Contents
Key takeawaysThe three licensing modelsCost per active userChecking your own usageWhat we have seenPortfolio overlapTrue ups and counting rulesContract terms to ask forSmall team or large groupWhat to do nextFAQThe licensing model that fits your usage curve saves more than any discount. Idle named seats and ungoverned consumption can each push the cost per active user far above the rate card.
- Three models. Autodesk sells named users with Flex tokens, Bentley bills E365 consumption quarterly, and Hexagon mixes perpetual, subscription and tokens by product line.
- Compare cost per active user. Divide what you pay by the people who opened the product in the last 90 days, because list price hides every idle seat.
- Idle seats are recoverable. A third or more of named user CAD spend typically sits idle, and you can reclaim it without asking the vendor.
- Govern consumption from day one. Bentley E365 overruns build up when alerts, the Quarterly Floor and counting rules are set only after the first invoice.
- Overlap is paid twice. Plant design, reality capture and structural analysis often run in two stacks at once after an acquisition.
- Keep one alternative. Single vendor customers paid higher renewal rates than those who kept a credible second stack in a defined niche.
- Negotiate the counting rules. Peak intervals, shared workstations and idle timeouts are settled at signature and are hard to reopen once an invoice arrives.
How do Autodesk, Bentley and Hexagon license engineering software?
Autodesk sells named user subscriptions and covers occasional users with Flex tokens. Bentley bills consumption against an enterprise commitment through Enterprise 365 (E365), with SELECT and term licenses for customers who still hold perpetual pools. Hexagon mixes perpetual, subscription and token schemes by product line.
The product catalogs are on the Autodesk product pages, the Bentley software pages and the Hexagon product pages. The table below sets the three models side by side.
| Factor | Named user (Autodesk) | Consumption (Bentley E365) | Mixed (Hexagon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary basis | Named user subscription | Consumption against a commitment, billed quarterly | Perpetual, subscription and tokens |
| Occasional users | Flex token pools, charged per 24 hours of use | Counted per use, per named user or unique machine, per day or per quarter | Token pools by product, such as MSC One for simulation |
| Cost predictability | High, per seat | Low without governance | Medium, varies by line |
| Where it stings | Idle seats | Peak usage true ups and the quarterly floor | Maintenance on legacy perpetual licenses |
Which model fits which usage curve?
Named user wins for daily heavy users. Consumption wins for large populations of occasional users. Perpetual plus maintenance only wins where you can freeze versions for years, which is rare for teams that exchange models with clients on current releases.
Map the usage histogram before you debate price. Once you know how many people use each product daily, weekly or a few times a year, the choice of model usually follows. That choice decides more money than the rate does.
Why does the same team price three different ways?
A single 500 person engineering organization produces three materially different numbers under the three models. Choosing between those numbers matters more than the discount conversation, which sits well downstream. That is why we build the usage curve before we look at any quote.
What changed at Hexagon in 2026?
Hexagon completed the spin off of Octave on 28 May 2026. Asset Lifecycle Intelligence, the home of the Intergraph plant design tools, moved to Octave together with ETQ and Bricsys. Manufacturing Intelligence (the MSC simulation tools) and Geosystems (Leica) otherwise stayed with Hexagon.
Check which legal entity sits on each order form before renewal, because one Hexagon relationship may now be two.
What does each model cost per active user?
Cost per active user is the figure you can compare across all three vendors, and list price is not. Idle seats and unmanaged consumption distort it in opposite directions: idle seats inflate it all year, while consumption inflates it in a lump when the quarterly invoice lands.
How do you calculate it for each model?
- Named user. Divide subscription spend by users active in the last 90 days, then reclaim or convert the rest.
- Consumption. Divide program spend by distinct active users, and check which peak hours drive the overage.
- Mixed. Add the maintenance you pay on shelfware perpetual licenses before you compare anything.
Converting an idle named seat to a token pool is the usual first step. The break even point by product sits in our token pricing guide.
