Renderings
Photoreal renderings
Exterior, interior, amenity, and aerial visualizations built for leasing decks, review submissions, and investor packages.
Rendering services
Architectural Rendering Cost & Pricing Guide / 2026
What architectural rendering costs
and what actually moves the number.
Most still-image packages land between $5,000 and $25,000. A single view typically runs $1,500 to $3,000. Full programs with animation and interactive assets run higher.
By Bradley Snyder, Principal, Radical Galaxy Studio
The short answer
Most still-image packages land between $5k and $25k.
A single photorealistic architectural rendering costs roughly $1,500 to $3,000 per view, a typical developer package of five to ten coordinated views runs $10,000 to $25,000, and full programs with an animation, 360° tours, and interactive assets start around $30,000.
The ranges are wide because scope and inputs vary. Even with a coordinated Revit set, the studio still rebuilds the model for rendering: materials, lighting, landscape, context, entourage, and camera work all happen on our side. What good inputs change is how much of the budget goes to interpreting incomplete drawings instead of making the images better. A clean model with materials specified means less guesswork and fewer revision cycles; a folder of PDF elevations means we are resolving design questions inside a rendering budget.
The second variable is view count. The first image absorbs the entire model build; the eighth image off that same model is a fraction of the cost. Buying views one at a time, project by project, is the single most expensive way to buy visualization.
Want to see what these budgets actually produce? Browse the full architectural rendering portfolio or the project case studies, which show the scope behind each program. Hotel and resort budgets work a little differently because brand standards and F&B scope drive the view count: see hospitality 3D rendering.
Pricing by scope
Three ways projects get scoped, and what each one costs
01
Single hero image
$1,500 – $3,000
per view
One exterior or interior view for a pitch, a listing, or an early approval package.
- One camera angle, developed to final
- Two rounds of revisions
- Print and web resolution masters
- Typical turnaround: 5 – 10 business days
02
Marketing package
$10,000 – $25,000
per project
The common developer package: a set of exteriors, interiors, and amenity views for leasing or pre-sales.
- 5 – 10 coordinated views from one model
- Exterior, unit interior, and amenity coverage
- Day and dusk variants on hero angles
- Typical turnaround: 2 – 4 weeks
03
Full visualization program
$30,000 – $100,000+
per project
Everything a sales gallery, leasing site, and approvals track needs, built once and reused.
- Full still package plus cinematic animation
- 360° tours and interactive digital twin
- Aerial and context views for entitlement
- Typical turnaround: 6 – 12 weeks, phased
What we’d need from you
What to send for a same-day ballpark
Partial sets are fine. Send what exists today and we will tell you what the gaps cost before you commit to anything.
Send what you haveGeometry
A Revit or Rhino model with materials assigned is ideal. CAD plans plus elevations and a section work too; PDFs alone are workable but push the quote up because we resolve the design gaps.
Interiors
FF&E specs, finish schedules, and any brand standards. If selections are not final, tell us which ones are open and we will price a placeholder pass.
Site and context
A site survey, civil drawings, or a context massing if approvals depend on the surroundings. For infill sites, street photography from the approach views you care about.
Intent
Where the images will be used, how many views you think you need, and the date they have to be live. Leasing, entitlement, and investor decks are scoped differently.
Before you sign
How to compare two rendering quotes honestly
Two proposals with the same headline number are rarely the same purchase. A per-image rate tells you very little; what matters is what a finished, approved image includes and what happens on round three.
