VizcraftArchitectural animation costs roughly $2,000 to $20,000+ per finished minute in 2026, or about $50 to $200 per second at mid-market studios, with premium cinematic rate cards published at $250 to $2,000+ per second. This guide is for architects, developers, and marketing leads comparing architectural animation cost, architectural animation price, architecture animation price, 3D walkthrough animation cost, and flythrough cost per minute. The framing that matters most: animation is priced per second of finished footage, not per hour and not per image. As Maverick Frame puts it, "runtime alone tells you almost nothing about the price" (Maverick Frame).
This post is the animation deep-dive under the parent architectural rendering cost guide. For per-image budgets, see the siblings on exterior rendering cost, interior rendering cost, and 3D rendering cost per image. For vendor-by-vendor quote comparison, see the 3D rendering price list.
Architectural animation cost at a glance (2026 vendor benchmarks)
These are vendor-published examples, not an industry standard. Every studio below publishes its own marketing anchor, and the spread is caused by scope, not vendor greed.
| Source | Published animation price | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Maverick Frame | $2,000-$15,000+ per finished minute (~$50-$200/sec) | 3D walkthrough animation, 2026 |
| No Triangle Studio | $2,500-$20,000+ per minute | Architectural animations |
| Omega Render | $6,000-$12,000 per minute, $8,000 average | Per 1 minute of animation |
| MyArchitectAI | $4,000-$12,000 per minute | 2-3 week turnaround |
| RenderArt Studio | $5,000-$10,000 per minute standard, up to $15,000 intricate | Per minute of animation |
| Archivinci | $5,000-$20,000 per minute, $20,000+ for high-end | Per minute of 3D animation |
| Provisual | $110/sec (~$6,600 per minute) own rate; $6,000-$12,000 per minute market | US market pricing |
| VisEngine | $5,000-$20,000 per video | Varies with quality, length, complexity |
| CAD Crowd | $5,000-$10,000 per video | Architectural animation services |
| PixReady | $2,000-$5,000 freelance, $5,000-$12,000 studio, $12,000-$30,000+ high-end | 30-60 second animation, by tier |
| Freedes Studio | $2,000 basic, $5,000-$10,000+ complex | Per project: 30-sec residential flythrough vs 60-90 sec multi-zone commercial |
The honest read: published medians cluster around $5,000-$12,000 per finished minute. Anything materially below that means a short runtime, a single environment, or a studio to vet carefully.
Per-second pricing: the number studios actually quote from
Most archviz shops price per second, because render and edit cost scale with frames. A "per minute" figure is almost always a per-second rate multiplied by 60, so convert every bid to per-second before comparing.
| Studio | Published per-second rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trim Render | $75.00/sec flat | Published rate card: full 3D modeling, photoreal materials and lighting, camera path animation, background music, MP4 at 2K, two revision rounds |
| Realspace3D | $10-$100/sec | Labeled "BUYER BEWARE"; warns of inexperienced artists and that in animation "small mistakes can no longer be photoshopped away" |
| Realspace3D | $100-$300/sec | Where "more legitimate companies" appear; notes a higher price does not guarantee better quality |
| Realspace3D | $300-$1,000/sec | Reserved for what it calls "the top 0.1% of 3D Animation companies" |
| Skanda Designs | $250-$450/sec | Simple flythrough: single environment, daylight, no characters |
| Skanda Designs | $450-$900/sec | Mid-tier cinematic: multiple environments, music, sound design |
| Skanda Designs | $900-$2,000+/sec | Signature launch film: narrative cuts, characters, original score |
| Maverick Frame | $50-$200/sec | General market range |
| Provisual | $110/sec | Published standard 3D animation rate, US |
The freelance floor sits below all of these, but not as far below as buyers expect. CAD Crowd's view of the bottom is blunt: "a reputable company or freelancer will not do the job for anything less than $1000," and "$5,000 is probably the bare minimum for an architectural animation of any reasonable quality" (CAD Crowd).
Why the per-minute number is the wrong unit to compare
A 60-second continuous single-camera interior walkthrough and a 60-second edited film with eight cuts across four environments are both "one minute," and they can differ several-fold in price. Skanda Designs states that "adding one new environment to a quoted sequence typically adds 15 to 25 per cent to the budget," and that continuous shots are cheaper than edited sequences with multiple angles (Skanda Designs).
That gap also explains why the two tables above look like they describe different industries. The per-minute vendors are mostly pricing a continuous walkthrough of one project; the $250-$2,000 per-second cards are pricing edited films with multiple environments, characters, and sound design. Both are real prices for different deliverables.
The practical fix: ask every vendor to quote per second and to state the environments, cuts, and lighting conditions included at that rate. Without those three numbers you are comparing invoices, not scopes.