What does 60 percent usage do to the unit cost?
If only 60 percent of your seats are in use, each active user costs two thirds more than the rate card suggests. No discount on that rate card closes the gap, because the gap is in the denominator.
Say you hold 500 AutoCAD named subscriptions at the $2,095 US list price, and 300 people used AutoCAD in the last 90 days. Of the other 200, the Seat Usage report shows 120 who opened it on about 11 days in the past 12 months and 80 who never did.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Current annual spend | 500 seats x $2,095 | $1,047,500 |
| Cost per active user today | $1,047,500 / 300 active users | $3,492 per active user |
| Keep the active users named | 300 seats x $2,095 | $628,500 |
| Cover 120 occasional users on Flex | 120 users x 11 days x 7 tokens = 9,240 tokens, bought as 10,000 at $2.85 | $28,500 |
| Drop 80 seats with no use in 12 months | Not renewed | $0 |
| New annual spend | $628,500 + $28,500 | $657,000, a saving of $390,500 or about 37 percent |
The rate stayed at list throughout. Every dollar of the saving came from matching the licensing model to the usage curve, and Autodesk did not have to agree to anything first. Flex tokens expire one year after purchase, so size each pack to the days of use in your histogram.
How does a consumption program overrun?
E365 sets estimated fees for the term and may set a Quarterly Floor, a minimum fee for each quarter. Say your order form estimates $800,000 for the year with a floor of $150,000 a quarter. If usage runs 25 percent over the estimate, you pay $1,000,000, and a quiet quarter with $120,000 of actual use still bills at $150,000.
Autodesk Audit Defense Guide
The usage evidence and negotiation sequence we use when an engineering software vendor raises a true up.
Get the white paper →How do you check your own usage with each vendor?
Each vendor gives administrators a usage view, and each one measures something slightly different. Pull all of them for the same twelve months before any renewal conversation, and keep the exports.
- Autodesk named users. In Autodesk Account, Reporting then Seat Usage shows assigned seats and which assigned users ran each product, with ranges from the past 30 days to the past 12 months. It only sees users who were connected to the internet.
- Autodesk Flex. The token usage report in the same Reporting area shows tokens consumed by product and by user.
- Bentley. The Subscription Entitlement Service assigns licenses to named users and gives near real time usage monitoring with custom alerts. Set the alerts before the first E365 quarter starts.
- Hexagon and Octave plant tools. Intergraph Smart Licensing has a Live Usage view of licenses in use. Export it regularly, because reconstructing a baseline later is harder.
- Your own records. Purchase orders, maintenance renewals and old serial numbers, especially for product lines that came through vendor acquisitions.
What have we seen in recent engineering software negotiations?
Across roughly 15 to 25 engineering and design software engagements that Fredrik Filipsson benchmarked between 2024 and 2025, a mismatch between licensing model and usage cost more than list pricing did. Three patterns recurred.
- Only 40 to 65 percent of named user CAD seats were in use, counting only people who opened the product within the previous 90 days. A third or more of subscription spend sat idle, and you can recover it without any vendor conversation.
- Consumption programs overran budget by 15 to 35 percent in their first year when usage governance was missing at the start and only added after the first overage invoice.
- Companies running two or more of these vendors carried 20 to 30 percent overlapping capability they paid for twice, usually inherited through an acquisition.
The idle seats often have a traceable origin. Autodesk's Transition to Named User offer swapped each multi user network seat for two named subscriptions at similar spend, with discounted renewals offered through 2028. A customer that traded in its whole network pool doubled its seat count without adding a single engineer, so those seats are the first place to look.
The right licensing model for your usage curve beats a discount on the wrong one, and the gap between the two is larger than any rate negotiation reaches.
Why do companies running several of these vendors overspend?
