been doing commercial drone work for about 8 months now and im still all over the place with pricing. had a client yesterday want aerial shots of their construction site and i quoted $400 for half day but then found out another pilot charged them $800 for similar work last month. feel like im either way too cheap or the other guy was gouging them

how do you guys figure out what to charge, especially when clients dont really know what drone work should cost either. some days i think i should just double everything and see what happens

yeah pricing is tough when you're starting out. i went through the same thing my first year. what helped me was breaking it down by what my actual costs are - insurance, equipment depreciation, gas to get there, editing time after. most people forget about the editing part but thats usually 2-3 hours for every hour of flying

now i just have standard rates and stick to them. $150/hr minimum with 2hr minimum, plus $50 if they need it edited same day. construction sites are usually pretty straightforward so shouldn't take too long

dont sell yourself short man. if another pilot got $800 then thats probably closer to market rate in your area. i made the mistake of being the cheap guy for way too long and it just attracts the wrong kind of clients who complain about everything anyway

also depends on what they actually wanted - was it just raw footage or did they need a finished video with graphics and stuff. makes a huge difference in time