The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is launching its drone registration system on Dec. 21, 2015. Any drone that weighs between 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and 55 pounds (25 kilograms) will need to be registered.
There’s a $5 fee to register, but the FAA will refund your money if you register before Jan. 20, 2016. For those who already own a drone or will own a drone before Dec. 21, 2015, you must register by Feb. 19, 2016. Anyone who becomes a first-time drone owner after Dec. 21, 2015 must register before their first flight outdoors.
If you’re not sure if your drone needs to be registered, you could weigh it or check out this handy chart put together by the fine folks over at Wired (recreated below). The FAA put together its own chart with a few examples, but Wired has compiled a much more comprehensive list of popular drones and will continue to update its chart.
As you can see below, the more sophisticated consumer drones will certainly need to be registered. Many have said this will lead to an influx of nano-sized drones, such as these 249- and 165-gram drones from Redditors BlindingBright and PhliesPhloatsPhucks, respectively.
For the growing number of anti-registration folks out there, we’ve compiled some of the top nano-sized drones you can buy today and won’t have to register. Again, they come with limitations, but they’ll certainly help you get your drone fix.
If you want a quick glance at which drones need and don’t need to be registered, check out the chart below.