The state of the U.S. drone market
18,973 drones carry FAA tail numbers today. 11,291 of them spray crops, 4,216 deliver packages, 1,350 fly for defense. More registration certificates have been issued in 2026 so far (5,681) than in the whole of 2025 (4,452). And DJI's share of the crop-spraying market has gone from 51% in 2025 to 42% this year.
Why the register is the best public count
Most drones in the United States are registered through the FAA's DroneZone website, a system that publishes no public detail. But a drone that weighs more than 55 pounds, or that flies under an FAA waiver or exemption, must be registered the way an airplane is: with a tail number, a make and model, and an owner of record. Crop-spraying drones, delivery drones, defense drones and light-show fleets all fall into that group. Their records land in the same public file as every Cessna and Boeing, and that file is what this page reads every morning.
So the 18,973 drones here are not all the drones in America. They are the serious ones: the commercial fleets that carry a payload, and the companies operating them. 17,477 of them, 92 percent, are electric.
Registration certificates by year
2026 runs through October 2, 2026. Counted by the latest certificate each registered drone holds.
By use 18,973 drones
What they do
Farming dominates. 11,291 registered drones, 60 percent of the total, are crop sprayers: aircraft that carry tens of pounds of liquid over fields, too heavy for the small-drone rules. Delivery and cargo come next with 4,216, almost entirely Zipline (3,412) and Amazon Prime Air (740). Defense and long-endurance drones number 1,350, light-show fleets 980, and inspection and mapping 234.
The monthly chart below shows the two engines of growth. Agricultural registrations run all year with a spring peak before the growing season. Delivery registrations arrive in waves, as Zipline and Amazon register batches of aircraft ahead of opening new service areas; the biggest single month on record is June 2026, with 964 drones registered.
All drone registrations per month, by use
The DJI question
DJI of China is the largest maker on the register, with 6,948 drones, nearly all of them Agras crop sprayers. On December 22, 2025 the Federal Communications Commission added DJI to its Covered List, which blocks approval of new DJI models for the U.S. market. Models approved before that date can still be sold from stock and flown, so the register shows a slowdown rather than a stop.
DJI's monthly crop-sprayer registrations peaked at 257 in April 2025 and stood at 6 in October 2026. Its share of all crop-sprayer registrations went from 51% in 2025 to 42% so far in 2026. Hylio of Richmond, Texas registered 0 in October 2026 against DJI's 6. The other Chinese makers, XAG and EAVision, and a widening field of small American builders take the rest.
Whether the gap closes is the story to watch on this page. It is rewritten every morning, so the current month is always partial and the last full month is the fair comparison.
Crop-spraying drone registrations per month by maker, counted by the date the FAA issued the certificate. October 2026 is partial, through October 2, 2026.
Who is buying
Businesses, overwhelmingly. 7,347 registered drones belong to LLCs and 6,797 to corporations; 1,132 belong to government bodies, from police departments to universities, and 2,308 to individuals, most of them farmers registering a single sprayer.
The largest fleets: Zipline International INC (2,995, California), Hylio INC (708, Texas), Pixis Drones LLC (646, Virginia), Amazon.Com Services LLC (611, Washington) and Anduril Industries INC (420, California). The fleet table lists every company and government body with five or more drones. Individuals are never named there.
Who owns them
Where, and from which countries
California leads with 4,059 registered drones, then Texas (1,701) and Iowa (1,112). A delivery company's whole fleet is counted in its home state, which lifts the states where Zipline and Amazon are based; the farm states follow on the strength of crop sprayers.
By country of maker, drones built by U.S. companies number 8,790 (Zipline 3,412, Hylio 1,211, Amazon Prime Air 740, UVify 650, Anduril Industries 428) and drones built by Chinese companies 9,226 (DJI 6,948, EAVision 1,137, XAG 1,008, Huida Tech 47, Yuneec 46). No maker from Ukraine or India appears on the U.S. register today; when one does, it will show up on the makers page.
By state top 10
By maker top 15, with country
Maker names are cleaned up by this site; the FAA spells DJI four different ways.
The U.S. drone market, in numbers answers refresh every morning
How many drones are registered with the FAA?
The FAA aircraft register lists 18,973 drones with their own tail numbers as of October 2, 2026. These are the drones that must be registered like an airplane: anything over 55 pounds, and drones flown under an FAA waiver or exemption, which is where crop-spraying, delivery and defense drones live. The much larger number of small hobby and commercial drones registered through the FAA's DroneZone website is a separate system and is not in this public file. See the drone pages.
Who makes the most registered drones in the United States?
DJI of China (6,948), Zipline of United States (3,412), Hylio of United States (1,211), EAVision of China (1,137) and XAG of China (1,008), as of October 2, 2026. Makers based in the United States account for 8,790 registered drones and makers based in China for 9,226.
Is DJI losing the U.S. market?
On the register the answer so far is yes. DJI's monthly crop-spraying drone registrations fell from a peak of 257 in April 2025 to 6 in October 2026, and its share of those registrations went from 51% in 2025 to 42% so far in 2026. Hylio of Richmond, Texas registered 0 in October 2026 against DJI's 6. On December 22, 2025 the FCC added DJI to its Covered List, which blocks approval of new DJI models for the U.S. market; models approved earlier can still be sold from stock and flown. See the month-by-month chart.
What are most registered drones used for?
Crop spraying, by a wide margin: 11,291 of the 18,973 registered drones are agricultural. Then delivery and cargo (4,216, led by Zipline and Amazon Prime Air), defense and long-endurance (1,350), drone light shows (980) and inspection and mapping (234).
Which state has the most registered drones?
California, with 4,059, followed by Texas (1,701) and Iowa (1,112). Counted by the state of the registered owner, so a delivery company's whole fleet sits in its home state.
Who operates the largest drone fleets?
Zipline International INC (2,995, California), Hylio INC (708, Texas), Pixis Drones LLC (646, Virginia) and Amazon.Com Services LLC (611, Washington). Only companies, LLCs and government bodies are listed; individual owners are never named. See the largest fleets.
How many registered drones are electric?
17,477 of the 18,973, or 92%. The rest are mostly small piston engines and turbojets on defense and long-endurance drones.
How to read this page
Everything above is computed from the FAA's Releasable Aircraft Database, the public copy of the U.S. civil aircraft register, which the FAA republishes every night at 11:30 pm Central. eFlight Registry downloads it each morning, checks it, translates the codes, cleans up maker names and rewrites this page. A "drone" here is a registered aircraft with no seats whose type is fixed-wing, rotorcraft, hybrid lift or other, and that is not a piloted electric aircraft from a watchlist maker. Uses (crop spraying, delivery and so on) are assigned by maker and model. Company, LLC and government names appear as the FAA publishes them; individuals are never named in lists.
To cite this page: eFlight Registry, "The state of the U.S. drone market", data as of October 2, 2026, https://eflight.com/drone-market. The numbers as data: /api/today.json.