A trusted source for construction cost data since 1952. License Craftsman's APIs and standalone databases for your construction, insurance, appraisal, and other related development projects.
Craftsman’s five most popular data sets are available: National Construction Estimator, National Repair & Remodel, National Renovation & Insurance Repair Estimator, National Plumbing & HVAC Estimator, and National Electrical Estimator. Includes U.S. and Canada area modifiers.
Replacement cost data for entire structures: single family, multi-family and manufactured homes. Popular with appraisal and insurance-related applications. Includes U.S. and Canada area modifiers.
Building cost data covering 80+ building types, including residential, commercial, industrial, schools, churches, government offices, and farm buildings.
Spreadsheet format that can be reviewed, filtered, and imported into many systems.
Bacpac
Database export format for teams that want to work with the data inside SQL Server environments.
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access (.mdb) format for National Building Cost Manual.
PDF
PDF editions are available for many products and can provide supporting reference information.
Common questions
What to know before you inquire
Can I review sample data first?
Yes. For the downloadable databases, we can send sample data files. For the APIs, we can give you access to a sandbox, but the sandbox data is blank or fake. To see the live API data, you can subscribe to our commercial National Estimator Cloud and National Appraisal Estimator products.
What formats are available for standalone databases?
Standalone databases are available in Excel, Bacpac, Microsoft Access for National Building Cost Manual, and PDF where applicable.
How often is the data updated?
Products are updated on regular schedules for ongoing estimating and valuation work.
Can more than one product be licensed together?
Yes. Many licensees use multiple products, and we can review packaging options based on your needs.
What kind of support is available?
Real support from real humans. Questions about products, formats, samples, and licensing are handled directly by our team.
What are the commercial license terms, including use with AI?
Under our standard commercial license you can use the data inside your product, including with AI agents and AI-assisted workflows. You cannot use it to train or fine-tune AI models, and you cannot sublicense it. See the standard contract wording under Commercial License Terms below.
What our standard commercial license allows, including with AI. Non-commercial licenses have different terms, so tell us your use when you inquire.
Use it in your product
Show Craftsman cost figures to your end customers, including in estimates and reports they share. Store and cache the data on servers you control or on contracted cloud infrastructure, with access controls.
Works with AI agents
AI agents and AI-assisted workflows inside your product can look up the data and use the results in your estimates, reports and other outputs.
No AI training or sublicensing
The data cannot be used to train or fine-tune AI models, to build a competing dataset, or to be sublicensed, without separate written consent.
Read the standard contract wording
Section 4, Grant of License
4.1 Originator hereby grants to Developer a non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, sell, lease or otherwise transfer all or any portion of The Database in digital form and to prepare derivative works thereof in digital form – including the right, during the agreement term, to (a) display cost figures derived from The Database to Developer's end customers within The Product. Cost figures may appear in estimates and reports Developer’s customers share with others (for example lenders or partners) as web links, PDFs and spreadsheets; and (b) store and cache The Database and derived values locally for reproducibility of Developer's outputs including on Developer-controlled servers or contracted cloud infrastructure, with appropriate access controls.
4.2 No right is hereby granted to Developer to sub-license reproduction rights to any other party or to distribute copies of The Database in any form other than machine-readable digital media. Developer may not use The Database to train or fine-tune the weights or parameters of any artificial intelligence or machine-learning model, nor to create any model or data set intended to substitute for, replicate, or compete with The Database. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this Section restricts Developer from: (a) querying The Database programmatically, including from within automated or AI-assisted workflows; (b) storing, caching, indexing, or reformatting responses returned by The Database within The Product; or (c) incorporating values returned by The Database into estimates, reports, and other outputs of The Product.
4.3 For clarity, Developer may improve or train its proprietary AI using independently obtained or properly licensed inspection information, scope and quantity calculations, contractor corrections, customer feedback and verified repair outcomes, provided that neither The Database nor Craftsman-derived price figures are used as model-training or fine-tuning inputs without Originator’s separate written consent. Authorized local storage, indexing, searching, and retrieval of The Database solely for use within The Product shall not, by themselves, be treated as creation of a competing dataset. Developer shall use reasonable technical safeguards to segregate Craftsman-derived pricing from AI-training material.
In the contract text, "Originator" is Craftsman and "Developer" is the licensee. This is Section 4 of our standard commercial license agreement. Your signed agreement controls. Last updated October 2026.
