Short answer: $30–100 per photo from traditional services, $20–40 per photo from “budget” outsourced editors, and under $1 per photo from AI — the real difference is turnaround: days versus seconds.
| Option | Per photo | Turnaround | Revisions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional staging service (US-based designers) | $30–100 | 1–2 business days | 1–2 rounds, extra fee after |
| Outsourced photo editors | $20–40 | 12–48 hours | email back-and-forth |
| Subscription staging apps | $15–30/mo plans | minutes | re-runs count against plan |
| WizStage (AI, pay-as-you-go) | $0.82–0.95 | ~30 seconds | re-run any style, failed runs auto-refund |
Prices surveyed August 2026 from public rate cards of major US virtual staging providers. A typical vacant 3-bedroom listing needs 6–10 staged photos: roughly $180–1,000 traditional versus $5–9 with AI.
Honesty helps you choose: for luxury listings above ~$2M where a bespoke furniture narrative matters, or for photos needing object removal (occupied homes), a human editor still wins. For the other 95% of listings — vacant homes that just need to not look empty on Zillow by tonight — AI staging is now the rational default.