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Paid plans start at $24.92/mo. There's also a free plan.
Houdini has a free personal-use edition, but commercial pricing starts at $299 for a one-year Houdini Indie rental, or $24.92 per workstation per month when the annual cost is divided across 12 months. SideFX does not publish monthly rental prices in the published plan details. Indie is limited to studios under $100,000 in annual revenue and three licenses. Core is $1,475 per year and FX is $3,505 per year; both cap workstation licenses at five per studio. Choose based on eligibility and workflow, not the monthly-looking figure.
01Every plan, line by line
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houdini Indie | $24.92 | — | Indie filmmakers and game developers |
| Houdini Engine Indie | $0 | — | Eligible Indie users needing asset hosting |
| Houdini Core | $122.92 | — | Modelers, lighters, and game artists |
| Houdini FX | $292.08 | — | Artists and studios creating CG and VFX |
| Karma Renderer | $16.25 | — | Teams needing additional renderer licenses |
| Houdini Engine | $43.75 | — | Commercial teams using digital assets in other apps |
| Houdini Engine for Unreal & Unity | $0 | — | Commercial Unreal and Unity asset workflows |
| Houdini Apprentice | $0 | $0 | Students, hobbyists, and personal projects |
| Houdini Education for Students | — | Quote | Students at accredited schools or training centers |
| Houdini Education for Schools | — | Quote | Schools and training centres |
| Houdini Engine Education | — | Quote | Education users loading assets into other apps |
Add-ons and overages
- Additional Karma Renderer rental: $195 per year
- Houdini Engine rental: $525 per year
- Houdini Engine for Unreal & Unity: free with an active commercial Houdini license
- Houdini Engine Indie: free
02What the plan grid doesn't tell you
Annual rental pricing
Monthly rental prices are not published. The monthly figures shown are annual rental costs divided by 12; Houdini Indie, for example, costs $299 for one year.
Indie eligibility caps
Houdini Indie requires studio revenue under $100,000 per year and is limited to three licenses per studio.
Engine purchase terms
Commercial Houdini Engine costs $525 per workstation for one year. A minimum purchase quantity applies, but the quantity is not published.
Unreal and Unity limits
Houdini Engine for Unreal & Unity is free for one year with an active commercial Houdini license, capped at 10 online licenses per studio. It does not run the Houdini GUI or batch mode.
03Which plan should you buy?
| If you are… | Get | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Personal projects and hobbies | Houdini Apprentice | Free upon installation for non-commercial use, with watermarked renders and a maximum output resolution of 1920×1080. |
| Eligible indie creators | Houdini Indie | $299 for one year, with a three-license studio cap and an annual revenue limit under $100,000. |
| Commercial CG and VFX studios | Houdini FX | The listed option for artists and studios creating CG and VFX; costs $3,505 for a one-year rental. |
04Is Houdini worth the money?
Houdini makes sense when procedural workflows are central: SideFX positions it for VFX, world building, look development, characters, modeling and game development. The cheapest paid route, Indie, is not an unrestricted discount: it has revenue and license caps, while Apprentice is non-commercial and watermarks renders. Core and FX require substantial annual commitments, and monthly rental prices are not published. Choose Houdini for procedural work; skip it if you need a quick, simple 3D tool.
Houdini pricing FAQ
Is Houdini free?
Yes. Houdini Apprentice is free upon installation for personal, non-commercial use, but renders are watermarked and output is capped at 1920×1080. Houdini Engine Indie is also listed as a free one-year rental for eligible Indie users. Houdini Engine for Unreal & Unity is free only with an active commercial Houdini license.
How long does it take to learn Houdini?
SideFX’s published pricing information gives no learning-time estimate, so we would not put a number of hours or weeks on it. Houdini uses procedural tools and has workflows including modeling, VFX, world building and look development. The time required depends on what you need to make.
Is Houdini or Blender better?
The published pricing details do not compare Houdini with Blender, so we can’t call one universally better. SideFX positions Houdini around procedural tools and workflows such as VFX, world building and modeling. Compare both against your required workflow, budget and commercial-use rules before switching.
Is Houdini a GPU or CPU?
The published Houdini pricing information does not say whether a particular workflow runs on a GPU or CPU, and it does not list hardware requirements. We can’t give a reliable GPU-versus-CPU answer from this source. Check SideFX’s technical documentation for the requirements of the version and tasks you plan to run.