- Autodesk's new State of Small Business report* shows that small businesses across Design and Make industries are growing nearly 35% faster than the broader small business economy—highlighting their rising role as drivers of innovation and growth.
- Today, Autodesk is launching Autodesk for Small Business—a new global initiative focused on delivering for small businesses across Design and Make industries.
- To start, Autodesk for Small Business is anchored by a new online hub, expanded flexibility, and special pricing throughout Small Business Month.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Autodesk is launching Autodesk for Small Business to unlock growth for the many small teams and entrepreneurs who depend on its technology.
Across Design and Make industries, more professionals are working independently and building businesses of their own. More than one-third of the workforce* now operates as freelancers or contractors, and nearly 1 in 5 professionals are considering starting their own business this year. Yet these teams are doing high-impact work with limited time, resources, and support. Eighty percent say they struggle to balance running the business with doing the actual work.
As Autodesk's customers and the way they work have evolved, so has the need to better support the full range of businesses that rely on the company's technology, particularly small teams, independent professionals, and growing firms. It's critical that technology and experiences reflect how these teams operate day to day.
"More people than ever are designing, building, and running their own businesses. That creates extraordinary opportunity, but also real pressure for small teams to do more with less. Today, 80% of small business owners say they struggle to balance running the business with doing the actual work. We've heard directly from our customers that they need more flexibility, more clarity, and technology that reflects how they actually work. Autodesk for Small Business is about building around their needs and building alongside them as they bring the world around us to life." — Dara Treseder, Chief Marketing Officer
To start, Autodesk for Small Business is focused on three areas:
Experience: A dedicated destination and product improvements that meet small businesses where they are
Autodesk's new Small Business Hub is a dedicated destination on Autodesk.com where small businesses can explore products, compare options, and find the right tools without navigating an experience designed for large enterprises. The hub gives small businesses a simpler way to explore products, compare options, and get started quickly while also providing a direct line to share feedback and shape what we build next. It's live today in the United States and United Kingdom, with more countries to follow later this year.
The company is also prioritizing product improvements shaped by small business feedback—focused on performance, reliability, and getting to value faster:
- AECO: Recent improvements in AutoCAD and Revit help small teams move faster through everyday drafting and design work by reducing errors and rework and minimizing interruptions. Solutions like Forma Build Essentials accelerate construction field delivery with technology that empowers teams to get up and running quickly, spend less time on admin tasks, and keep projects moving.
- D&M: Autodesk Assistant in Fusion turns natural language into action across design and manufacturing workflows. It enables text-to-command modeling and automates workflows for seamless transitions, all while being contextually aware of the task at hand, helping teams–including small businesses–optimize workflows and get more done with the resources they have to stay competitive.
- M&E: Autodesk Flow Studio has introduced flexible pricing tiers, including a freemium entry point, that scale with the needs of business so smaller studios and independent creators can experiment with the latest VFX and animation technology, without upfront costs. With the newest feature releases of Wonder 3D (a generative text to 3D model), AI Rigging, and Neural Layer, Flow Studio enables teams to streamline modeling, rigging, and animation to ultimately reduce the time, complexity, and overhead traditionally required to go from concept to cinematic results.
Flexibility: More ways to get started and scale
Small businesses often manage variable workloads, project-based income, and tight cash flow, so they need more flexibility in how they access the technology they use. To better reflect that reality, later this year, customers will not be required to buy a minimum of 100 Flex tokens at a time. Instead, customers will be able to buy fewer tokens, making it easier for small teams to get started and pay for only what they need.
Autodesk Flex allows customers to prepay for token-based access to more than 100 Autodesk products, with no subscription and no long-term commitment. The lower minimum is designed to reduce upfront commitment while giving small businesses the flexibility to scale usage as project needs change.
This change will be Autodesk's first test in shifting how it works with small businesses to support their diverse and unique business needs. As Autodesk continues to learn from its customers over time, it will make changes and improvements.
Special offers: Help to get more small businesses started
In the month of May, Autodesk will introduce special offers so more small businesses can access the technology they need at a price point that works for their specific needs. The company is also offering a free Autodesk Professional Certification exam voucher with the purchase of AutoCAD.
A growing force in Design and Make
To understand how small businesses are shaping the future of Design and Make industries, Autodesk partnered with GlobalData on a new State of Small Business report.* The research, spanning small businesses across the U.S., highlights a clear shift: small teams within Design and Make are growing faster than the broader market, and project-based work is becoming a more permanent part of how these industries operate.
Top findings include:
- Design and Make professionals are leaving corporate to start their own businesses: Nearly 1 in 5 Design and Make professionals (18%) say they're considering starting their own business in 2026—six percentage points higher than the broader small business economy. This signals growing momentum toward independent work among the people building the physical and virtual world.
- Solopreneur and micro Design and Make firms are outpacing the broader small business economy: They grew nearly 10% in 2025—almost 35% faster than the rest of the small business economy.
- Small businesses struggle to get to the designing and making: 80% of small business owners within Design and Make say they struggle to balance running the business with doing the actual work—11 points higher than small businesses overall.
- Nearly 60% of small business owners in Design and Make say the latest technology is too complex or not designed for smaller teams—seven points higher than the broader small business economy.
- Independent work is becoming the norm in Design and Make: More than one third of the Design and Make workforce (36%) now operates as freelancers or contractors, outpacing the broader workforce (32%) by more than three percentage points and signaling a workforce more reliant on independent talent than the broader economy.
What's next
Today's launch is the first step in a larger effort to build with and for small businesses. As more people start businesses, take on ambitious projects with smaller teams, and navigate a rapidly evolving technology landscape, Autodesk will continue evolving its offerings to better support how these teams grow faster, operate more efficiently, and bring their ideas to life.
Customers can explore the new Small Business Hub to discover tools, compare options, and get started—and are encouraged to share feedback directly through the hub to help directly shape the initiative.
*Methodology: Autodesk's State of Small Business report was developed in partnership with third-party analytics firm GlobalData. The analysis draws on GlobalData's proprietary US business and employment tracking data to evaluate growth trends in small businesses and freelance work over the past three years. GlobalData estimates small business formation using a range of sources, including business filings with state registries, proprietary entrepreneur surveys, trademark and patent filings, and job listings. These inputs are analyzed to estimate both the total number of small businesses and the pace of new business formation. Please note that small business figures include non-employer firms and sole proprietors.
In addition, GlobalData surveyed 1,881 US-based professionals and small business owners across a range of industries (including small business owners within architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment) to assess sentiment, challenges, and opportunities within the Design and Make economy.
About Autodesk
The world's designers, engineers, builders, and creators trust Autodesk to help them design and make anything. From the buildings we live and work in, to the cars we drive and the bridges we drive over. From the products we use and rely on, to the movies and games that inspire us. Autodesk's Design and Make Platform unlocks the power of data to accelerate insights and automate processes, empowering our customers with the technology to create the world around us and deliver better outcomes for their business and the planet. For more information, visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk. #MakeAnything
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SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.
