🗺️ SURVEYING & PHOTOGRAMMETRY · €800–3,000 PER DAY · 121 CITIES
Drone surveying & photogrammetry: 2026 rates, anywhere in France
In short : drone surveying & photogrammetry anywhere in France (121 cities): €800–3,000 per day excluding VAT, the 2026 French market range; flown by a DGAC-registered pilot insured for aerial third-party liability; free quote within one working day, permits included.
Drone photogrammetry turns a few hundred aerial photos into precision survey products: georeferenced orthophotography at 1–3 cm/pixel, digital surface and terrain models, 3D point clouds, contour lines, stockpile and earthworks volume calculations. With an RTK/PPK drone and ground control points measured by centimetre-grade GNSS, accuracy reaches 2 to 5 cm both horizontally and vertically — sufficient for most development studies, at a fraction of the cost of an exhaustive ground survey.
We cover from 1 to several hundred hectares per day depending on the required resolution, including hard-to-access sites: working quarries, landfills, riverbanks, industrial wasteland. Deliverables come in your coordinate system (Lambert 93 / RGF93, conic conformal projections) and standard formats (GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ, DXF, GIS formats). Chartered surveyors, civil engineering offices, quarry operators and local authorities are regular clients.
Rates
€800–3,000 per day — the 2026 French market range. The quote depends on the site, the expected deliverable and the local airspace context.
Price details : How much does a drone service cost in 2026? Real prices on the French market
Common use cases
- Topographic survey of land ahead of a development or subdivision project
- Stockpile volume measurement in quarries or recycling platforms
- Centimetre-grade orthophoto of a municipality for its GIS
- Digital terrain model for hydraulic or flood-risk studies
- Erosion monitoring of riverbanks, dunes or coastal cliffs
- 3D modelling of a building or monument for a digital twin
Applicable regulations
Survey flights mostly take place outside built-up areas, in open category A2 or A3 (photogrammetry drones weigh 900 g to 6 kg) flying automated grid patterns below the regulatory 120 m. Long corridors or populated sites fall under the specific category (STS-01/STS-02, or an operational authorisation for BVLOS on long corridors). The operator is registered on AlphaTango and checks regulated zones on Géoportail: quarries and industrial estates are often near airfields or under military low-altitude training routes (RTBA), requiring protocols or time slots. Legally binding georeferencing (enforceable boundary plans) remains the exclusive remit of chartered surveyors, with whom we work as subcontractors.
Information checked against the regulations in force as of September 2026 (EU regulations 2019/945 and 2019/947, applicable French decrees).
Frequently asked questions
What accuracy can a drone survey guarantee?
With an RTK drone and ground control points, we guarantee 2 to 5 cm XYZ accuracy, verified against independent checkpoints whose residuals are documented in the processing report.
Does a drone survey replace a chartered surveyor?
No for legally binding documents (boundary demarcation, land division): that is the chartered surveyor's legal monopoly. Yes for technical studies: our deliverables feed directly into civil works design, volume calculations and environmental studies.
Does vegetation interfere with photogrammetric surveys?
Yes: photogrammetry measures the visible surface, so the canopy rather than the ground beneath. For wooded areas, we offer drone LiDAR, which penetrates vegetation and reconstructs the bare terrain.