Cost by animation type: walkthrough, flythrough, and aerial
Interior walkthrough. One building, controlled lighting, heavy furniture and material detail. Maverick Frame puts a typical 60-second property walkthrough at "roughly $3,000 and $12,000" (Maverick Frame). Trim Render's $75/sec card implies $4,500 for 60 seconds including 2K MP4 delivery and two revision rounds (Trim Render).
Exterior flythrough. Adds landscape, sky, context buildings, and vegetation. CGI Flythrough names landscape and weather/seasons among its seven cost components, because library assets are cheap and bespoke planting is not (CGI Flythrough). Freedes Studio puts a basic 30-second flythrough of a residential exterior at "around $2,000," rising to "$5,000-$10,000+" for a 60-90 second cinematic covering multiple interior and exterior zones (Freedes Studio).
Aerial and masterplan animation. Largest modeled area, most entourage, most render time. Modeling effort dominates frame count here, so the quote tracks the size of the site plan more than the runtime — which is also why this is the type most often bid as a project fee rather than off a per-second card.
What actually drives an architectural animation quote
| Driver | Why it moves the price | What to ask the vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Duration and cut count | Every second is 24-30 rendered frames plus edit time; cuts add setup, not just length | "How many seconds and how many distinct shots at this rate?" |
| Modeling scope and source-file health | The single biggest swing. A usable model versus modeling from scratch changes the base cost; messy imports become billable cleanup — see rendering in Revit | "What do you need from me, and what happens if my model is dirty?" |
| Camera count and environments | Each added environment adds roughly 15-25% to the budget (Skanda Designs) | "How many environments are in this quote?" |
| Lighting and time of day | Each lighting condition is a separate render pass; CGI Flythrough names lighting/time of day and weather/seasons as distinct cost factors (CGI Flythrough) | "Is dusk included, or is it a change order?" |
| Entourage: people, cars, vegetation | Bespoke motion-captured characters can add $200-$600 per second (Skanda Designs); library assets are far cheaper | "Library entourage or custom animation?" |
| Resolution and frame rate | Omega Render publishes $2,000 per minute of rendering at FHD 1920x1080 versus $4,000 per minute at 4K 3840x2160 (Omega Render) | "What does 4K add, and do I need it?" |
| Render-farm time | Frames times resolution times samples is a real cash cost, not overhead — which is why 4K roughly doubles the render line | "Is farm time inside the rate or billed separately?" |
| Music, sound design, licensing | Quoted separately from picture: stock music with light SFX $1,500-$4,000 per minute of final cut; an original 60-second score $8,000-$25,000+ (Skanda Designs) | "Who holds the music license, and for how long?" |
| Revision rounds | CGI Flythrough publishes a tiered policy: under 60% of the project is usually free, 60-90% is paid, over 90% is treated as a new project (CGI Flythrough) | "How is a round counted, and where is the threshold?" |
Worked budget: 30 seconds vs 60 seconds vs a full film
| Scope | Rate applied | Budget |
|---|---|---|
| 30-second single-camera interior walkthrough | $75-$200/sec | $2,250-$6,000 |
| 60-second marketing walkthrough | $75-$200/sec | $4,500-$12,000 |
| 90-second cinematic launch film | $450-$900/sec (Skanda mid-tier) | $40,500-$81,000, plus $2,250-$6,000 stock music, or $8,000-$25,000+ for an original 60-second score |
PixReady prices the same 30-60 second slot by tier: $2,000-$5,000 freelance, $5,000-$12,000 studio, $12,000-$30,000+ high-end (PixReady) — so the 30-second row above is the freelance-to-lower-studio band, not the whole market. CGI Flythrough calls 30 seconds "a standard video length," and notes the per-second price is lower at that length than for shorter clips (CGI Flythrough). The 90-second row is priced off a cinematic rate card, not a walkthrough one, which is why it sits an order of magnitude above the per-minute table. The 60-second row matches Maverick Frame's "roughly $3,000 and $12,000" and MyArchitectAI's $4,000-$12,000 per minute (MyArchitectAI). For scope creep: Maverick Frame says at $2,000-$15,000+ per finished minute, "a full 20 minutes runs well into six figures" (Maverick Frame).
Schedule matters as much as price. Trim Render publishes roughly "4 working days for every 10 seconds of animation," with a 60-second walkthrough taking "3-4 weeks from start to final delivery, including revisions" (Trim Render). MyArchitectAI quotes 2-3 weeks per minute. For firms carrying that spend across a pipeline, see the 3D rendering price list.
When an architectural animation is not worth it
Treat this as a test, not an opinion. Choose stills when any of these is true:
- The design is not frozen. Animation locks geometry, materials, planting, and lighting before you can afford to change your mind. Revising a still costs a retouch; revising an animation costs a re-render.
- The audience will see it on a listing page or in an email. A hero still usually beats a 60-second video nobody presses play on.
- Your total budget is below one finished minute. CAD Crowd notes good-quality static visualization can be had for $500-$800 per still image (CAD Crowd), so a package of four to six hero stills usually lands under the cost of a single finished minute.
