Guides · Study

Real estate photography price calculator: what your shoot should cost

For a 1,500–3,000 sq ft home, budget about $225 for photos, $325 with drone, $524 with a walkthrough video and about $823 for photos, drone, video and a 3D tour, based on the median prices in 154 US photographers' published price lists (read 2026-11-03). Then adjust for your city: coastal metros such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle run about a third above that, Philadelphia and Charlotte about a fifth below, and Las Vegas about a third below.

By Emil Thomsen, Head of Customer Relations, October · Updated November 3, 2026

Reading on Google? Add October to your Preferred Sources to see our guides more often.

Step 1: photos by home size, plus the add-ons you want

Find your home size in the left column and read across. Each figure is the median photo package plus the median price of each add-on, taken from the price lists that publish them. Bundles bought from one photographer are often a little cheaper than the parts, so treat a combined figure as the top of your budget.

Home size	Photos	+ drone	+ walkthrough video	+ 3D tour	Photos, drone, video and 3D
Under 1,500 sq ft	$189	$289	$488	$388	$787
1,500–3,000 sq ft	$225	$325	$524	$424	$823
3,000–4,500 sq ft	$290	$390	$589	$489	$888

Twilight is the add-on with the widest spread. A virtual twilight edit of a daytime photo costs a median $30 a photo, so one twilight cover photo adds about $30; a real dusk shoot is a second visit and is priced like one.

Step 2: adjust for your city

Divide your city's median by the national median of $225 (1,500–3,000 sq ft, photos only) to get a multiplier, then apply it to every figure in step 1. These are the metros where we read at least 3 photos-only price lists; the full list of 24 metros is in our pricing study.

Metro	Median photo package (1,500–3,000 sq ft)	Multiplier	Photos, drone, video and 3D (estimate)
San Francisco Bay Area	$315	×1.40	$1,153
Washington DC	$302	×1.34	$1,105
Los Angeles	$300	×1.33	$1,098
New York City	$300	×1.33	$1,098
Seattle	$300	×1.33	$1,098
Boston	$300	×1.33	$1,096
Houston	$250	×1.11	$915
Austin	$249	×1.11	$911
Miami	$225	×1.00	$823
Minneapolis-St. Paul	$225	×1.00	$823
Tampa	$225	×1.00	$823
Atlanta	$210	×0.93	$769
Orlando	$210	×0.93	$767
Raleigh	$200	×0.89	$732
Dallas-Fort Worth	$199	×0.88	$728
Salt Lake City	$185	×0.82	$677
Nashville	$185	×0.82	$675
Chicago	$177	×0.79	$648
Charlotte	$175	×0.78	$640
Philadelphia	$175	×0.78	$640
Las Vegas	$150	×0.67	$549

Step 3: check what the price includes

Two quotes at the same price can buy very different jobs. Before you compare, check these four things on each price list:

Number of photos. Most packages we read include 20 to 50 edited photos; some say "unlimited". A 25-photo package at $200 and a 45-photo package at $250 are not the same price per photo.
Turnaround. Of the 122 price lists that state it, 113 promise photos by the next day or within 24 hours and 7 within 48 hours or 2 business days. Rush delivery is usually an extra fee.
Travel fee. Many photographers charge a fuel or travel fee beyond a set radius, typically from about 25 to 40 miles.
What "starting at" means. Most published prices are the base package for the smallest home in the band. Check where your square footage lands before you compare.

Step 4: compare with doing it yourself

If the numbers above are more than the listing can carry, there are cheaper routes. You can shoot with your own iPhone and edit with a free app, use an editing service that charges per photo for photos you take, or use a guided capture app. October, the company behind this page, is one: the app shows you where to stand in each room and takes the photos, and October sends back finished photos for $49 a place, or $99 with a walkthrough video (a place is up to 6 rooms; the first place is free).

The finished photos are AI-altered images of the real room, so label them where your MLS or state requires and keep the originals. For a larger home, a luxury listing, drone or a 3D tour, a local photographer is still the better choice; see do I need a real estate photographer? for when each makes sense.

How we built the calculator

On 2026-11-03 we read the published price lists of 154 real estate photographers and photo companies in 24 US metros, leaving out marketplaces and "contact us for a quote" pages. Photo prices come from the 116 lists that sell a photos-only package; add-on prices come from every list that prices the add-on on its own (drone photos 84, walkthrough video 77, 3d tour 64, twilight, real dusk shoot 40, twilight, virtual edit (per image) 39).

Every row, with the page it was read from, is in our open data: photographer prices as CSV or JSON, free to reuse with a credit to October (CC BY 4.0). If you cite a figure, link this page or the data so readers can check it.

Questions

How much should real estate photography cost?

For a 1,500–3,000 sq ft home, the median published photo package is $225, and half of the price lists we read fall between $195 and $264. Smaller homes are about $189, larger ones about $290.

How much does drone, video or a 3D tour add?

The medians are $100 for drone photos, $299 for a walkthrough video and $199 for a 3D tour, each added to a photo package.

What is the average price per photo for real estate photography?

Most packages include 20 to 50 edited photos for about $190 to $290, which works out to roughly $4 to $15 a photo. Per-photo pricing only makes sense when you compare packages for the same home size.

Why are real estate photos more expensive in some cities?

Cost of living, travel time and demand. In our data the median photo package runs from $150 in Las Vegas to $315 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Is there a cheaper alternative to a real estate photographer?

Yes. You can shoot and edit yourself for free, pay an editing service per photo, or use a guided app. October charges $49 a place for photos and $99 with a walkthrough video, with the first place free.