How long a map takes

Measured on real flights, not a lab benchmark: 73 flights processed on SwathMap's production fleet from August 29 to October 15, 2026. A full map typically took 4.4 minutes for every 100 photos, from the moment a server picked it up to the moment the map was ready to open.

4.4 min: per 100 photos, typical for a full map across 64 flights of 100 photos or more
22 min: typical for a 500-photo flight; half of flights near that size took 16 to 30 min
7 min: for an edges-only map in our own tests: 6 runs over one 65-acre field
8 in 10: flights started processing within 90 seconds of their upload finishing (61 of 73)

Every flight, plotted

Time grows with the number of photos, close to a straight line. Much of the spread comes from how busy the fleet was. The hollow dots are September 17 and 18, the two heaviest days so far, when big maps took more than twice as long.

Each dot is one map, August 29 to October 15, 2026. Swipe the chart sideways to see all of it. On a computer, hover over a dot for its numbers. Every map is also listed in the table at the bottom of this page.

Typical time by flight size

Find your usual flight size. Acres depend on how high and with how much overlap you fly, so go by photo count first.

Full maps only. Typical is the median; "Fastest to slowest" is the quickest and the slowest flight in each group. Of the 20 flights over 750 photos, 13 ran on September 17 and 18, the two heaviest days so far, and most of the slowest times in those rows come from those two days.
Photos in the flight	Typical time	Fastest to slowest	Flights	Typical acres
Under 150	3.5 min	1.9 min to 5.9 min	12	20
150 to 300	6.6 min	4.4 min to 23.7 min	10	53
300 to 500	18.5 min	9.0 min to 57.4 min	15	88
500 to 750	27.1 min	14.0 min to 1 h 6 min	16	149
750 to 1,100	1 h 3 min	23.4 min to 2 h	9	289
1,100 to 1,600	1 h 10 min	40.1 min to 1 h 56 min	6	443
1,600 to 2,400	1 h 51 min	1 h 21 min to 2 h 50 min	5	617

Estimate your map

Enter how many photos your flight has and how fast your internet uploads. The estimate reads the table above for flights your size.

What can make it longer

Photo count sets most of the time. These three things decide the rest.

Your processing lane

Queue up to 50 fields at once. Your plan includes one priority lane. Your first map goes ahead of every customer's extra maps; more run at once when there's spare capacity. Crews that map all day can add lanes.

Busy days

When many big flights arrive at once, maps can wait in line and run slower. On September 17, the heaviest day so far, 16 flights came in and 10 of them waited in line, from 17 min to 1 h 27 min.

Your upload

Photos averaged 9.4 MB each, so a 500-photo flight is about 4.7 GB. On a slow rural line the upload can take longer than the processing.

How we measured

Times come straight from the production fleet's own records: from the moment a server picked a map up to the moment the map was ready to open. Time spent waiting in line before that is counted on its own, not dropped. These numbers show what happened, not a guarantee.

Included: every distinct flight processed through Agri Flight Logs' app, the first app to use SwathMap, that finished from August 29 to October 15, 2026, with at least 30 photos. That's 73 flights, including some from before the app moved to production on September 12. The typical rate uses the 64 with 100 photos or more, because a very small map spends most of its time on fixed setup.
Left out: 20 runs from our own demo and test accounts, 4 repeat runs of the same photos (each flight counts once), and 4 unusual uploads: shrunken test photos, a map with no timing record, and flights where fewer than half the photos could be used, which finish early because most of the work is skipped.
No edges-only maps have come through the app yet, so the edges-only figure comes from our own test runs: 6 runs over one 65-acre field, 5.9 to 7.7 minutes. They're the purple dots.
"Photos in the flight" is what you upload. "Photos used" can be lower: frames shot at a steep angle or toward the sky are left out, and an edges-only map uses only the photos along the field's edge.
Acres are as recorded for each map, so they're a guide, not a survey.
No names, owners or locations are published here. The chart and table show counts and minutes only.

