Price drone jobs for the whole job, not just the flight. Free, no signup. All defaults are editable starting points.
Drone jobs die on the flight-time quote. The 45-minute flight is what the customer pictures, but the real job is pre-flight planning, editing, delivery, and drive, so quoting the airtime quietly donates the rest. Start with your bar (75), profit margin percent (20), minimum shoot fee (150), and weekly take-home goal (1,200). Pick a shoot preset: Real estate, Roof inspect, Construction, or Event, each filling flight, battery, planning, editing, and delivery minutes as editable starting points. The airspace toggle adds 60 planning minutes for controlled-airspace paperwork; the hard-site toggle adds 45 flight minutes for towers and crowds. The getting-there card prices one-way drive and round-trip miles at your vehicle cost. The gear card spreads the drone and batteries over your expected shoot count, adds insurance per shoot, and prices the visual observer. Results show the flight time share of your hours, your time value, vehicle, gear wear, true cost, the recommended quote rounded up to 25 dollars, profit per shoot, and your effective rate. Verdicts are PRICED RIGHT, CLOSE, BUT LEAKING, WORKING TOO CHEAP, or LOSING MONEY. The gut check grades your instinct quote; the week planner turns your goal into shoots. No signup; runs on your phone.
Example only, not typical pricing. Real estate shoot at a $75 bar with 20 percent margin: 45 flight plus 45 planning plus 120 editing plus 30 delivery equals 240 minutes, or 4.0 hours at $75, which is $300 of labor. Vehicle is 40 miles at $0.67 equals $26.80. Gear is $1,800 over 300 shoots plus $15 insurance equals $21. True cost is $300 plus $26.80 plus $21 equals $347.80. Recommended quote is max(150, 347.80 x 1.20) rounded up to $25 equals $425. Effective rate is $425 divided by 4.0 equals $106.25 per hour, which clears the bar, so the verdict is PRICED RIGHT. The flight is only 19 percent of the job: quote the whole job, not the airtime. The $250 gut quote would pay $62.50 per hour, sit below true cost, and leave $175 on the table. The week planner turns $77.20 of profit per shoot into 15.5 shoots and 62.2 hours for a $1,200 week, firing the over-50-hour flag: raise the quote, not the shoot count.
Why does the tool show the flight time share?
Quoting the flight is the classic drone pricing trap. When the flight is under 30 percent of the job, the tool says so: price the planning, editing, and delivery, not the airtime.
What does the airspace toggle price?
An hour of LAANC or waiver desk work. Skip the toggle and that hour rides free.
How is gear cost spread across shoots?
The drone and batteries are divided by your expected shoot count, plus insurance per shoot. One crash wipes out margin at bad prices, so the tool flags it when gear exceeds 25 percent of the quote.
When does the minimum shoot fee decide the quote?
Quick roof-inspect shoots near home can cost less than $150 to run. The minimum holds the quote up so short jobs still cover the gear and the trip.
What does WORKING TOO CHEAP mean?
Your effective rate sits between 40 and 75 percent of your bar. The quote may cover true cost, but your time is not paid.