Best Cut List Optimizer in 2026 (Free & Paid)

A cut list optimizer takes the parts you need and works out how to get them out of the fewest boards or sheets with the least waste, once the saw blade's kerf is accounted for. On a kitchen's worth of cabinets, the difference between a good layout and a bad one is a whole sheet of plywood — call it $60 — plus an hour of standing at the saw wondering which cut comes next.

The tools have quietly split into two camps. The free ones mostly still do what they did in 2015: nest rectangles, draw a diagram, stop there. The paid ones have grown the features that actually save money — offcut reuse, DXF export, saved projects — and put them behind $29-a-month subscriptions. Here are eight of them compared, and an argument that you shouldn't have to pay for any of it.

The short answer

What actually matters in an optimizer

Most feature lists are noise. Five things change the outcome on a real project.

Kerf

The blade turns about 1/8" of wood into dust on every cut. An optimizer that ignores kerf gives you a layout that fits perfectly on screen and comes up short at the saw. Every tool here handles kerf — but set it to your actual blade rather than trusting the default.

Grain direction

If a panel has visible grain — veneered ply, melamine, anything with a face — the optimizer must not rotate it 90° just because it packs better. Otherwise you end up with a cabinet where one door's grain runs vertically and the other horizontally. You want per-part grain locking rather than one global switch, because backs and shelves usually can rotate freely, and locking them costs you yield for nothing.

Offcut reuse

This is the one that pays. Every project leaves usable remnants, and a 4' × 18" strip off a plywood sheet is not scrap — it's the next set of drawer bottoms. A tool that lets you bank those leftovers and spend them on the next project stops you buying material you already own. Most free tools ignore this entirely; most paid tools charge for it.

A cut sequence, not just a picture

A nesting diagram still leaves you at the saw deciding which cut to make first. On a table saw or track saw every cut has to run edge to edge, so the order isn't optional — go in the wrong sequence and you'll find yourself needing a cut that's no longer possible to make. A numbered list of cuts, in order, with the measurement for each, beats a prettier diagram every time.

Exports you'll actually use

A printable diagram is the baseline. CSV matters if you keep costs in a spreadsheet. DXF only matters if you're sending the layout to a CNC router — if you cut by hand, it's a feature you'll never touch, and it shouldn't be what decides your purchase.

The comparison table

Compiled in July 2026 from each tool's own documentation, free-tier limits and public pricing. Vendors change their tiers often, so check current pricing before buying anything.

The free optimizers

Plank & Build Cut List Optimizer

Ours, so read this section with that in mind — but the reason it exists is that we got tired of hitting a paywall on features that cost nothing to give away.

It runs in two modes: linear boards (2×4s, hardwood, trim) and 2D sheet goods (plywood, MDF, melamine). You get kerf, per-panel grain locking, multiple materials, multiple stock sizes with prices, and a live cost readout. It reports yield — the share of material that leaves as parts rather than waste — which is the number every other tool advertises and then makes oddly hard to find.

Two features make it worth switching to. An offcut bin: save the usable remnants from a layout, tick one box on your next project, and the optimizer cuts from that free material before it buys a sheet. And a numbered cut sequence: every cut in the order you have to make it, edge to edge, with the measurement. CSV and DXF export are both free — that's the part competitors charge for.

Nothing is uploaded. The whole thing runs in your browser, and saved projects and offcuts live on your own machine. The flip side: there's no cloud sync, so your offcut bin doesn't follow you from the laptop to the shop tablet.

Best for: hobbyists and one-person shops who want the paid feature set without the subscription.
Pros: genuinely free with no metering, offcut reuse, cut sequence, free DXF, no signup, nothing uploaded.
Cons: no sync between devices, no edge banding calculation, rectangular parts only.

CutList Optimizer

The one most people find first, and a perfectly good free web tool. It nests panels quickly, handles kerf, and there's no learning curve. It's ad-supported, grain handling is thinner than the rest of the field, and there's no offcut tracking or DXF. For a one-off project where you just need a sheet count, it does the job.

Best for: a quick one-off panel layout.
Pros: free, fast, dead simple, well established.
Cons: ads, limited grain control, no offcut reuse, no DXF.

OptiCutter

A polished web optimizer covering both linear and panel cutting, with proper grain support and clean printable diagrams. The free tier is real but capped, and the useful exports sit behind the paid plan. If you like the interface, the paid tier is fairly priced for what it is.

Best for: anyone who wants a tidy, professional-looking diagram to hand to someone else.
Pros: clean output, linear and panel modes, good grain support.
Cons: free tier is limited, exports are paywalled.

OpenCutList (SketchUp)

Free, open source, and the right answer for anyone who already designs in SketchUp — it reads parts directly off the model, so there's no retyping a cut list and no transcription errors, which is a bigger real-world win than a couple of points of yield. It produces cut diagrams, costings and labels, and it's actively maintained.

The obvious limit: it's a SketchUp extension. If you don't model, it isn't for you.

Best for: SketchUp users, full stop.
Pros: free, open source, pulls parts straight from the model, active development.
Cons: useless without SketchUp, no remnant inventory.