See all 79 maps

Every measured map, August 29 to October 15, 2026
Photos in flight	Photos used	Acres	Map type	Wait in line	Processing	Date
32	32	6	Full map	under 1 min	2.1 min	Sep 29
38	30	4	Full map	under 1 min	1.9 min	Sep 29
45	45	9	Full map	under 1 min	2.8 min	Sep 29
47	38	51	Full map	under 1 min	2.9 min	Oct 1
62	62	17	Full map	under 1 min	3.2 min	Sep 29
65	58	37	Full map	under 1 min	3.8 min	Oct 1
71	54	70	Full map	under 1 min	4.5 min	Oct 1
86	86	24	Full map	under 1 min	3.5 min	Sep 29
91	82	18	Full map	under 1 min	3.4 min	Sep 29
107	95	22	Full map	under 1 min	4.2 min	Sep 29
129	112	91	Full map	under 1 min	5.9 min	Oct 1
145	145	3	Full map	under 1 min	5.3 min	Sep 18
154	154	45	Full map	under 1 min	5.7 min	Sep 29
154	131	119	Full map	under 1 min	6.8 min	Oct 1
163	135	182	Full map	under 1 min	4.4 min	Oct 1
172	138	50	Full map	under 1 min	6.3 min	Oct 12
179	165	46	Full map	under 1 min	5.9 min	Sep 30
197	197	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	6.9 min	Oct 15
197	197	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	7.0 min	Oct 13
200	178	61	Full map	under 1 min	6.0 min	Oct 1
220	206	55	Full map	under 1 min	8.2 min	Sep 4
232	205	175	Full map	under 1 min	7.7 min	Oct 1
239	239	50	Full map	under 1 min	23.7 min	Sep 30
255	255	49	Full map	under 1 min	12.4 min	Sep 30
307	283	42	Full map	under 1 min	14.0 min	Sep 15
310	288	69	Full map	under 1 min	13.6 min	Oct 12
314	292	74	Full map	under 1 min	9.0 min	Sep 2
336	336	245	Full map	under 1 min	13.2 min	Oct 1
345	312	65	Full map	5 min	14.5 min	Sep 11
351	142	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	5.9 min	Oct 12
351	170	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	6.7 min	Oct 12
351	178	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	7.2 min	Oct 12
351	221	65	Edges only, our test field	under 1 min	7.7 min	Oct 12
402	402	82	Full map	under 1 min	17.0 min	Sep 30
410	410	120	Full map	17 min	34.8 min	Sep 17
423	403	90	Full map	39 min	28.5 min	Sep 17
434	410	86	Full map	under 1 min	22.8 min	Sep 11
448	427	70	Full map	29 min	28.1 min	Sep 17
460	460	94	Full map	under 1 min	21.1 min	Sep 29
470	438	88	Full map	under 1 min	18.5 min	Oct 12
488	250	422	Full map	under 1 min	22.4 min	Oct 1
489	489	132	Full map	under 1 min	11.9 min	Sep 2
498	498	146	Full map	1 h 12 min	57.4 min	Sep 17
501	500	112	Full map	under 1 min	38.0 min	Oct 12
502	462	196	Full map	under 1 min	23.0 min	Sep 18
527	501	137	Full map	under 1 min	16.2 min	Sep 26
541	541	159	Full map	under 1 min	34.7 min	Sep 17
551	551	146	Full map	under 1 min	23.6 min	Sep 18
568	543	145	Full map	under 1 min	15.6 min	Sep 4
574	546	27	Full map	under 1 min	14.0 min	Aug 29
607	607	109	Full map	under 1 min	26.8 min	Sep 11
622	598	177	Full map	37 min	40.2 min	Sep 17
630	602	494	Full map	under 1 min	20.2 min	Sep 26
631	596	124	Full map	under 1 min	27.3 min	Sep 18
633	607	167	Full map	under 1 min	18.1 min	Sep 26
658	658	194	Full map	under 1 min	56.5 min	Sep 17
694	694	178	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 6 min	Sep 18
716	716	149	Full map	under 1 min	32.6 min	Sep 30
722	722	148	Full map	under 1 min	30.4 min	Sep 30
817	817	322	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 9 min	Sep 18
852	852	259	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 3 min	Sep 17
856	824	230	Full map	under 1 min	29.5 min	Aug 29
880	849	240	Full map	under 1 min	23.4 min	Sep 26
905	873	272	Full map	under 1 min	27.4 min	Aug 29
1,016	1,016	289	Full map	1 h 17 min	1 h 50 min	Sep 17
1,032	1,032	308	Full map	1 h 23 min	1 h 36 min	Sep 17
1,043	1,013	314	Full map	under 1 min	25.9 min	Sep 1
1,067	1,067	450	Full map	1 h 27 min	2 h	Sep 17
1,108	1,108	332	Full map	under 1 min	47.9 min	Sep 18
1,265	1,220	446	Full map	under 1 min	40.1 min	Sep 1
1,385	1,385	293	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 1 min	Sep 30
1,442	1,442	439	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 56 min	Sep 17
1,499	1,499	592	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 18 min	Sep 18
1,517	1,517	534	Full map	1 h 16 min	1 h 48 min	Sep 17
1,770	1,770	617	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 21 min	Sep 18
1,908	1,861	612	Full map	50 min	2 h 50 min	Sep 4
1,978	1,978	607	Full map	under 1 min	1 h 49 min	Sep 17
1,992	1,992	618	Full map	under 1 min	2 h 29 min	Sep 17
2,335	2,335	808	Full map	22 min	1 h 51 min	Sep 17

73 flights processed on the production fleet, and 6 edges-only test runs over one field of ours. Processing runs from a server picking the map up to the map being ready to open. The wait in line before that is shown on its own.

Map your next field before you spray it.

Create an account and try the drawing tools on a sample map, then subscribe and upload your own flight. A 500-photo flight typically takes about 22 minutes to process. Questions first? Ask, and you'll get an answer from a person on the SwathMap team.