What a photometric plan costs
A commercial photometric plan from a US service costs roughly $220 to $2,500, and a straightforward parking lot about $250 to $400, by the prices these services publish. Manufacturers often lay out their own fixtures for free. Whether you should pay depends on what the plan is for: a permit that asks for an engineer's stamp, or a quote and a fixture choice.
Your options side by side
- Stetra Lighting · service
- From $220; $250–$400 for a straightforward parking lot; $220–$1,000 by project type. 1–2 days. Scope and price confirmed before work.
- Photometric Bureau · service
- Most commercial plans $300–$2,500. 48 hours standard, rush available. Point-by-point grid, fixture schedule, site plan overlay, contours, light-trespass and BUG checks, revision rounds.
- LED manufacturer free layout
- Free. 1–3 business days in our test; some online tools are instant. A layout of that manufacturer's fixtures; no inputs provided in our test.
- Do it yourself in AGi32
- $1,307 a year, single user (list price), plus your own hours. Full control; needs training and time per site.
- Runnax
- Free during early access. In as little as a few minutes. A parking-lot layout with any manufacturer's IES files, the fewest poles that meet your targets, every input on record to check in AGi32.
Service prices and AGi32's list price are quoted from each company's own website on October 20, 2026; they change, so check before you buy. The manufacturer comparison is our own test of two US manufacturers' public free-layout tools on October 8, 2026.
What drives the price
- Size and calculation areas: one parking lot costs less than a multi-zone site.
- Drawings: a clean CAD file is quicker to work from than a scan or a sketch.
- Fixtures: fixtures chosen with IES files ready save a round of selection.
- Permit requirements: light-trespass, BUG, energy-code and stamping requirements add work.
- Revisions: every extra design round adds time.
These are the cost drivers the services above name themselves.
When a free plan is enough, and when it isn't
- Free is enough to price a bid, to compare fixtures, and to settle pole count and spacing early in a design.
- Pay a professional when the permit asks for a stamped or engineer-prepared plan, or for documents a layout tool does not produce, such as energy-code forms or controls drawings.
- Either way, check the inputs: a plan you cannot rebuild is a plan you cannot check. Ask for the luminaire files, mounting heights, light loss factor and calculation grid.
How to pay less
- Send a DXF of the site, the IES files of the fixtures you want to quote, and your targets in the first email.
- Know your targets before you start: see parking lot lighting requirements.
- Try spacings yourself first with the parking lot lighting calculator.
Questions
How much does a photometric plan cost?
Published prices from US photometric-plan services run from about $220 to $2,500 for commercial projects. Stetra Lighting lists $220–$1,000 by project type and $250–$400 for a straightforward parking lot; Photometric Bureau says most commercial plans run $300–$2,500. Prices checked October 20, 2026.
What makes a photometric plan cost more?
Site size and the number of calculation areas, the quality of the base drawings, whether the fixtures and their IES files are already chosen, permit and jurisdiction requirements, and the number of design rounds.
Can I get a photometric plan for free?
Yes, for quoting and design. LED manufacturers and suppliers often lay out their own fixtures for free, and Runnax does a parking-lot layout with any manufacturer's IES files for free during early access. A free layout is not a stamped plan.
Do I need a stamped photometric plan?
Only if the authority reviewing your permit asks for one. If it does, the plan has to come from a licensed engineer; a Runnax layout is not that, but it can be the starting layout for the engineer who signs it.
How long does a photometric plan take?
Stetra lists 1–2 days and Photometric Bureau 48 hours as standard, with rush options. Manufacturer free-layout services we tested took 1–3 business days. Runnax returns a parking-lot layout in as little as a few minutes.
What does it cost to do it myself?
AGi32, the most common program for this work, lists an annual single-user subscription at $1,307 (October 20, 2026), plus the hours it takes to learn and to lay out each site.
Sources
- Stetra Lighting: photometric plan cost and order photometry, checked 2026-10-20.
- Photometric Bureau: pricing, checked 2026-10-20.
- Lighting Analysts e-store: AGi32 Annual Single User, list price, checked 2026-10-20.