How Much Does 3D Gaussian Splatting Cost in Australia? (2026 Guide)
Every 3D Gaussian splatting price in Australia in one place — hardware from $7,699, hire from $150/day, and an honest explanation of how capture service quotes are built. All AUD inc GST. No enquiry form required.
Go looking for a price on any 3D scanning website in Australia and you'll find the same thing everywhere: 'contact us for a quote'. A form, a discovery call, a follow-up call, and eventually a PDF that expires before your project starts. Nobody in this industry publishes prices. We think that's backwards, so here they are — every scanner we sell, every hire rate we charge, and an honest explanation of how capture service quotes actually get built. Every figure on this page is in Australian dollars, inc GST, current as of August 2026.
There are three ways to pay for 3D Gaussian splatting: buy the hardware, hire it, or have someone capture and deliver for you. Which one makes sense depends on how often you'll scan — not on what a salesperson wants to sell you. Let's take them in order.
Option 1: Buy the hardware
We're the XGRIDS National Distributor for Australia, and these are our actual prices — the same ones you'd get on the phone. One thing before the numbers: every scanner ships with three permanent LixelStudio licences for point cloud processing. Permanent, not subscription. Three seats, no annual renewal. That matters more than it sounds, and we'll come back to why.
XGRIDS PortalCam — from $7,699
The PortalCam is an 870g, four-camera 3DGS array that produces photoreal Gaussian splat scenes at ±2cm relative accuracy. Two honest caveats: no RTK, and no point cloud output. It's a visual capture tool, not a survey instrument. If you need georeferenced, survey-grade data, that's the K2's job.
- →PortalCam Standard: $7,699 inc GST — includes a 1-year LCC Basic licence
- →PortalCam Premium: $10,199 inc GST — includes a 1-year LCC Premium licence plus a second battery
Lixel K1 — $14,999
The K1 is a 1kg handheld SLAM LiDAR scanner: 200,000 points per second, ±1.2cm relative accuracy, 0.1–40m range. Its multi-SLAM engine keeps tracking where GPS can't reach — basements, stairwells, plant rooms, under dense canopy. It's the entry point for anyone who needs real point clouds, not just visuals.
- →Lixel K1: $14,999 inc GST — includes three permanent LixelStudio licences, like every scanner on this page
Lixel K2 — from $15,999
The K2 is what we hand people who ask 'which one should I get'. Under 1kg, built-in RTK on a UM980 board, three cameras capturing real-time colour, and dual output — a survey-grade point cloud and a 3DGS scene from the same walk. Accuracy is under 1cm relative and around 3cm absolute. One pass, two deliverables.
- →Lixel K2: from $15,999 inc GST
- →Lixel K2 Scan More package: $16,999 inc GST
Lixel L2 Pro — from $42,199
The L2 Pro is the enterprise unit: 640,000 points per second, range up to 300m, ±1cm relative and ±3cm absolute accuracy, and it's drone-mountable. It's the unit behind our aerial-ground fusion work — a DJI drone and the L2 Pro, fused into one seamless 3DGS model.
- →L2 Pro 16-channel / 120m: $42,199 inc GST
- →L2 Pro 32-channel / 120m: $61,099 inc GST
- →L2 Pro 32-channel / 300m: $85,499 inc GST
Option 2: Hire it — the full public rate card
If you're not scanning weekly, hiring beats buying — and hiring before buying beats both. This is our full public rate card as of August 2026 — the discounted Demo-to-Buy daily rate (up to 5 days), the standard dry-hire daily rate, and the weekly rate, all inc GST. Booking is online at aect.solutions/rent, no phone tag required.
- →PortalCam: $150/day Demo-to-Buy · $300/day standard · $1,200/week
- →Lixel K1: $200/day Demo-to-Buy · $350/day standard · $1,400/week
- →Lixel K2: $250/day Demo-to-Buy · $400/day standard · $1,600/week
- →L2 Pro 32ch/120m: $450/day Demo-to-Buy · $800/day standard · $3,200/week
Then there's Demo-to-Buy, which we're genuinely proud of: hire any scanner for up to five days, and if you purchase within 90 days, 100% of your hire fee comes off the price. Not a discount, not a voucher — the full amount, credited. Worst case, you paid a fair rate to find out a scanner isn't right for you before spending $15,999 on it. We think that's how demos should work.
