Drone laws by country
5 jurisdictions · every fact linked to its official source · each page re-checked about once a month.
Drone rules change roughly twice a year, and most of what you will find online is out of date without saying so. Every row below shows the date we last checked it against the regulator itself. Where we could not confirm something, we say so instead of guessing.
Drone laws by country or region
- Drone laws in China — Civil Aviation Administration of China · verified
- Drone laws in the European Union — European Union Aviation Safety Agency · verified
- Drone laws in Germany — Luftfahrt-Bundesamt / Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr · verified
- Drone laws in Japan — Civil Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism · verified
- Drone laws in the United States — Federal Aviation Administration · verified
Compare
| Jurisdiction | Registration from | Pilot credential | Max altitude | Remote ID | Visitor can fly? | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | Every civil drone, whatever its weight | No licence for micro (under 250 g) or light (up to 4 kg empty, 7 kg take-off) drones, but flying a light drone in controlled airspace requires a CAAC theory-training certificate | 120 m above ground | Mandatory | — | |
| European Union | 250 g | Free online training and a 40-question exam (75% to pass) for A1/A3; a further 30-question exam for the A2 Certificate of Competency | 120 m from the closest point of the surface | Direct (broadcast) remote ID, required on C1, C2, C3, C5 and C6 class-marked aircraft | Yes | |
| Germany | 250 g | Free online training and a 40-question exam (75% to pass) for A1/A3; a further 30-question exam for the A2 Certificate of Competency | 120 m from the closest point of the surface | Direct (broadcast) remote ID, required on C1, C2, C3, C5 and C6 class-marked aircraft | Yes | |
| Japan | 100 g including the battery | No licence is needed for flying that avoids the regulated airspace and methods, or for flying under an individual MLIT permission | 150 m above the ground or water surface | Mandatory (broadcast) since 20 June 2022, tied to registration | Yes, with Japanese registration | |
| United States | 250 g (0 | TRUST (free online test) for recreational flight; a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate for everything else | 400 ft (120 m) AGL, or within 400 ft of a structure | Mandatory (broadcast) | Yes |
Every entry above was re-checked against its own regulator on or after , and each is re-checked about once a month. A dash means we have not confirmed that field from an official source — it does not mean there is no rule.
Recently changed
- Japan — First UTM service providers receive MLIT IDs
- China — Beijing adopts citywide ban on flying, owning and storing drones — in force 15 November 2026
- United States — FCC order makes online marketplaces show FCC IDs — rule effective 13 October 2026, display required from 2027
- United States — Section 232 tariffs take effect — 25% on consumer drones
- United States — FCC proposes ending imports and sales of Anzu Robotics drones already authorised
- United States — FCC proposes ending imports and sales of "military-grade" foreign drones already on the market
- Japan — Drone Act no-fly zones around important facilities widen to about 1,000 m
- United States — Part 108 BVLOS final rule sent to OIRA — still unpublished
- United States — State and local police gain counter-drone authority
- Japan — Exclusive industrial zones taken out of the populated-area restriction
Guides
- Why your drone licence stops at the border — Your registration and your pilot certificate are worthless the moment you cross a border — with exactly one exception on Earth.
Not yet covered, and why
Completeness is easy to claim and hard to earn. These are the jurisdictions we have deliberately left out, with the reason:
- France — every official French government drone page we tried returned 404; AlphaTango and the DGAC/IGN map could not be confirmed against a live official source
- Brazil — RBAC 100 replaced RBAC-E 94 in June 2026, but we have only secondary sources — ANAC sits behind a CAPTCHA and its English page still describes the superseded rule
- United Arab Emirates — whether recreational and visitor flying resumed after the 30 June 2026 lift is genuinely unclear in every source we could reach
- Indonesia — the regulator's portal fails TLS verification; the tourist import-permit rule that everyone repeats is unsourced
- Israel — no current official English-language source from the CAAI could be verified
How this is maintained
Each jurisdiction is re-checked against its own regulator about once a month. When something changes, it is added to that country's timeline with the source and the date, and the summary row above is updated at the same time — so the timeline is the audit trail of the table. More about the method →
This is not legal advice. ListDrone is an information site, not a law firm or an aviation authority. Verify with the regulator before you fly.