| Line item | Green flag | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| View list | Every view named by camera position, height, and time of day, so you can count what you are buying. | A line item that says "5 exteriors" and leaves the angles to be decided later. |
| Revisions | A stated number of rounds with a definition of what counts as one round. | "Revisions until you're happy," which is either priced into the number already or becomes a change order on round three. |
| What is in the image | People, vehicles, landscaping, and dusk variants either listed as included or listed as extras, plus who specifies FF&E and finishes. | Silence on entourage and materials, so the first draft arrives empty and the fix is billable. |
| Output and usage | Final resolution per view and written rights covering brokers, partners, and press. | Web-resolution files only, or usage limited to your own channels once a listing site asks for the images. |
| Schedule | Delivery dates tied to your leasing, sales, or hearing calendar, with batch dates for larger sets. | A single turnaround estimate with no milestones and no rush clause. |
| Adding views later | A named price for an additional view off the same model after delivery. | No repeat-view rate, which is where the cheap headline number usually gets made back. |
What the budget buys
What each level of spend actually looks like
Price ranges only mean something next to the work. These are real views from recent projects, grouped by the scope they were produced under.
Single hero image
One aerial hero view carrying an entire approval package.
Single hero image
A single office tower view for an investor pitch deck.
Marketing package
Amenity view from a multi-view leasing package.
Marketing package
Unit interior produced off the same model as the exteriors.
Full program
Masterplan night streetscape from a multi-phase program.
Full program
Daylight masterplan view from the same program set.
More of the same work sits in the architectural rendering portfolio and the project case studies, where each program is shown with its full scope.
Three programs, end to end
What a real scope looks like at three budget levels
Ranges are easier to judge next to a deliverable list. The three profiles below are composites drawn from the kinds of programs we quote every month. They are representative scopes rather than any one client engagement, and no project or budget below belongs to a specific client.
01 / Small approval package
$4,500 - $7,500
Four-story infill building, entitlement and early marketing
Deliverables
- 2 exterior views: primary corner and pedestrian approach
- 1 hero aerial at low altitude
- 3 revision rounds per view
- Print masters plus web-sized exports
- Inputs provided
- Coordinated Revit model, facade materials selected
- Schedule
- 3 weeks from kickoff
The model was clean, so nearly the whole budget went into camera work and lighting rather than rebuilding geometry.
02 / Lease-up marketing package
$16,000 - $22,000
Mid-rise multifamily tower, 200 to 300 units, leasing launch
Deliverables
- 5 exterior views
- 4 amenity interiors: lobby, lounge, fitness, rooftop
- 2 unit interiors, one studio and one two-bedroom
- 1 aerial establishing view
- 3 revision rounds per view, plus one global lighting pass
- Inputs provided
- Architect model plus an interior designer FF&E package
- Schedule
- 2 to 3 weeks, delivered in two batches
Twelve views off one model. The per-image cost here is roughly a third of what the first view cost to produce.
03 / Full visualization program
$55,000 - $85,000
Multi-phase mixed-use masterplan, sales center and investor rollout
Deliverables
- 12 renderings across exteriors, streetscape, and interiors
- A 90 second animated flythrough with sound design
- 3 cinematic loops for social and lobby screens
- A 360° tour of two model units
- Phasing diagrams and an interactive site map
- Inputs provided
- Full design team model set, landscape drawings, brand guidelines
- Schedule
- 4 to 6 weeks, phased against the sales calendar
Animation and interactive assets carry most of the spend. The stills are comparatively cheap because they reuse a model built for motion.
If your project resembles one of these, send the drawings for a same-day ballpark and we will scope it against the closest profile.
What moves the number
Five factors that decide where inside the range you land
| Factor | Effect on price | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Model completeness | +15 – 100% | A coordinated Revit model with materials assigned costs far less to visualize than PDF elevations and a mood board. Anything the drawings do not resolve becomes design time billed inside a rendering quote. This is the largest single driver on most quotes. |
| Number of views | −40 – 70% per view | The first image carries the whole model build; the fifth off the same model is a fraction of it. Buying views one at a time is the most expensive way to buy renderings. |
| Scene complexity | +10 – 40% | What the frame contains matters more than whether it is inside or out. Bounded interiors with specified finishes are efficient. Exteriors that require true context, populated streetscapes, or accurate sun studies carry the most build work in a set. |
| Context accuracy | +10 – 40% | A generic backdrop is cheap. A truthful streetwall with neighboring buildings, real topography, and correct sun angles for a planning submittal is a modeling exercise in itself. Why entitlement views are scoped differently. |
| Revisions, speed, and usage | +0 – 50% | Two rounds are standard and should be included; open-ended revisions and compressed timelines both carry a premium. Print, hoarding, and light-box masters or extended usage rights add a little more on top. |
Beyond still images
What animation, tours, and interactive assets add
Every line below reuses the same model your stills came from, which is why adding them later to an existing program costs a fraction of commissioning them cold.
