How Much to Charge for Virtual Tours: 3D Tour Pricing Models and Example Packages

Published tour prices from real service businesses, the four ways they structure them, what actually drives your cost, and why the hosting period decides more of your margin than the shoot price.

The short answer

Published residential 3D tour prices from the service businesses we checked, mostly in the US, run from about $170 to $600 per home, tiered by square footage. A 360 tour added to an existing photo shoot is often priced lower, around $99 to $199. Commercial spaces are quoted per project and run higher.

Those numbers vary by market, and every figure below comes from one business's own price page, not a survey. Use them to sanity-check your offer, then set your floor from your own costs with the virtual tour revenue calculator.

What tour businesses actually publish

Two patterns stand out. Every residential page above prices by square-footage band, and the businesses that state hosting terms include a limited window, then charge to keep the tour live.

For commercial work, THE FUTURE 3D's Matterport cost guide gives ballpark ranges of $750 to $2,000 for offices, retail and restaurants, and $2,000 to $5,000+ for hotels and large venues. 360are prices commercial 360 tours by scene count instead: $299 for up to 5 scenes, $499 for up to 10, $799 for up to 20.

The four pricing models

Square-footage bands are the default because agents know their listing size and can see the price before booking. Every residential page in the table above uses them.

Per square foot shows up mostly as the overage rule on top of bands: Estate Showcase adds $25 per extra 500 sq ft, Tourspace adds $100 per extra 1,000 sq ft. Pure per-foot quotes are older forum territory. In a We Get Around Network thread from several years ago, operators cited $0.10 to $0.20 per sq ft. Treat that as dated and always set a minimum.

Add-on pricing is how many photographers sell their first tours. 360are suggests $99 to $199 when the tour is added to an existing shoot, against $149 to $299+ standalone. Estate Showcase bundles a 3D tour with 20 HDR photos for $300 up to 3,000 sq ft. Full House lists Zillow 3D Home as a $50 add-on to its photo packages.

Hosting fees are the recurring layer. Published examples: MacroSnaps at $10 per month after the first month, Slava Blazer at $75 for 6 months or $150 for a year, Tourspace at $75 for 3 months up to $150 for a year, and 360are's example of $39 a year after year one. 360are also notes that chasing small annual fees from many agents can cost more admin time than it earns.

What drives your cost

• Capture time. Full House lists its scan times next to its prices: about 45 minutes for 500 to 1,500 sq ft, up to 2 to 3 hours for 4,001 to 5,000 sq ft. Your camera, route and the number of floors set your own numbers. Time two real jobs before you set bands.
• Travel. None of the price pages above list a travel fee, which usually means it is folded into the price or handled by a service radius. Decide which, and write it down.
• Editing and authoring. Stitching or reconstruction, cleanup, hotspots, floor plans and the client's revisions. This is where unpriced hours hide.
• Software and hosting. Your tour platform's subscription, divided by the number of tours it keeps live, plus any processing credits per job.
• Reshoots and support. A weak capture or an agent who can't find the link costs you time. Price a margin for it.

Hosting length decides your margin

A one-time fee with open-ended hosting quietly turns into an unpaid subscription. The arithmetic is simple: once you are past the first few months, the number of tours live at once equals tours sold per month multiplied by the months each stays live.

Your tour platform charges for that live count. If you publish with Spatial Studio, the plans cap live tours:

So 10 tours a month with 3 months of hosting (30 live) fits Pro with one add-on. The same volume with 12 months of hosting (120 live) needs Studio plus two add-ons. Neither cost is large per tour, but it is real, it recurs, and it grows with every month you include. Price the included window deliberately and charge a renewal after it, as the businesses above do.

Processing is separate from hosting. Plans include monthly credits (200 on Starter, 1,000 on Pro, 3,000 on Studio), and the app shows a credit quote before each generation. Examples shown in the product: about 3 minutes of 360 video at High is roughly 50 credits, a 400-image phone scan at Balanced roughly 25.

Example package tiers

These tiers are built from the published ranges above. They are a starting structure, not recommended prices for your market.

If your costs put you above these ranges, compete on what the tour does for the agent, not on price. If you land far below them, check whether you are counting your own hours.

Check your floor with the calculator

The virtual tour revenue calculator takes six inputs: projects per month, base project price, average add-ons, direct cost per project, hours per project and the hourly value you need. It returns monthly revenue, direct cash costs, your labor target, contribution margin and a break-even project price.

Its default example (not market data): 6 projects at $350 plus $125 in add-ons, $55 direct cost and 4 hours each at $50 an hour. That gives $2,850 revenue, $1,320 contribution after costs and labor, about 46% margin, and a $255 break-even price. It leaves out tax, fixed overhead, refunds, equipment depreciation and customer acquisition, so your real floor sits above its break-even figure.

Put your hosting allocation into direct cost per project. For a tour on Pro that stays live 6 months, that is roughly 6 x $1.95, plus whatever credits the job used.

Frequently asked questions

Should I charge per square foot or per package?

Packages by size band for homes, because agents can see the price before booking. Per square foot, with a minimum, for large commercial spaces where bands stop making sense.

How long should hosting be included?

Long enough to cover a typical listing period in your market, then a paid renewal. The businesses above include anywhere from 1 month to 12 months. Shorter windows keep your live-tour count, and your platform cost, under control.

Should I match the cheapest tour provider nearby?

No. Find your floor first. If the market price is below it, change the package or the buyer, not your hourly value. How to make money with virtual tours covers picking buyers and packaging.

Does the tour need to work on Zillow and the MLS?

For listing work, usually yes. Read how to add a 3D tour to Zillow and the MLS before you promise it in a package.