- You need many units or unit types, not one narrative. Multifamily and mixed-use programs usually need breadth — see architecture use cases.
- The deliverable is a permit board, investor deck, or planning submission. Those frames get examined, not played.
When motion genuinely helps but a film does not pay, buy an intermediate deliverable: a still sequence along the intended camera path, or a 360-degree panorama. Omega Render lists panoramas at $1,500-$2,500 per space (Omega Render) and MyArchitectAI at $800-$2,000 (MyArchitectAI) — a fraction of a minute of animation, and the viewer controls the view.
The rule of thumb: commission animation only after look, materials, and time of day are signed off.
Where Vizcraft fits: the pre-animation stage
Vizcraft does not produce animations, walkthroughs, flythroughs, video, editable 3D models, CAD files, or AR assets. It generates still images. If you need a walkthrough, hire a studio from the tables above.
What Vizcraft is good for is the stage before that. The most expensive mistake in animation procurement is paying $8,000 per minute to discover the material palette or time of day was wrong. Stills are the cheapest place to make that call.
| Plan or pack | Credits | Effective cost per image |
|---|---|---|
| Free start | 2 credits | $0 |
| Starter monthly | $19 for 25 credits | $0.76 |
| Pro monthly | $49 for 100 credits | $0.49 |
| Studio monthly | $99 for 250 credits | $0.40 |
| One-time pack | $7 for 10 credits | $0.70 |
| One-time pack | $29 for 50 credits | $0.58 |
| One-time pack | $99 for 200 credits | $0.50 |
Most single images cost one credit. For scale: 250 exploratory stills on the Studio plan costs $99 — about 1.3 seconds of animation at Trim Render's $75 per second, the cheapest published rate card in this guide. Current details are on pricing. For plan-driven concept work, see floor plan to 3D isometric and the ISO Mapper, or browse output on the showcase. For the broader boundary between the two approaches, read the guide to AI architectural visualization.
Checklist: lock these before you commission an animation
The drivers table above covers what to ask about scope. These are the terms that decide the invoice and get left out of quotes:
- Whether a usable 3D model exists, and in what file format — plus who pays if it needs cleanup.
- Revision rounds included, and how a "round" is counted.
- Whether render-farm time is inside the rate or billed on top.
- Music licensing: stock or original, who holds the license, and for how long.
- Usage rights for paid media, out-of-home, and resale.
- Delivery date and any rush multiplier.
- Who signs off on design freeze before rendering starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an architectural animation cost per minute?
Vendor-published examples cluster between roughly $2,000 and $20,000+ per finished minute in 2026, with several studios quoting $5,000-$12,000 as typical. Omega Render publishes an $8,000 per-minute average. Treat these as vendor examples, not an industry standard, and convert every bid to a per-second rate before comparing.
How much is architectural animation per second?
Published rate cards run from $75 per second flat at Trim Render and $110 per second at Provisual, through $100-$300 per second for established studios per Realspace3D, up to $450-$900 per second for mid-tier cinematic and $900-$2,000+ for a signature launch film at Skanda Designs. Realspace3D flags the $10-$100 bracket "BUYER BEWARE."
Why is a 3D walkthrough so much more expensive than a still image?
One still is one frame. One second of animation is 24-30 rendered frames, each needing the same lighting, materials, and denoising as a hero still — plus editing, sound, and render-farm time. CAD Crowd puts good-quality static visualization at $500-$800 per image; a minute of animation is typically many multiples of that.
How long does an architectural animation take to produce?
Trim Render publishes roughly 4 working days per 10 seconds, and 3-4 weeks for a finished 60-second walkthrough including revisions. MyArchitectAI quotes 2-3 weeks per minute. Add time for design freeze, which is usually the real bottleneck rather than render capacity.
Can AI generate an architectural animation?
Vizcraft does not. It generates still images only — no video, no editable 3D models, no CAD or AR assets. General-purpose AI video tools exist, but holding building geometry stable across every frame is exactly what an architectural walkthrough has to do, and that is where they tend to break down. Use AI stills to lock the look, then commission the animation.
What is the cheapest credible alternative to an animation?
A still sequence along the intended camera path, or a 360-degree panorama. Omega Render lists panoramas at $1,500-$2,500 per space and MyArchitectAI at $800-$2,000 — well under one minute of animation, and both let the viewer control the view. AI-generated stills cost $0.40-$0.76 each on Vizcraft plans at the exploration stage.
How many revision rounds should an animation quote include?
Get it in writing. CGI Flythrough publishes a tiered policy where corrections affecting under 60% of the project are usually free, 60-90% is charged separately, and over 90% is treated as a new project. Trim Render includes two rounds in its per-second rate. Unlimited revisions on an animation quote is a warning sign, not a benefit.
If you are still deciding what the building should look like, test that with stills before anyone quotes you per second. Start with a plan in ISO Mapper, or browse the showcase.