Program-level line items
Aerial / masterplan rendering
$2,000 – $5,000 per view
A scope of its own, not an add-on. Site massing set in true surroundings for entitlement, council submittals, and investor decks. Cost tracks how much neighboring context, topography, and landscape has to be modeled accurately. How renderings win planning approvals.
3D architectural animation
$5,000 – $35,000+
Priced by runtime and shot count. A 30-second cinematic loop sits at the low end; a fully narrated 2-minute film with crowd and vehicle animation sits at the high end.
360° virtual tour
$4,000 – $25,000
Priced per node. A single amenity panorama is inexpensive; a connected walkthrough of a full floor with hotspots and unit switching is not.
Interactive digital twin
$25,000 – $100,000+
A browser-based, navigable building with unit search, availability, and view-from-unit. Priced by feature scope and how many surfaces it has to feed.
Low-cost add-ons to work you already own
These attach to an existing rendering or photograph, so they are a different category of purchase from the programs above.
Cinematic loop (single shot)
$1,500 – $4,000
One hero still brought to life with subtle motion. The cheapest way to add video to a leasing page because it reuses a rendering you already paid for.
Virtual staging
$150 – $800
Per image, on existing photography or renderings. The lowest-cost visualization line item and often the highest ROI on an existing asset.
Trusted Partners
From Fortune 500 brands to award-winning architects, these are the developers, designers, and operators we build for.
Developers & Owners
Atlantic Pacific
Brookfield
Cain International
Carmel Partners
Castle Hill Partners
Cortland
DR Horton
Dream
Hines
Lennar
OKO Group
Oxford
Sterling Bay
Todd Interests
Toll Brothers
Trammell Crow Company
Wood Partners
Zibi Canada
Architects & Interior Designers
Beyer Blinder Belle
B+H Architects
Fox Architects
Gensler
HKS
HOK
KTGY Architecture + Planning
MG2
Perkins & Will
Roam Interior Design
Ware Malcomb
WATG
Brokers & Asset Managers
CBRE
Compass
Cushman & Wakefield
JLL
Newmark Knight Frank
Stream
Hospitality & Entertainment
Disney
Highgate
Hyatt
Jacobs Entertainment
Marriott
Royal Caribbean
Full visualization suite
One model, every deliverable
A hearing exhibit, a leasing site hero, a broker deck, and a sales-gallery loop should all come off the same model. Scoping them together is not just cheaper than commissioning them separately, it is the only way the building looks like one building across every surface a buyer sees.
Animation
Cinematic 3D animation
Flythroughs, lifestyle films, and sizzle reels that turn a broker's email into a signed tour.
Animation & motion
Virtual tours
360° virtual tours & VR
Immersive tours, real-time walkthroughs, and interactive experiences for sales centers and web.
VR, AR & real-time
Branding
Branding, websites & print
Identity systems, project websites, brochures, and signage that carry the visualization language end to end.
Branding & websitesRendering cost FAQ
Architectural Rendering Cost FAQs
How much does an architectural rendering cost?
A single photorealistic architectural rendering typically costs $1,500 to $3,000 USD per view in the US market for developer-grade work. A coordinated package of 5 to 10 views generally runs $10,000 to $25,000 USD, which works out to roughly $1,200 to $2,200 per view once the model build is absorbed by the first image. A full visualization program including animation, 360° tours, and interactive assets runs $30,000 to $100,000 or more. Price is driven mostly by how complete the source model is and how many views come off it.
