How Much Does 3D Rendering Cost in the UK?

How to read the rate card

Every figure in the table above is a starting price for a standard scope, quoted in pounds and charged as a fixed fee. Stills are priced per image, plans per plan, staging per room and film per second, because those are the units in which the work actually grows.

A starting price includes a draft render with materials and lighting close to final, then revisions of your mark-ups, up to 4 revision rounds, and finals at 4K. Sets of five images or more are priced as a package. A typical set is delivered in 5–7 business days, assuming mark-ups come back within a day of each draft. In summary:

• Interior CGIs: from £225 per image, furnished and styled to your schedule.
• Exterior CGIs: from £295 per image, seen from the street, the garden or the approach.
• 3D floor plans: from £395 per plan, furnished, for one level.
• Aerial or masterplan views: from £695 per image, in full CGI or over drone photography you supply.
• Architectural animation: £45 per second, with a 30-second minimum.
• Virtual staging: from £95 per room.
• Photomontage and verified views: quoted per project, with the method documented.

What changes a quote

Seven things move a project above its starting price. Each one is visible in your drawings and brief, so the quote reflects it from the outset rather than as an extra later.

How to keep the cost down

Four habits make the biggest difference to what a project costs. Our briefing checklist lists every file worth sending.

• Order sets of five or more images together, so they are priced as a package built on one model.
• Consolidate mark-ups into one set of comments per round from one approver, not several partial lists.
• Send complete drawings and a locked finishes schedule with the brief, so nothing is modelled twice.
• Plan one model for many views: stills, floor plans, colour options and film can all draw on the same build.

Freelancer or studio?

A capable freelance visualiser can be excellent value for a single, straightforward image, especially one you already know who understands your standards. The trade-offs appear as a project grows: one person has finite hours, holidays and sick days, and a launch set, a film and a planning deadline landing in the same fortnight can exceed what one workstation can render.

A studio spreads the work across modellers, lighting and material artists and post-production, with a director checking accuracy, so capacity and cover are built in. You are paying for a fixed price, a fixed date and continuity. Whichever you choose, ask the same questions: what is included, how many revision rounds, what resolution, and who signs off the images that go into a planning application.

UK studio or overseas studio?

Many capable visualisation studios work from outside the UK, and price alone is not the right test. Two practical questions matter more.

The first is review rhythm. If the studio's working hours differ from yours, ask when your mark-ups will be picked up and when the next draft will reach you, because a schedule built on next-day revision rounds only holds if feedback and drafts meet in the middle.

The second is planning literacy. A view for a UK planning application has to suit the local planning authority's validation list, sit comfortably beside a Design and Access Statement and, where visual impact is contested, follow the Landscape Institute's TGN 06/19 method. Ask any studio, at home or abroad, how it produces a verified view and whether its montages are matched to survey data or to the photograph itself.

How much architectural animation costs

Film is priced at £45 per second of finished footage, with a 30-second minimum, so the shortest film starts at £1,350 and a 60-second flythrough at £2,700. Pricing by the second keeps the arithmetic transparent: a longer film needs more frames rendered, more camera paths designed and more editing.

Every film starts with a storyboard and camera route that you approve before rendering, because changing a route after frames exist is expensive for everyone. When stills are commissioned from the same model, the modelling is shared and the package quote reflects it.

What virtual staging costs

Staging starts at £95 per room, with a usual turnaround of 24–48 hours. Our artists furnish a photograph of an empty room with modelled furniture lit to match the original light, and several rooms in one property are priced together. Apart from the furniture added, the room is left as photographed, so the listing still shows the real space.

Verified views: why there is no list price

The cost of a verified view depends on the site rather than the image. Viewpoints are agreed, often with the planning officer; you photograph each one and note where you stood, the lens and the time; we align the model to features visible in each photograph, or to your own survey data where a Type 4 visualisation under the Landscape Institute's TGN 06/19 is required; and the method is written up so the authority can check it.

That is why verified views are quoted per project, with the method documented. The number of viewpoints, the surrounding context to be modelled and the alignment work each photograph needs vary too much from one site to another for a fair list price, so we price the specific views your scheme needs.

Payment terms and fixed quotes

Payment is 50% to start, 50% on approval of drafts. There is no hourly billing: the quote is what you pay unless the scope changes, and any change is priced before it is made. Send drawings, a finishes schedule and the list of views you need, and a fixed quote within one business day comes back with what is included and a delivery date.