Option 3: Done-for-you capture
This is the honest part of the guide. Anyone who quotes a flat price for a capture service without seeing the site is guessing, and you'll pay for the guess one way or another. Service pricing genuinely depends on scope. What we can give you are real reference points from delivered work, so you can calibrate.
On the Gold Coast Highway, one operator scanned a live corridor in a single ~10-minute pass on foot — no lane closure — and the point cloud, 3DGS scene and vector extraction were published in under a day. On AI Scan-to-BIM work, one operator captures 1,000 m² in about 30 minutes, with LOD 400 output at the end of the pipeline — the full one-operator-versus-three comparison is in this case study.
Four things move a capture quote:
- →Site size and complexity — a 1,000 m² floor plate and a 3km live corridor are different jobs
- →Accuracy requirements — visual-grade 3DGS versus survey-grade, verified point clouds
- →Georeferencing — relative accuracy is fast; absolute coordinates need control
- →Deliverable formats — a web-streamed 3DGS scene, a classified point cloud, a Revit model, or all three
Tell us those four things and we'll give you a fixed number. Start at /contact, or browse what we deliver and our capability statement first if you'd rather do your homework quietly. We respect that — it's why this page exists.
What's included that others charge extra for
When you buy a scanner from us, the price above isn't the opening line of a fee schedule. Two things come standard that routinely show up as extras elsewhere:
- →Three permanent LixelStudio licences with every scanner — point cloud processing, three seats, no subscription, no annual renewal
- →Onshore processing — capture and processing runs in Queensland, on Australian infrastructure, full stop
The LixelStudio point is the one we flagged earlier. Plenty of scanning software is metered or subscription-only, which means the real cost of the hardware only shows up in year two. Permanent licences mean the maths on this page is the maths. The onshore point matters if your data is sensitive: we equip Queensland Police Forensic Imaging and have onboarded Victoria Police's Major Crime Scene Unit — clients for whom data sovereignty is non-negotiable — and the same rule applies to every job we process. It doesn't leave Australia. And if you want to shortcut the learning curve, we run hands-on training too — most scanning hardware underperforms in its first month for one reason, and it's technique, not the hardware.
Hidden costs to ask any vendor about
If a vendor won't publish their prices, ask what else they won't put in writing.
Whoever you buy from — us included — ask these three questions before signing anything. The purchase price is the visible cost. These are the invisible ones.
- →Cloud lock-in: where does your data live, and what happens to it the day you stop paying?
- →Per-scene or per-export fees: is processing metered? What does scene number 50 cost?
- →Licence renewals: what does year two actually cost — and does the software stop working if you don't pay?
Our answers, on the record: LCC — the 3DGS reconstruction platform behind everything we deliver — is available as a perpetual licence on a physical dongle, no internet connection required. That air-gapped option means your software can't be switched off remotely and your data never has to touch the internet. LCC also exports open formats — .ply, .obj, .usd, 3D Tiles and more — so your data stays portable the day you decide to leave. Its ~90% compression versus open-source 3DGS applies to your file sizes, not your options.
FAQ
Can I try before buying?
Yes — that's exactly what Demo-to-Buy is for. Hire any scanner for up to five days, and if you buy within 90 days, the entire hire fee is credited against your purchase. You lose nothing by testing first.
Are these prices GST-inclusive?
Yes. Every figure on this page is inc GST. No asterisks, no 'plus applicable taxes' at checkout. What you read here is what you pay.
What does the output actually look like?
Don't take our word for it — open aect.solutions/models in any browser, no install needed. Twelve real 3DGS scenes streamed from our own Australian infrastructure, including the Federation Pavilion in Sydney captured twice — once with the K2, once with the PortalCam — so you can compare the two devices on the same site before spending a dollar. There are also three dated captures of the Mooloolaba seawall showing construction progress from early works to near completion, which is the clearest demonstration we have of what dated capture is worth on a live project.
That's every number. No form-gated pricing PDF, no 'valid for 14 days'. If you're ready to test, book a scanner. If you want a capture quoted, tell us about the site. And if you find another Australian 3DGS vendor publishing their full price list, send it to me — I'd genuinely like to see it. — Jacob Lee, Founder & Director, AECT Solutions
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