Why is the price per rendering lower when I order more views?
Most of the cost in the first image is building and validating the 3D model, resolving materials, and setting up lighting. That work is reused by every subsequent camera. A studio that charges the same flat rate for view one and view eight is not passing that efficiency on to you.
Do interior renderings cost more than exteriors?
Not reliably. It depends on what each view has to carry rather than which side of the wall it is on. A single guestroom or unit interior with a defined FF&E package is often the cheapest view in a set, because the room is bounded and the materials are specified. An exterior can be the most expensive image in a program when it requires accurate context: neighboring buildings modeled to survey, real topography, verified sun angles for a submittal, seasonal landscape, vehicles, and populated streetscape. The reliable cost drivers are the same in both cases, which are how much of the scene has to be built from scratch and how much of it is reused across the rest of the views.
Who owns the renderings, and where can we use them?
You own the final images. They are delivered with full usage rights for marketing, leasing, sales, submissions, and press, including use by your brokers, partners, and listing platforms. The underlying 3D model, scene files, and source assets remain the studio's property and are not transferred with the deliverables. We ask only for the right to show the work in our own portfolio, and we hold that back on request when a project is confidential or pre-announcement.
What makes an architectural rendering quote go up unexpectedly?
The three most common causes are an incomplete model that forces the studio to make design decisions, accurate site context for a planning or council submittal, and revision rounds beyond what the proposal included. Scope each of the three explicitly before you sign and the quote will hold.
How much does 3D architectural animation cost compared to stills?
Animation typically starts around $5,000 for a short sequence and runs to $35,000 or more for a fully produced film with narration, crowd animation, and multiple sequences. For context, a 30-second animation typically costs about the same as three to six still views, and it is built off the same model, so commissioning it alongside a still package rather than afterward is materially cheaper. The cheapest route to video is a cinematic loop built from a hero still you have already commissioned, which usually lands between $1,500 and $4,000.
How long does an architectural rendering take?
A single hero image usually delivers in five to ten business days. A package of exteriors, interiors, and amenity views generally takes two to four weeks including revisions. Full programs with animation and interactive assets run six to twelve weeks and are normally phased so the leasing team gets hero images first.
What does rush pricing mean, and what does it cost?
Rush means compressing a schedule below the normal window: a hero image inside three business days, or a full package inside ten. It carries a premium of roughly 25 to 50 percent, because it requires dedicated artists and parallel review rather than a sequential pass. Rush is only possible when the model and drawings are complete on day one, so the fastest way to avoid the premium is to send finished inputs earlier.
What do you actually deliver, and in what formats?
Still views are delivered as print-resolution masters, typically 6000 pixels on the long edge, as layered TIFF or PSD on request plus web-optimized JPEG and PNG versions sized for listing platforms and social. Animation is delivered in 4K and 1080p H.264 with a ProRes master, 360° tours as hosted links plus the source panoramas, and interactive assets as a hosted URL you can embed. Every deliverable ships in both a print set and a web set so the marketing team does not have to resize anything.
Is low-cost rendering worth it?
A budget rate can be fine for a simple massing study. It is rarely worth it for leasing, pre-sales, or entitlement work, where the failure modes are expensive: materials that do not match the spec, context that a review body rejects, and revision cycles that erase the savings. Judge a studio on the accuracy of its most complex published work and on how its proposal is scoped, not on its per-image rate.
How do you price a project?
We scope by view, not by hour. You send drawings, a target delivery date, and what the visuals need to accomplish, and we return a fixed-fee proposal listing every camera, the revision rounds included, and the delivery schedule.
Contact / PricingSend us the drawings.
Send us the drawings.
We’ll send back a fixed fee.
Tell us the views you need, your delivery date, and what the visuals have to accomplish. We reply within one business day with a scoped proposal listing every camera, the revision rounds included, and the schedule.
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