The paid optimizers

CutPlan

A modern browser optimizer with a generous-looking free tier — a monthly calculation allowance rather than a hard feature lock — plus grain, kerf, edge banding, multiple materials, offcut inventory and broad language support. DXF and the deeper features sit on the paid plan. It's well built, and it's the closest direct competitor for the browser-based crowd.

Be clear-eyed about the shape of the deal, though: a monthly cap on how many times you're allowed to calculate, and a subscription to remove it. For a professional shop that's noise. For someone building a bookshelf twice a year, paying monthly for a rectangle-packing algorithm is a hard sell.

Best for: shops that want a modern web tool and don't mind a subscription.
Pros: strong feature set, offcut inventory, many languages, works on any device.
Cons: free tier is metered, DXF is paywalled, account required.

MaxCut

A serious Windows application aimed at cabinet shops: real material inventory, offcut management, edge banding, costing and quoting, and optimization that holds up on big jobs. The free version is usable; the paid version is where the shop features live. It isn't a weekend-project tool and doesn't pretend to be.

Best for: cabinet shops running volume on Windows.
Pros: deep inventory and offcut handling, costing and quoting, strong optimizer.
Cons: Windows only, far more software than a hobbyist needs.

CutList Plus fx

The long-standing Windows desktop name here, sold as a one-time license rather than a subscription — which, if you're going to pay at all, is the model that ages best. Excellent printed shop reports, solid material library, offcut tracking. The interface shows its age and it's Windows-only, but shops have relied on it for years.

Best for: people who want to buy software once and own it.
Pros: one-time purchase, superb printed reports, mature and stable.
Cons: Windows only, dated interface, priced by edition.

Cutlist Evo

A subscription web tool pointed at production environments — cost calculation, waste analysis, edge banding, high volume. More tool than a hobbyist will ever need, and priced accordingly.

Best for: production shops needing costing and edge banding at volume.
Pros: production-grade features, detailed cost analysis, web-based.
Cons: the most expensive way to answer "how many sheets do I buy?"

What yield should you expect?

Yield is the share of the sheet that leaves as parts instead of waste. Tool marketing likes to imply a cleverer algorithm buys you big gains. It mostly doesn't. Your part sizes decide your yield far more than your software does.

Parts that divide cleanly into a 4×8 sheet nest beautifully: 24"-wide parts give you exactly two rows out of a 48" width with nothing left over. Parts that are 26" wide give you one row and a 22" strip, and no optimizer on earth can conjure that back. On a normal cabinet or furniture project, 80–90% is a realistic result and above 90% is very good. If a tool claims it routinely hits 95%+ on arbitrary parts, it's telling you about its own test project, not about yours.

The same thinking applies to solid stock — see the board foot calculator for pricing hardwood by volume, and the lumber cost calculator for costing a project before you commit to it.

Which one should you use?

• Weekend woodworker cutting plywood and boards: our cut list optimizer. Free, no account, and the offcut bin quietly saves you a sheet every few projects.
• You design in SketchUp: OpenCutList. Pulling parts off the model beats retyping them, every time.
• Small shop selling work: ours for the cutting, plus a real costing tool once you're quoting jobs regularly.
• Production cabinet shop: MaxCut or CutList Plus fx. You need inventory, quoting and shop reports, and that's worth paying for.
• Cutting on a CNC router: anything with DXF export. Ours does it free; OpenCutList does too.

One last thing worth saying plainly: for the overwhelming majority of woodworkers a cut list optimizer is a solved problem, and it shouldn't cost a subscription. Packing rectangles is not a monthly service. Use a free tool and put the $29 into a better blade — a clean-cutting 40-tooth blade will do more for your results than any algorithm on this page.

Cut list optimizers — Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free cut list optimizer?

The best free one is the one that doesn't meter you. Our cut list optimizer has no signup, no calculation limit, and no paywalled features — grain, offcut reuse, CSV and DXF are all included. CutList Optimizer and OptiCutter are also genuinely useful free web tools, and OpenCutList is the best free choice if you model in SketchUp.

What material yield should a cut list optimizer achieve?

On a typical cabinet or furniture project, 80–90% is realistic and above 90% is very good. Yield depends far more on your part sizes than on the software — parts that divide evenly into a 4×8 sheet nest well, and awkward sizes leave waste no algorithm can remove.

Do I need DXF export?

Only if you're sending the layout to a CNC router or a shop that cuts from vector files. If you're cutting on a table saw or track saw, a printed diagram and a numbered cut sequence are far more useful.

What is saw kerf and why does it matter?

Kerf is the material the blade turns to dust on every cut, usually about 1/8". An optimizer that ignores kerf produces a layout that looks like it fits and doesn't. Set it to your actual blade rather than trusting the default.

Can a cut list optimizer reuse my leftover offcuts?

Some can. Offcut tracking lets you save usable remnants and treat them as free stock next time, so the optimizer cuts from material you already own before buying a new sheet. It's the feature that saves the most money over time, and it's missing from most free tools — ours includes it.

Is a cut list optimizer worth paying for?

For a production shop, yes — but you're paying for inventory, costing and quoting, not for the packing algorithm. For everyone else, no. The optimization itself is a solved problem, and there are free tools that do it without limits.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we'd use ourselves. The Plank & Build cut list optimizer is our own free tool.