Atlasly quota. This is as close to "free AI site intelligence for every architect" as the industry gets today. ## When free is enough — and when to upgrade **Stick with free if:** - You run fewer than 5 analyses per month. - PDF / image exports cover your deliverables. - You are a student or occasional user. - You want to evaluate Atlasly before committing. **Upgrade to Professional (£14.99) if:** - You run more than 5 analyses per month (very common for active practices). - You need CAD exports to feed AutoCAD, Revit, or SketchUp. - You want the financial feasibility calculator for client pitches. - You want API access for batch screening. **Upgrade to Teams (£49.99) if:** - You have 3+ architects in the practice working on shared projects. - You need collaboration features. - You run 100+ sites per month through the API. Most architects start free, hit the 5-analyses-per-month cap within 4-6 weeks, and upgrade. The free plan is not a trial — it is a genuinely usable tier for the right user profile. ## From Practice We asked a sample of 40 free-plan architects why they had not upgraded. The answer was not price — it was 'I use it for occasional checks, the 5 per month is plenty'. Which is exactly the design intent. The users who upgrade to Professional are the ones who start replacing their existing consultant spend and portal subscriptions, not the ones who feel rate-limited. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Is Atlasly actually free?** Yes. The Starter plan is free forever, not a time-limited trial. 5 full site analyses per month, unlimited Atlas AI chat, PDF / image exports, 3D model viewing, and a free MCP connector. No credit card required. **Do I need a credit card to sign up for the free plan?** No. Sign up with just an email address at https://atlasly.app/auth. Credit card is only required if you upgrade to Professional or Teams. **What happens when I hit the 5-analyses-per-month limit on free?** You get a prompt to upgrade to Professional (£14.99/month, unlimited analyses). The existing analyses in your account remain accessible. Your free quota resets on the same day next month. **Can students use Atlasly free?** Yes, and heavily do. The free plan covers most studio briefs (one site per project × 4-5 projects per term). Student portfolio PDF exporter ships on all plans. If you need CAD exports for coursework requirements, contact us via the feedback link for coursework access. **Is the free MCP connector really unlimited?** Anonymous MCP tool calls are rate-limited to 5 per 30-day window per anonymous fingerprint. Authenticated calls (after signing in to Atlasly) count against your plan's quota — on free Starter, they inherit the 5-analyses-per-month limit. Public tools like analyze_site and check_planning_constraints work anonymously; private tools like run_site_package require auth. **Why is Atlasly free when other AI tools for architects charge?** The business model is a classic freemium — the free tier acquires users, Professional converts the ones who become power users. Quality on the free tier is identical to paid; the limit is volume, not depth. We would rather 10,000 architects use Atlasly free than have 100 pay before they have seen whether it actually helps their workflow. **What is the best free AI tool for UK architects?** We are obviously biased. The honest answer: Atlas AI (the free chatbot inside Atlasly) is specialist-trained on UK planning and returns cited NPPF paragraphs. ChatGPT / Claude free tiers are general-purpose and hallucinate on UK planning regularly. PlanningBot is another specialist option focused specifically on policy Q&A. Pick Atlasly if you want the chatbot plus the full site-analysis pipeline free. ## Conclusion The free Atlasly plan is not a stripped-down teaser — it is a complete tool that happens to cap at 5 analyses per month. For most individual architects, students, and evaluation use, it is the whole product. Sign up free at https://atlasly.app/auth. No credit card. Five site analyses and unlimited Atlas AI chat waiting in your account within 30 seconds. ## Related Reading - https://atlasly.app/blog/atlas-ai-free-architecture-planning-assistant - https://atlasly.app/blog/how-to-use-atlasly-in-claude-chatgpt - https://atlasly.app/blog/atlasly-vs-planningbot - https://atlasly.app/blog/pre-construction-site-analysis-complete-guide --- Source: https://atlasly.app/blog/free-ai-site-analysis-tool-for-architects Platform: Atlasly — AI site intelligence for architects, engineers, and urban planners. https://atlasly.app