DeepPCB

Learning Objectives

• Understand what PCB routing is and which part of board design DeepPCB automates
• Tell a learned routing engine apart from a traditional rule-based autorouter
• Read the vendor's benchmarks and pricing critically before trying it on your own boards

What Is DeepPCB?

DeepPCB is a cloud tool that routes printed circuit boards (PCBs), the boards that hold and connect the components inside almost every electronic product. It is made by InstaDeep, the London-based AI company that BioNTech acquired in 2023, and it is one of the few InstaDeep products anyone can sign up for and use without talking to a salesperson.

Designing a board happens in stages. Engineers draw the schematic, choose the parts, and place the components on the board. Then comes routing: drawing the copper traces that connect every pin to the right pins, across several layers, without breaking the rules on spacing, trace width, impedance and manufacturability. Routing a dense board by hand can take hours or days, and it is the step DeepPCB takes over.

InstaDeep describes DeepPCB as a learned routing engine built on seven years of reinforcement learning research, work the company has published at machine learning conferences including NeurIPS and the International Conference on Machine Learning. That is the distinction it draws against the rule-based autorouters built into traditional design software, which many engineers have learned to switch off because their output needs so much cleanup.

Pricing

DeepPCB is sold in blocks of routing time, drawn down as AI Credits while the engine runs. Prices are in US dollars, and InstaDeep notes that taxes may apply.

An airwire is an unrouted connection, the straight line a design tool draws between two pins that still need a trace. The count is the practical measure of how big a routing job is, which is why DeepPCB uses it to set plan limits. For a hobbyist or a small team routing boards of modest size, the hourly packs are the realistic entry point; a hardware organization routing large, many-layer boards will end up on the enterprise plan, which has no published price.

Core Features

Works With the Tool You Already Use

You upload a placed board file rather than redrawing anything. DeepPCB accepts files from Altium, KiCad through a plugin, EasyEDA Pro and Standard, and Zuken, and it reads OrCAD, Allegro and Eagle boards through the Specctra design format. The routed board goes back into the same design flow it came from.

You Keep the Critical Nets

Engineers can route the connections that need human judgment by hand first, such as high-speed pairs or sensitive analog lines, and pin them. The engine then routes everything else to the board's own clearances, net classes and layer assignments.

Cooper, the Setup Assistant

Before routing starts, an assistant called Cooper reads the board and reports what it understood: the layer stackup, net classes, differential pairs, power planes and clearances. You can correct the setup in plain language. InstaDeep does not say what kind of model powers Cooper, so treat it as a checking aid rather than a guarantee that the setup is right.

Returns a Rule-Checked Board

InstaDeep says the engine returns a board that passes a design rule check, in minutes for a typical board and a few hours for a large one.

Enterprise Deployment

The enterprise plan adds private cloud and on-premise deployment, application programming interface and Model Context Protocol access, native plugins inside design tools, and dedicated support.

Strengths

• Self-serve — anyone can sign up, upload a board and pay by the hour, with no contract or sales call
• Fits existing workflows — it takes files from the main design tools and hands the board back to them
• Engineer stays in control — critical connections can be routed by hand and pinned before the engine runs
• Transparent entry pricing — the hourly packs are published, unlike most professional design software
• Real machine learning — the router is a reinforcement-learning system with a published research record, not a rebadged rule-based autorouter

Limitations and Considerations

• Routing only — it does not do schematic capture, part selection or component placement, so it complements a full design suite rather than replacing one
• Size caps below enterprise — the free trial stops at 4 layers and 150 airwires, and pay as you go at 8 layers and 1,200 airwires
• Vendor benchmarks — the published results come from InstaDeep's own test boards, and the hand-routing times they compare against are the company's estimates, not measured timings
• Review is still required — InstaDeep says its outputs may be inaccurate or incomplete and must be checked by a qualified professional before manufacturing
• Your design leaves the building — on the self-serve plans the board is processed in InstaDeep's cloud; teams with confidential designs should check the terms or look at the private cloud and on-premise options on the enterprise plan
• Credit billing — cost depends on how long the engine runs, so a large or awkward board can use more time than expected

What the Benchmarks Show

InstaDeep publishes two test boards. A four-layer microcontroller board designed in Altium Designer, with 210 connections across 88 nets, was fully routed in 18 minutes and 8 seconds, against the company's estimate of 8 hours by hand. A four-layer radio-frequency board designed in KiCad, with 98 connections, was routed in just over 2 minutes, against an estimate of two to three hours. In both cases the critical nets were routed by hand first. These are useful for comparing against a board of your own, but they are two examples chosen by the vendor, so the only benchmark that matters is a trial on a representative board from your own work.

Best Use Cases

Key Takeaways

• DeepPCB is InstaDeep's AI engine for routing printed circuit boards, the step that connects every pin after components are placed
• It is self-serve, with a 30-minute free trial on one small board and pay-as-you-go packs from 30 dollars an hour
• It uses a learned reinforcement-learning router rather than a traditional rule-based autorouter, and engineers can pin the critical nets they route themselves
• It accepts boards from Altium, KiCad, EasyEDA and Zuken, and from OrCAD, Allegro and Eagle through the Specctra format
• The published benchmarks are the vendor's own, and InstaDeep says every result should be reviewed by a qualified professional before manufacturing