How much do 3D renderings cost?
The short answer is that you should expect to pay $250–$2,800 per residential still, $450–$10,000 for commercial still, and $4,000-$12,000 per minute of animation. 360° panoramas typically cost $800-$2,000.
But the pricing of architectural rendering services varies a lot, and depends on a range of factors such as scope, quality tier, timeline, and region.
That's why it's important to find the right balance between the quality of visualization you need and how much 3D rendering will cost you.
Very often, you can save thousands by choosing a lower-cost solution that will be just good enough for the job.
Low-cost renderings ($250-$600 per image) are suitable in the early phase of the project where the highest level of detail is not needed and the goal is to get approval from regulatory bodies, basic style planning, or real estate presale.
High-end renderings ($600-$3,000 per image) are a better fit when state-of-the-art photorealism is a must. These renders will give you a bigger chance of winning high-value residential clients and large-scale commercial projects, and help win construction bids for contractors.
Let's have a look at 3D rendering prices by project type.
To give you a rough idea of what you can expect to pay for your architectural visualization project, we analyzed the cost per image offered by over 30 rendering service providers across the market and gathered the price ranges in the table below.
As you can see, 3D residential renderings are more affordable than commercial projects, and 3D exterior rendering prices are higher than interior ones.
3D animations take a lot more effort and expertise than still visualizations, thus their prices are way higher.
The estimated turnaround time is usually correlated with cost.
Keep in mind that the ranges above are indicative. We recommend requesting a formal quote from a rendering company of your choice.
As you've seen above, the price range of 3D rendering services is pretty big.
Let's have a look at the factors impacting it to better understand what your project price depends on and how you can potentially optimize it based on your actual needs.
The larger the scale of the project, the more time and effort needed to create a photorealistic visualization.
Rendering an aerial view of a big shopping mall will take incomparably more effort than a single-family home mostly because of the number and size of the objects and the detail of the environment.
Related to the point above, the number and intricacy of details, level of realism, and resolution of the images have a significant impact on the time and effort to produce a 3D architectural render.
We're talking about details such as the type of materials and textures, lighting, atmosphere, and even the architectural style (smooth corners are more resource-intensive to render than sharp ones). They all make a difference.
In the case of higher-quality visualizations, other aspects that drive the 3D rendering services cost up are an extra amount of post-processing, more computational resources, and of course, more experienced (and higher-paid) 3D artists who are able to achieve the level of detail and realism that you pay for.
3D rendering services are usually priced on a per-image basis (as described later in the article), so the more images and scenes you need to be rendered, the higher the project cost will be.
Animation and visual tour prices change accordingly, as the final rendering price depends on the number of frames to be processed.
As a rule of thumb, still images will always be cheaper than animations and virtual tours.
That's because rendering them requires less effort and doesn't require the 3D artists to be as highly skilled as in the case of dynamic visualizations.
When it comes to still interior vs exterior rendering prices, the latter are usually higher.
How quickly you need your 3D visualizations delivered impacts the service cost so it's important to plan it ahead to stay within budget.
If you give the rendering firm a tight deadline, it will result in extra fees as their team will have to work overtime to deliver your work on schedule.
Aside from putting together a detailed brief of how you need your architectural model visualized, you should provide your rendering firm with any relevant reference images, mood boards, texture samples, or 3D models which will lower the amount of time and effort they'll need to spend on research and back and forth communication.
Just as established architectural companies charge more for their services thanks to their experience and brand recognition, it's the same with 3D visualization firms whose services cost more because of the experience, reputation, and portfolio they've built over the years.
Then, the firm's location plays a role too as US-based service providers are usually more expensive than their overseas counterparts.
There are three most common ways 3D rendering firms charge for their services:
If you decide to outsource your rendering project to a specialist, here are some pro tips for keeping it within the budget:
Outsourcing to a specialized rendering firm is not the only option you have though.
Depending on your needs, you have 3 options if you need your architectural design visualized, from the most expensive to the most affordable one:
Here's how they compare:
Hopefully, this guide gave you some more clarity on how much 3D renderings cost and how much you should budget based on your project needs.
Now, gather your requirements and assets, and decide if you want to outsource your project to an architectural rendering company (here's a list of providers we recommend) or do it yourself with an easy-to-use AI rendering software.
3D rendering prices range from $250 per one still residential interior rendering up to $12,000 per minute of animation.
3D rendering prices depend on aspects such as the complexity of the project, level of detail and photorealism required, number of images, type of visualization, project deadlines, and the choice of rendering firm.
The turnaround time ranges from 3 days for simple residential interior renders up to even 3 weeks for complex architectural animations.
High-end service providers mostly use high-end archviz software such as V-Ray, Corona Render, or KeyShot. More affordable firms and freelancers often rely on faster and less resource-intensive renderers such as D5 Render, Lumion, Twinmotion, or Enscape.
We created a separate guide of some of the most recommended rendering studios, so that would be a good starting point for your search.
.webp)