PCB Autorouter Benchmark 2026: 32,000+ Completed Routing Jobs Measured
Every autorouter claims to be the best. We measured every completed routing job on our platform.
Most PCB autorouter benchmarks are marketing exercises. A vendor picks three boards that make their tool look good, runs them under ideal conditions, and publishes the results. You’re supposed to trust that your board will perform the same way.
We took a different approach. Over 100,000 board designs have been created on the DeepPCB platform by 11,200+ engineers. Of those, 32,000+ went through a full routing job where the solver actually ran and produced routing output. These are the boards where an engineer submitted their design, the engine worked on it, and delivered a result. That is the right population to measure performance on. Not uploads. Not drafts. Not placement-only jobs. Completed routing runs.
This analysis is purely on reporting connected airwires and time to connecting. It does not consider constraint satisfaction (except DRC rules).
We measured every single one. No cherry-picking. No ideal conditions. Real boards from real engineers.
Here’s what we found.
The Numbers
Across 32,000+ completed routing jobs:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Median completion rate | 100% |
| Mean completion rate | 95.6% |
| Boards achieving 95%+ completion | 86% |
| Boards achieving 90%+ completion | 91.2% |
| Median vias per airwire | 0.28 |
That last number matters more than most people think. Fewer vias means lower manufacturing cost, better signal integrity, and fewer potential failure points.
Completion Rate by Board Complexity
The question every engineer asks: “Will it work on MY board?”
It depends on your airwire count and layer configuration. Here’s the data for simple to medium-size boards:
| Complexity | Layers | 95%+ Completion Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-50 airwires | 2L | 90.6% |
| 51-100 airwires | 2L | 89.5% |
| 1-50 airwires | 4L | 82.6% |
| 51-100 airwires | 4L | 90.4% |
| 101-200 airwires | 4L | 88.2% |
| 201-500 airwires | 4L | 72.0% |
| 51-100 airwires | 8L | 100% |
| 101-200 airwires | 8L | 83.3% |
The sweet spot, 4-layer boards with 51-500 airwires, is exactly where most production boards live. At 72.0-90.4% achieving 95%+ completion, the engine handles the standard workload reliably.
High-Complexity Boards
For boards above 200 airwires, the engine routes the majority of connections. We have routed boards up to 5,000+ airwires on 8 layers. At higher complexity, expect the engine to handle the bulk of the routing while you fine-tune the remaining critical nets. The exact results depend on your board’s constraints, layer count, and density.
Supported Formats
The engine accepts boards from all major EDA tools: KiCad, Altium, OrCAD (DSN), EasyEDA, and Zuken. Upload your native file, no conversion needed.
Processing Time
How long from upload to routed result?
| Metric | Time |
|---|---|
| Median | 4.6 minutes |
| 90th percentile | 153 minutes |
Most boards are fully routed before you finish your coffee. The long tail (P90 at ~2.5 hours) reflects the most complex boards where the solver explores hundreds of candidates before converging on a solution.
The Most Complex Boards We’ve Routed
At the high end:
| Airwires | Layers | Completion | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,208 | 8 | 100% | ~14 hours |
| 4,205 | 6 | 100% | ~14 hours |
| 2,131 | 6 | 96.1% | minutes |
| 1,475 | 4 | 96.9% | ~3 hours |
| 1,274 | 6 | 98.7% | ~2 hours |
| 1,125 | 2 | 100% | ~16 hours |
| 1,072 | 4 | 96.4% | ~2.5 hours |
A 4,205-airwire, 6-layer board routed at 100% in 14 hours. A 2,131-airwire board on 6 layers hit 96.1%. A 1,125-airwire board on just 2 layers reached 100%. These are production-complexity designs.
For the most complex boards, routing takes hours, not minutes. But the alternative is days or weeks of manual work. The engine handles thousands of connections that would otherwise be routed by hand. Manual intervention may be required depending on the user’s preferences.
Methodology
Over 100,000 board designs have been created on the DeepPCB platform. Not all of them go through routing. Engineers use the platform for placement, exploration, drafts, and iteration. Many boards are uploaded and never submitted for a routing job by the user.
We measure performance only on boards where the engineer actually ran a routing job and the solver produced real output. This is the fair way to measure an autorouter: when someone asks it to route, how well does it do?
- Sample: 32,000+ completed routing jobs
- Why this denominator: This excludes drafts, abandoned uploads, placement-only jobs, and boards where the user never started a routing job. These are not routing attempts. Measuring performance against them would be like grading a calculator on problems you never typed in.
- Completion rate: Connected airwires / total airwires on the latest revision
- Time: Wall clock time from job start to final revision
- Via count: Total vias added by the solver
- Period: Boards routed through April 2026
- No cherry-picking: Every completed routing job is included, including poor results
What This Means for Your Board
If your board is:
- 2-4 layers, under 200 airwires: Expect 85-90%+ chance of 95%+ completion. Upload it.
- 200-500 airwires: Median completion is 99.1%. The engine handles nearly everything. Worth trying.
- 500+ airwires: The engine routes the majority of nets. Expect to fine-tune the last 10-20% manually. Still saves days of work.
- 1,000+ airwires: We’ve routed boards up to 5,000 airwires on 8 layers. Results vary. The engine handles the bulk; you focus on the critical nets.
If the AI can’t route it to your satisfaction, you’ve lost a few dollars. If it can, you’ve saved hours or days.
Try DeepPCB on your next board: deeppcb.ai. Upload your KiCad, Altium, EasyEDA, or DSN file.
