What Do I Charge For Drone Orthomosaic Maps | Pricing Drone Services

Recently a drone operator I know got in touch to ask me a "simple" question. What do I charge for drone orthomosaic maps? While the question sounds relatively straightforward, the truth is there are several variables that come into play. Pricing Drone Services depends on your time on a job site, other services being performed, travel time, post processing and more. Usually orthomosaic maps are just part of our full service offering.
In today's video we'll talk about setting up a drone flight for capturing an orthomosaic. I'll show you how slight changes in setup can take a mapping flight from 10 minutes long to 75 minutes long. Should it be a small low detail map, or an extremely detailed map using over 1,000 images?
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[@gregorysanders329]

Happy to have found your channel. A ton of great resources!

[@AZ-Drone]

Welcome aboard!

[@PH-md8xp]

Hey Rich, You explained that very well.

[@AZ-Drone]

Glad it was helpful!

[@dronesinconstruction]

This video was meant for me to see 😮🎉

[@AZ-Drone]

Glad to hear it! 😃

[@Lonestaraerials]

I discovered that lake last December. Neat place to climb on.

[@mid-atlanticdroneservices]

Rich, this is just another great video provided by you. Thank you for all of this important information.

[@AZ-Drone]

I’m glad the information is useful for you. Pricing is one of those tough topics. Often times it requires a few conversations with clients to reach the right number. 😀

[@nicxonpiaso6199]

Thanks Richard..

[@AZ-Drone]

Very welcome

[@CorsaGarageJustin]

You're an incredible teacher. Will be checking out your site. Thanks so much!

[@svetlachok_max]

Thank you

[@AZ-Drone]

You're welcome. Glad the video was useful for you. 😀

[@scottz7097]

Great Video. Very Helpful.

[@AZ-Drone]

Glad it was helpful!

[@davideberhardt4977]

Let me save you 15 minutes - the answer was "it depends"

[@AZ-Drone]

Often prices depend on a variety of factors, not just with drone work. 😀

[@seanhill8943]

Thanks Rich. All well and good but this doesn't actually help me price my jobs. I have seen hundreds of videos like this but not one mentions any actual money figures, they all just say "it depends a lot" with no actual figures related to the examples given. Can you give a ballpark figure on what would be a good price for the ortho map example(s) you mentioned in the video? This will give myself and your viewers an idea of what the drone mapping industry actually looks like when talking money.This will also prevent new operator's from accidentally under charging and therefore undercutting the industry. Thank you for a great channel and good advice

[@AZ-Drone]

Recently I came across a channel called Wild Wonderful Weekends. The channel owner is named Rich, and he put out 2 videos on pricing drone work. He's created an interesting calculator that could help you setup your pricing. Here's his channel link. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqnJfn6YbLF8p7M On average for what we're doing we like to see at least $175 per hour. That includes time on site, travel, post production, and report assembly. Today I'll be out doing one of our regular client jobs. Time on site is 30 - 45 minutes. Drive time round trip is 20 minutes. Offloading, organizing, and doing post production is around 3 hours. So approximately 4 hours of time. And we're billing $700 per site visit.

[@seanhill8943]

@@AZ-Drone Thank you so much for your reply to my question. This helps a great deal! It is a fantastic industry with a fantastic community with loads opportunity. Happy flying and thanks again

[@rodalcorn6337]

Another good video Rich. Thank you. How do your deliver 2D maps and 3D models created using WebODM with tools that the client can use to measure? Thank you.

[@AZ-Drone]

For models that I want to embed on my site, or someone else's site I use Sketchfab. I can also provide clients with the original data collected from my flights. Some clients do have architectural engineers that we can pass the original flight data to. We can also send along the point cloud generated from WebODM as well.

[@Vitjok007]

Hey, Rich! That's a great video, without any flood information. Really useful and can be adapted in my business and my market. Will surely take a look into courses available from you and if they have ones with step-by-step example of the real time project, than that is a MUST. ) One question to you. I'm building a fleet of drones for my biz and I'm stuck with a choice. I do require thermal inspection, so natural choice for a start is new Mavic 3T. But as far as I understood, it doesn't suit photogrammetry and mapping works. What do u think, which is best choice to start with? I'm also rather confused with a fact, that new Mavic 3T are not currently supported by Pix4d and DroneDeploy. Thanks in advance for you opinion. And BIG thanks for the vid.

[@AZ-Drone]

This topic is coming up a lot more. DJI's new product lineup (the Mavic 3s) can be confusing. Many of the new Mavic 3's will not be sharing their SDK with 3rd party app vendors. Supposedly the Mavic 3 Enterprise will have the SDK out to app vendors. I'm not too sure on the Mavic 3T. Bottom line, read through all of the specs and make sure you can use 3rd party apps before buying. DJI has made things very confusing and difficult for drone operators interested in buying. The 3T (to my knowledge) is not made for photogrammetry. Maybe that will change down the road.

[@Brian-ss2dp]

You are correct, in that the thermal-capable drones aren't going to be the best options for 2D mapping. The first thing I would recommend thinking about is whether or not you want the option to collect radiometric IR data. If you do, your best budget option is the Autel Evo 2 Dual R. Other than that, you are looking at a DJI Matrice with a FLIR sensor, which will be 3x the price of the Autel. The other thing to consider is whether or not you will be doing any government jobs (as a contractor or sub). DJI may not be allowed for those. In which case, Skydio could be a good option to look at. If you will be doing 3D modeling, the Skydio X2 thermal would be worth considering. Because of the obstacle avoidance settings, you can get very close to your subject, making sensor size less of an issue. It also has the vertical camera tilt, which is good to collect RGB or IR data from underneath bridges, or other structures. Autel announced the Max 4T, which looks intriguing. If it had a radiometric sensor, I would go with that one (has a slightly larger sensor than the 3T and Evo 2 Dual, so should be a little better with 2D). Knowing what thermal drone to buy is definitely a little confusing. Unfortunately there isn't a clear answer on the RGB-thermal dual drones. There are trade-offs between the models so you really want to think ahead on what jobs you will be doing most and then pick the one that get's you closest. I can't use DJI because of the restrictions so I bounce between an Evo 2 Dual R and a Skydio X2 thermal based on the project.

