You can see a breakdown here: Finances - OpenStreetMap Foundation
5 Likes
That’s much higher than the quote I got several years back for UK imagery (aircraft flown rather than satellite). It was affordable to osmf if they wanted to (at least for a single country if we all agreed that was a priority area).
You can check the online price lists. For example, here: https://landinfo.com/satellite-imagery-pricing/. It’s around 20 dollars per square kilometer.
You can also calculate the price directly here: Data Pricing - SkyWatch or UP42 Platform Pricing | Flexible Geospatial Data Plans.
For example: The Maxar WV-2 with 50 cm resolution for Morocco is 6,698,250 USD in total.
2 Likes
Sorry for going slightly off topic but since your post got some likes I think it’s worth correcting the public record for future readers.
It’s not as unlikely as you think. Certain ultra-orthodox circles have very strict bans. Some people haven’t been exposed to the internet and can only use “dumb phones”. Some companies specialize in selling ultra-restricted “kosher” phones, and while I am not familiar with the specifics I wouldn’t be surprised at all if some variants are essentially smartphones whitelisted to certain sites only. Even excluding big sites like YouTube wouldn’t surprise me. It might also be an ultra-wide filter (e.g. any sites using certain keywords).
1 Like
הגנת נתיב פועלת על רשימה לבנה במה שאני משתמש (רימון) יש בוט דברגע שאני נכנס לאתר הוא בודק ומחליט לחסום או לא באתרים גדולים (יוטיוב/ויקיפדיה וכדומה) שיש צודך הוא לא חוסם את כל הURL של האתר אלא קישורים ספציפיים
1 Like
As noted above, I engaged a local supplier of 12.5cm imagery back in 2019. At the time we had a potential backer that I deemed to be serious enough to do proper negotiations with the imagery supplier. The negotiated quote we got was substantially (i.e magnitudes) lower. Now each case will of course be different but please don’t put people off exploring this as it is possible to get quotes that are much better than these especially if the supplier is favourable towards OSM or the collection of the imagery has already been paid for by the public sector. You’d still need a generous company to sponsor it, but it can be affordable.
4 Likes
I didn’t want to get in to it, but it isn’t as if DigitalGlobe - Maxar - Vantor - or whatever they are called right now, is a total unknown.
They were for years paid by a consortium of big tech companies to provide imagery for OSM (and I can guarantee that wasn’t list price) and then a couple of years back, they came to the conclusion that the trouble wasn’t worth it and no amount of coaxing made them change their mind. At least some of the costs/factors that made it like that, have, if anything, got worse since then. It is OK to be optimistic about something you haven’t tried yet, but in this case its silly. Naturally the OP can try and find alternative sources for imagery in the areas they are interested in, but that should not be whats their name right now.
2 Likes
Thinking about this, I can see a good argument for OSM to not be spending its precious resources trying to get the latest satellite imagery. While of course I really would like to have the latest data when mapping to make the most accurate map possible, honestly the 2-3 year old images that I generally encounter are plenty good enough for the vast majority of what needs to be done on the map. There are so many huge parts of the world, particularly in rural areas, where OSM is just so lacking in data that using even 10-year-old images could let map editors make major improvements. (I am not trying to put down OSM here. Google Maps is really bad, often even worse, in rural areas too!)
For example, I’ve focused a lot of my mapping time in recent years on cleaning up just a small part of one US state (northwest Arkansas), and even using older imagery I have been able to make huge improvements by fixing road alignments (mostly thanks to bad TIGER data), improving mapping of waterways, and more. That’s thousands of edits in such a tiny fraction of the world, and still with no sign of “perfection” in sight. I could probably spend the rest of my life editing OSM using images that are years old and never run out of things to improve.
So yes, it would be nice to have newer imagery, but at the same time there is practically an unlimited amount of mapping we can already do with what imagery we have now. I will welcome new imagery where available, but it’s not like the lack of it is an impediment to finding ways to improve the map.
9 Likes
I know someone who has worked for Maxar (now Vantor) for years. A year or so ago he told me Google is no longer the major purchaser of their satellite imagery, which explains why their satellite imagery coverage is now getting to be 2 years out of date, if not more. Of course, Google doesn’t care if their map is crap because their map product is just another vehicle for them to sell ads. Google is not a mapping or GIS company. Google is an advertising company.
The new major purchaser is Apple, for Apple Maps, which is why their satellite coverage is more up to date in general than Google’s. Of course, at OSM we are legally prohibited from using data from either of those maps. It’s interesting - and a good thing - that Apple Maps gives OSM credit on the very first line of their attribution page (click the “Legal” link at the bottom of their website). It’s unclear if Google uses OSM data without attribution. I’ve read they were caught doing so in the past.
2 Likes
It isn’t and it is just a run of the mill conspiracy theory. What is true is that there was a case of a supplier delivering data from OSM and there has been the odd on and off copying by participants in MapMaker and whatever they call it now days (with other words just as that happens on the OSM side of things now and then).
3 Likes
Do you mean “Yes, it isn’t clear” or “It isn’t unclear”?
1 Like
It isn’t unclear that they don’t systematically use OSM data, outside of indirectly via GTFS and there they provide attribution.
1 Like
Thanks, that clears it up! On the other hand I don’t trust anything said by one of the planet’s biggest Frankenstein C Corporations.
There is circumstantial evidence that they use the OSM changeset feed as a “tip line” for areas to update, but use an organizational firewall to reduce the signal to “something changed around here, remap it” to avoid copyright issues. Or something like that.
I have other circumstantial evidence. For over a year I’ve been publicly comparing Google Maps satellite imagery with Apple Maps and what we get in OSM (Bing Maps, Esri, more). Back on 2025-02-25 I posted this on the TMC forum where most of the Tesla Supercharger data originates (and ends up on supercharge.info). The last sentence of that post with screenshot composite:
Google Maps satellite view is now about 2 years out of date for the area around the Arvada CO Supercharger currently under construction, with both OpenStreetMap and Apple Maps being more current. This is consistent with what a friend who works for Maxar told me: Apple is buying more of their satellite imagery these days than Google.
What I’ve seen in a growing number of cases (which I should start documenting) is that not too long after they’ve been shamed, they suddenly have up-to-date satellite imagery for that area. Coincidence? Maybe, but if I wanted to maximize profits (the #1 goal for any proper Frankenstein C Corporation), I’d want to respond to criticisms of the company. It’s not hard to imagine them deploying AI bots across the Web, searching for criticism and reporting back to the mothership. I’d do that if it was my company. A purchase of a few square km of current satellite imagery would squash some local criticism. A few times (including this week) the TMC forum was overwhelmed with traffic that slowed it to a crawl. The administrators said it was AI bots. Might a few of those bots be sent by Mr. G? Their bots have been crawling the Web for years, but are they looking for new types of data now? Only The Shadow knows. 
Just a question: why doesn’t OSM display a small ad window to generate revenue or launch a crowdfunding campaign?
1 Like
actually for the second part of the idea, it is quite good question why it was not done
1 Like
So what is the answer? (And why is the first part irrelevant?)
1 Like
ads have meager income, are controversial at best, it was tried already in past, would destroy a lot of goodwill and reduce chance for donations…
somehow noone got around doing it
7 Likes
Maybe it’s time (besides, it’s worth enlarging the donation button for OSM and making the donation process more convenient)
1 Like