They overspend because the three portfolios overlap. Plant design, reality capture and structural analysis exist in more than one stack, and acquisitions leave teams on parallel tools that each carry their own renewal.
| Capability | Autodesk | Bentley | Hexagon or Octave |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant design | AutoCAD Plant 3D | OpenPlant | Intergraph Smart 3D and CADWorx (Octave) |
| Reality capture | ReCap Pro | iTwin Capture Modeler | Leica Cyclone (Hexagon) |
| Structural and finite element analysis | Robot Structural Analysis Professional | STAAD.Pro | MSC Nastran (Hexagon) |
Is the overlap an architecture problem or a budget problem?
It is a budget problem. The duplicated capability is spend that consolidation recovers directly. It is rarely a technical decision and almost always an inherited one, so the fix sits with procurement and the engineering leads, who can compare active users on each tool and retire the thinner one.
Why we advise against standardizing on one vendor
The usual advice is to standardize all engineering software on one vendor to maximize the discount. We disagree, because single vendor customers in the engagements we benchmarked in 2024 and 2025 paid higher unit rates at renewal than customers who kept a credible second stack in a defined niche.
A vendor that holds the whole portfolio prices for lock in, and loyalty does not buy a lower rate. So consolidate the overlap you do not need, and keep one alternative alive where switching is realistic. Treating those as one question is how companies end up either paying twice or paying for lock in.
How aggressive are Autodesk, Bentley and Hexagon on true ups?
They differ, and the difference decides what evidence you need. Autodesk runs an active compliance program. Bentley and Hexagon mostly enforce through usage reconciliation that arrives as an invoice.
What evidence does each vendor rely on?
- Autodesk. Watch installer telemetry and legacy serial use, because old network licenses are the usual claim base. Autodesk describes its audits, license reviews and in product warnings on its license compliance page.
- Bentley. The quarterly usage report is the audit. Dispute peak counting rules and shared machine effects in writing, before you pay.
- Hexagon. Entitlement sprawl across acquired product lines makes baseline reconstruction your defense, and the Octave split adds a second counterparty to reconcile.
Why a true up dispute turns on counting rules
Concurrent peaks, shared workstations and idle session timeouts move the count materially. Under Bentley term licensing, peak usage is the highest number of machines running an application in any one 10 minute interval in the quarter. Own 40 perpetual licenses, hit 52 machines for one afternoon, and you receive an invoice for 12 term licenses.
You can negotiate the contract language on each of these rules before signature; once the invoice arrives, that window has closed. Our audit defense guide covers the Autodesk side in detail.
What should you ask for in the contract?
Ask for terms that protect the usage curve you measured. Rate discounts matter less than the rules that decide how many units you pay for.
- A banded commitment with rollover. For consumption programs, commit to a band and carry unused volume into the next period, so a quiet quarter is not lost money.
- A floor sized to your quietest quarter. An E365 Quarterly Floor set at your average quarter bills for unused capacity in every quiet quarter.
- Written counting definitions. Peak interval, machine versus user, shared workstation treatment and idle session timeout, all in the order form.
- A reduction right at each anniversary. Being able to drop seats or volume is worth more than a price hold on a count that is too high.
- Multi year unit rates. Lock the per unit rate for the term, together with the reduction right.
- Access to the data behind any invoice. The interval level usage log, with a dispute window before payment falls due.
What will the account team say, and how should you answer?
| What you will hear | What to say back |
|---|---|
| "Renew the full seat count to keep your trade in pricing." | We will renew the seats the Seat Usage report shows active in the last 90 days and move the rest to Flex. Show us the price on that count. |
| "E365 gives you access to everything, so you only pay for what you use." | Then set the Quarterly Floor at our quietest quarter and give us alerts and data access from day one. |
| "The peak was measured by our system, so the invoice stands." | Send the interval log. We will check machine counts against shared workstations and sessions left open past the idle timeout. |
| "Standardize on our portfolio and the discount improves." | Price only the lines our usage supports, with a reduction right. We keep an alternative where switching is realistic. |
How does the choice change with company size?
