KiCad has never shipped a full-board autorouter in its modern versions. The developers treat interactive routing as the core workflow, so "KiCad autorouter" or "KiCad auto routing" usually means an external tool and a round trip. KiCad 10 narrows the gap with a built-in command that autoroutes selected connections, and Freerouting now connects to KiCad 10 directly. This page covers each option, how to run it, and how to check the result.
By Rishik Boddeti · Last reviewed
Founder of ProtoFlow, ECE at UT Austin
Quick answer
Not a full-board one. KiCad 10's interactive router can autoroute the connections you select (Attempt Finish Selected, Shift+F), one after another, and it pauses when it can't finish one. To route a whole board automatically you need an external tool. Freerouting is the standard free answer: it installs from KiCad's Plugin and Content Manager, and since v2.5.0 (October 2026) it can run from KiCad 10 over KiCad's IPC interface, falling back to the Specctra DSN/SES round trip. Cloud AI routers such as Quilter and DeepPCB route uploaded boards, and ProtoFlow, a free desktop app, opens the KiCad project, autoroutes it and exports it back to KiCad.
| Option | How it connects to KiCad | Where it runs | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| KiCad 10: Attempt Finish Selected | Built in (Shift+F); routes selected connections one by one | Inside KiCad | Free, open source |
| Freerouting | Plugin and Content Manager; KiCad 10+ IPC mode (v2.5.0) or Specctra DSN/SES | Your computer (plugin, desktop app or CLI) | Free, open source (GPL-3.0) |
| DeepPCB | KiCad plugin, or upload the placed board | Cloud; private cloud or on-prem for enterprise | One-time 30-minute trial, then from $30 per hour |
| ProtoFlow | Opens the KiCad project, exports back to KiCad | Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) | Free plan; the autorouter is included |
| Quilter | Upload the KiCad design; places and routes it | Cloud; self-hosted for paying customers | Free for personal, academic and eligible small-business use |
Skip the comparison shopping. Try the free one first and see if it does the job.
Download for DesktopEach row links to the vendor page it came from and shows the date we last read that page. Vendors change pricing often, so check the link before you buy.
| Product | Price or limit | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| KiCad | Free, open source (GPL v3 or later) | kicad.org | |
| Freerouting | Free, open source (GPL-3.0); v2.5.0 released October 5, 2026 | github.com | |
| DeepPCB | One-time trial: up to 30 minutes, 1 board, up to 4 layers, 150 airwires, 100 components; then $30 for 1 hour, $280 for 10 hours, $800 for 30 hours | deeppcb.ai | |
| Quilter | Free for personal, academic and eligible professional use (under 10 people and $50K revenue); free-tier data used to generate training puzzles | quilter.ai |
Not one that routes a whole board on its own. KiCad dropped its old built-in autorouter years ago, and the project has kept that position: its routing tools are interactive.
What KiCad 10 does have is Attempt Finish Selected (Autoroute), Shift+F. Select footprints, pads or tracks, right-click and run it, and the interactive router routes each selected item to its nearest ratsnest anchor, in the order you selected them. When it can't complete a connection, it stops with the router active so you can finish that track by hand or skip it with Cancel Current Item, then it carries on.
That is useful for finishing a handful of simple connections. For a full board, use one of the external options below.
The interactive router has push-and-shove, walkaround and highlight-collisions modes, differential pair routing, and length and skew tuning, including time-domain tuning when a tuning profile turns it on.
Attempt Finish (F) completes the current track to the nearest ratsnest end, and Attempt Finish Selected (Shift+F) runs that over a whole selection.
Route critical nets with these tools first: power, high-speed and differential pairs, RF and anything with length rules. Lock them, then let an autorouter fill in the rest.
1. In KiCad, open Tools, then Plugin and Content Manager (Ctrl+M), search for Freerouting and install it.
2. Open your board in the PCB Editor. Set the board outline, design rules and net classes in Board Setup first, because the router follows them. Optionally remove existing tracks and vias you don't want to keep.
3. Start Freerouting from Tools, then External Plugins. With Freerouting v2.5.0 or later on KiCad 10, it can route over KiCad's IPC interface in a separate process, so KiCad stays responsive while a progress window shows each stage (fanout, autoroute, optimize) and lets you cancel. If IPC isn't available, it falls back to the Specctra DSN/SES round trip.
4. Wait for routing to finish and the plugin to load the result into your board. Depending on the version, Freerouting's desktop app may need a Java runtime; the project recommends Java 25, and v2.5.0 added native command-line binaries that don't need Java.
5. Run DRC in KiCad and fix what it finds (see the checklist below).
Without the plugin, export the board with File, Export, Specctra DSN. Open the .dsn file in Freerouting (or another router that reads DSN), route it, and save the session as a .ses file.
Back in KiCad, use File, Import, Specctra Session to add the routed tracks and vias to the same board. The import only adds routing. Footprints, nets and the board outline must match the board you exported, so if you change anything in between, export a fresh DSN.