[@KRX_REBEL]

Love your videos...really great info. I was trying to sign, but says the code is not valid. Do you still offer the discount?

[@AZ-Drone]

Sorry for my extreme delay. I've been down for a few weeks, but back up and working now. 😀. Po by AZDrone.net and drop me a private email from my contact form.

[@mattmoyer1912]

Hey Rich, i have an overall question about mapping an area as wide as what you used in your example. As far as i understood it, you need to be able to keep VLOS of your craft during the mission without the use of any aids like binoculars or something like that. For a mission like this are you applying for beyond visual line of sight from FAA?

[@AZ-Drone]

Normally on larger sites we will select several launch locations. Cover the area through launching from each blocked out area. We haven’t had a need for beyond line of site yet. Normally our VLOS is 1500 to 2000 ft. If we park in the center of a flight area all the easier.

[@craigburnett8723]

I hate getting shots at the dells because of the wind lol

[@rajanyt7343]

whats the best open source software for 3d mapping where as similar to the result of pix4d mapper ... need a suggestions

[@AZ-Drone]

WebODM is a great open source application for Orthomosaics. It does 3D modeling as well, but not to the standards of Pix4D. But if you're just starting out and learning, WebODM is a reasonable way to go.

[@chadhammond3381]

I have a question Rich. What triggers you to process a job in WebODM or Metashape? What are the characteristics of the job that you would chose one processor over the other processor for processing the data? Thank you!

[@chadhammond3381]

Or is it the matter of details the one produces more details over the other?

[@AZ-Drone]

It all depends on what I'm after for clients. WebODM is a quick and usually easy way to generate a good orthomosaic. For before and after orthos like the ones I do on seemybuild.com WebODM is fine. But when we're looking for a lot more detail and custom exports Metashape will be called upon. WebODM is a great platform to start learning about modeling. The orthos that come out of it are okay and for many purposes you don't need anything else. But if I want to output a geotiff that I can really zoom into, Metashape does the job.

[@AZ-Drone]

Lol, I replied to your previous question before seeing this addition. The level of detail I can get with Metashape is definitely a step up from WebODM.

[@chadhammond3381]

@@AZ-Drone thank you. Do you choose maps made easy over Metashape?

[@chadhammond3381]

@@AZ-Drone thank you very much for your time.

[@vp62ift]

How do you deliver 3d products

[@AZ-Drone]

I personally use Sketchfab for displaying 3D models online. You can also output your dense point cloud and provide that to clients who have their own modeling software. How you share your models will depend greatly on what the customer is asking for, and what they're already using in house.

[@aloeisthestuff9622]

@@AZ-Drone You just described people who dont need your service.

[@iyliaharis2592]

do u share the obj files?

[@MarktisoyRosale]

Sir is the map pilot pro a paid app?

[@AZ-Drone]

I am using a paid version at this point, but I think there's still a free version. Pop by www.mapsmadeeasy.com/map_pilot/ just to double check.

[@jaecash919]

this is so perfect. I really want to get into surveying and mapping and I asked my friend the same question the other day. How do we price this stuff? haha thanks man!

[@AZ-Drone]

Pricing is always a tough subject.

[@designer.346]

Map pilot is free?

[@AZ-Drone]

It looks like they do have a free version. I've upgraded my plan with them to the Pro version. Looks like the free version would be useful if you're just starting out and testing.

[@photographywithbrallan1247]

@@AZ-Dronehow are you liking it?

[@alwaystravelling100]

With all due respect, A 2D (orthomosaic) map is not a model as you describe it. It's a map.

[@AZ-Drone]

My apologies and thanks for the correction. 😀

[@faizrahman1839]

Whats a map? A model of the Earth 😂. Hahaha. Jz kiddin

[@lv8pv]

This is just a clickbait video. When you make a video about what to charge. Don't make 15 minutes of words, without one price. We are not children. To say that it depends, is to point out that it rains, to the person standing in the rain with you. You would answer this with an example. For a job with X&Y specifications you could charge Z amount. And this is how I came to that number.. This video is of no help to anyone, but perhaps a 10 year old child.

[@mslindqu]

Oh hey.. someone answering 'what should I charge'.. with 'It depends'. Golly.. I had no idea. There's good information here, but i didn't hear any actual numbers.. so it's all useless. For someone with no frame of reference this video provided nothing. The horse across the road knows that things are variable and 'depend' on details.. but everyone knows that about everything.

[@AZ-Drone]

My apologies, I thought I'd mentioned our billing in the video. Here's the deal. We start billing at $175 per hour with clients. We bill for the time on location and data capture, and on the post processing of the data collected. Normally our clients require more service than just an Ortho. They usually want video, stills, building fly throughs, and more. So while on site we're billing at $175 an hour. In the office processing things we're still billing at $175 per hour. Orthos are part of our overall bundle, and the time it takes to create them depend on the size of the area, the elevation we fly, number of batteries used, and the final rendering in WebODM, Metashape, or whatever modeling application we use. I say pricing "depends" on a few things because it does. The region you're in, the competitors in the area, etc all impact your price as well. I've met other drone operators charging $80 per hour, and I've seen others charging over $200 per hour.

[@rfen56]

You managed to talk for 12 minutes without addressing you main premise - pricing! I'd like to have my twelve minutes back.