A 500 person engineering team usually gets the most from seat hygiene: reclaim idle Autodesk seats, cover occasional users with tokens, and avoid a consumption program until someone owns the usage data. That work takes weeks, and it needs no vendor approval.
A group with several thousand engineers across regions has a different profile. It usually runs two or three of these vendors at once, often after acquisitions, so the overlap and the counting rules in consumption and term licensing carry more money than seat reclaim does.
What to do next
- Twelve months before renewal. Build a twelve month usage histogram per product before any renewal conversation, because the model decision needs the curve and the discount conversation does not settle it. Our spend health check builds the histogram before the quote arrives.
- Nine months out. Reclaim or convert idle named user seats, and set the token pool at the days your occasional users actually worked in the product last year.
- Six months out. Cap consumption true ups with a banded commitment and rollover of unused volume, and write the counting definitions into the draft order form.
- Four months out. Price the overlapping capability across vendors and put the consolidation case on the table, while keeping one credible alternative in a defined niche.
- At signature. Lock multi year unit rates with a reduction right rather than a price hold, using the agreement structure in our enterprise agreement negotiation guide, and confirm the entity on every Hexagon or Octave order form.
Want a second opinion on a vendor quote or license position? Our software licensing consultants work only for buyers, for a fixed fee or 25 percent of what we save you.
Frequently asked questions
What are the three licensing models used by Autodesk, Bentley and Hexagon?
Named user subscription with tokens for occasional use (Autodesk), consumption billed against an enterprise commitment (Bentley E365), and a mix of perpetual, subscription and token schemes by product line (Hexagon). Many large engineering groups run all three at once, each with its own renewal date and its own definition of a user.
Which licensing model fits which kind of usage?
Named user suits daily heavy users, consumption suits large populations of occasional users, and perpetual with maintenance only pays where versions can be frozen for years. Most teams have all three usage types, so a split, such as named seats for designers and tokens for reviewers, usually beats a single model.
What share of named user CAD seats is actually used?
Between 40 and 65 percent in the companies we benchmarked, measured against users active in the last 90 days. To find the idle ones, look first at seats bought for projects that have ended, leavers who were never unassigned, and seats added through the Autodesk network trade in.
What does low seat usage actually cost?
At 60 percent usage, each active user costs two thirds more than the rate card suggests. An extra 10 percent discount on the rate still leaves each active user costing about 50 percent more than the original rate card, while removing idle seats closes the gap in one renewal.
How far do consumption programs overrun in year one?
By 15 to 35 percent in their first year where usage governance was missing at the start. Two things to control from the first quarter: who can start using a product without approval, and how project deadline peaks compare with the estimated fees on the order form.
Why do companies running several engineering software vendors overspend?
Because the portfolios overlap in plant design, reality capture and structural analysis, and acquisitions leave teams on parallel tools. Each tool renews on its own cycle, so the duplication rarely shows up in one budget line where finance would notice it.
How much engineering software capability is duplicated?
Between 20 and 30 percent in companies running two or more of the three vendors. Start with the tools that have the fewest active users on the smaller stack, since those are cheapest to retire and carry the least retraining.
How do the vendors' compliance approaches differ?
Autodesk runs an active compliance program with a dedicated team, audits and in product warnings. Bentley and Hexagon mostly enforce through usage reconciliation that arrives as a true up or term license invoice, so your own usage logs are the evidence that matters.
What decides a true up dispute?
The counting rules in your contract. How peaks are sampled, how a shared workstation counts and when an idle session times out all change the billed number, and you can only set those terms before signature. After that, the vendor's reading of its own logs usually prevails unless you kept equivalent records.
Should we standardize engineering software on one vendor?
Not entirely. Single vendor customers paid higher unit rates at renewal than those keeping a credible second stack. Keep the second stack small and deliberate: one niche, active users, and a real migration path the vendor can see.