Before: board outline closed on Edge.Cuts; track widths, clearances and via sizes set per net class in Board Setup; keepout zones drawn where copper must not go; critical nets routed by hand and locked; parts placed the way you want them, because an autorouter rarely fixes a bad placement.
After: run DRC and clear every error; check that there are no unconnected items left; refill zones (B) and run DRC again; check power and ground paths for width and via count; check board-edge clearance yourself, since Freerouting's notes say KiCad's DSN export leaves it out.
Treat any autorouted board as a draft. An engineer should review it before you order boards.
ProtoFlow is a free desktop PCB design app. It opens KiCad projects, so you can open the board, run its autorouter (with presets, layer filters and a completion summary), run DRC in the same editor, and export the result back to KiCad or straight to Gerbers. Routing runs on your computer.
Its AI agent, ProtoFlow Studio, can also place and route a board. On LG AI Research's public PCBWorld-Bench (October 13, 2026, one attempt per board, every attempt counted), Studio with Claude Opus 5.5, a paid setup, left 98 of 99 small boards clean under KiCad's design-rule check; the one miss was a ProtoFlow file-save bug, and that board was clean once it was fixed. All 30 medium-board attempts were clean. ProtoFlow's router on its own, with no AI model, had a KiCad clean-pass score of 0.919 on the small boards and 0.900 on the medium ones.
On IO Rodeo's open-source Rodeostat (October 16, 2026), Studio kept the designer's placement, made all 372 connections and left zero KiCad errors, with no part moved. These results are evidence for those boards only, not a promise for every board.
Limits: it does no signal-integrity analysis, it needs a desktop install, and its routes need the same review as any autorouter output.
Quilter places and routes a board from your schematic and constraints in the cloud and works with KiCad files natively. Its free tier covers personal, academic and eligible small-business use (under 10 people and $50K revenue), and Quilter says free-tier board data is used for training.
DeepPCB routes a board you have already placed, and you can keep the nets you routed yourself. It has a KiCad plugin. The free offer is a one-time 30-minute trial on one board with up to 4 layers, 150 airwires and 100 components; after that you buy routing time.
Both run outside your computer, so read their data terms before uploading confidential work.
A few simple connections: KiCad 10's Attempt Finish Selected. A free full-board autorouter that stays local and open source: Freerouting. A full editor with its own autorouter and an AI agent, on your desktop: ProtoFlow. A cloud service to route a placed board: Quilter if you qualify for its free tier, or DeepPCB if a short trial and hourly pricing suit you. Whichever routes the board, run DRC in KiCad afterwards and review it like any other automated output.
| If you want | Look at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| To finish a few simple connections without leaving KiCad | KiCad 10's Attempt Finish Selected (Shift+F) | Built in and free; it routes selected items one by one and stops when it needs you. |
| Free, local, open-source full-board autorouting | Freerouting | Installs from the Plugin and Content Manager; v2.5.0 connects to KiCad 10 over IPC. |
| An editor with its own autorouter and an AI agent | ProtoFlow | Opens KiCad projects and exports back to KiCad; free plan; runs on your desktop. |
| A cloud service to route a placed board | Quilter, DeepPCB | Quilter is free if you qualify and trains on free-tier data; DeepPCB gives one 30-minute trial, then hourly. |
| High-speed, RF or differential pairs | KiCad's interactive router, by hand | Route and lock these first with length and skew tuning, then autoroute the rest. |
Reviewed on: 2026-10-26
Not a full-board one. KiCad 10's interactive router has Attempt Finish Selected (Autoroute), Shift+F, which routes the connections you select one by one and pauses when it can't complete one. For a whole board, use an external router such as Freerouting.
Install the Freerouting plugin from Tools, Plugin and Content Manager, open your board in the PCB Editor, set your design rules and net classes, and run Freerouting from Tools, External Plugins. When it finishes, run DRC. For a few connections only, select them and press Shift+F.
Yes. Freerouting v2.5.0 (October 2026) added a KiCad 10+ mode that routes over KiCad's IPC interface in a separate process, so KiCad stays responsive. If IPC isn't available, it uses the Specctra DSN/SES round trip.
Freerouting is the established free, open-source choice and works from inside KiCad. KiCad 10's own Attempt Finish Selected is enough for a few simple connections. ProtoFlow is a free desktop editor with its own autorouter that opens KiCad projects and exports back to KiCad.
Quilter (cloud, free tier if you qualify) and DeepPCB (cloud, KiCad plugin, 30-minute trial) are AI routers that work with KiCad boards. ProtoFlow Studio, our AI agent, places and routes boards on the desktop; its published results were checked with KiCad's DRC.
For a local tool, ProtoFlow's autorouter runs on your desktop and opens KiCad projects. For a cloud service, Quilter or DeepPCB. For a few connections, KiCad 10's Shift+F.
KiCad only applies a .ses file to a board whose footprints, nets and outline match the DSN you exported. If you changed the board after exporting, export a new DSN, route it again and import that session.
For prototypes, dense digital sections and revision churn, it saves hours. High-speed, RF and power-dense sections still deserve manual routing: route those first, lock them, then let the autorouter fill in the rest, and review everything with DRC.
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