How to register for a UK drone Operator ID (2026 rules)

These rules are for the UK. If you fly under EASA rules in an EU country, the registration system, the fees and the ID formats are all different.

If your drone weighs 250 g or more, or weighs 100 g or more and has a camera, you must register with the CAA as an operator before you fly it. Registration costs £12.34 a year (as of July 2026), you have to be 18, and the Operator ID you get back must be labelled on every aircraft you’re responsible for.

Those thresholds are newer than most of the internet thinks. They changed on 1 January 2026, and pages written before that date now give wrong answers to the most common question of all: whether a small camera drone needs registering. This walkthrough uses the current law, with the sources linked so you can check them yourself.

Do you need an Operator ID?

The trigger is Article 14(5) of the retained Regulation 2019/947, as amended from 1 January 2026. Registration is required if you operate, in the open category, any drone that:

weighs 250 g or more (maximum take-off mass), or
can transfer more than 80 joules of kinetic energy to a person on impact, or
has a camera and weighs 100 g or more.

The CAA’s registration guidance turns that into a table:

Drone	Operator ID	Flyer ID
250 g to 25 kg, camera or not	Required	Required
100 g to 250 g, with a camera	Required	Required
100 g to 250 g, no camera	Optional	Required
Under 100 g	Optional	Optional, recommended

Two footnotes to that table. The 80 joule trigger doesn’t appear in the CAA’s consumer pages, but it’s still live law in Article 14(5)(a)(i), so it belongs on the list. And if you fly in the specific category rather than the open category, registration is required at any weight, per Article 14(5)(b).

Notice the Flyer ID column doesn’t match the Operator ID column. They’re different things with different triggers: the Flyer ID is a free competency test for whoever holds the controller, the Operator ID is a paid registration for whoever is responsible for the aircraft. Flyer ID vs Operator ID covers the difference properly.

What changed on 1 January 2026

The Unmanned Aircraft (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1106), regulation 22 rewrote the camera trigger. Until 31 December 2025, point (a)(ii) of Article 14(5) read:

“that is equipped with a sensor able to capture personal data, unless it complies with the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011.”

From 1 January 2026 it reads:

“that is equipped with a camera and has a MTOM of 100 g or more.”

That one substitution did three things:

It introduced a weight floor where there was none. Under the old text, any drone with a sensor that could capture personal data needed registering, whatever it weighed. A 60 g camera drone was in scope. Now there’s a hard 100 g floor, and sub-100 g camera drones no longer trigger registration.

It deleted the toy exemption. “A camera drone under 250 g needs registering unless it’s a toy” was correct law for years, and you’ll still find it on retailer pages and in forum answers. It stopped being law on 1 January 2026. Whether something is a toy no longer matters; weight and camera are the whole test.

It narrowed “sensor able to capture personal data” to “camera”. The old wording arguably caught other sensors. The new one names the camera and nothing else.

Regulation 22(b) of the same SI also made the minimum age statutory: since 1 January 2026, being at least 18 to register as an operator is in Article 14(6) itself, not just CAA policy.

Nothing else about the thresholds moved. The 250 g and 80 joule triggers are untouched, and legislation.gov.uk lists no outstanding or pending amendment to Article 14, so this page isn’t describing a moving target.

What it costs and how long it lasts

The CAA’s figure, verbatim: “Registration for an Operator ID costs £12.34 and is valid for 1 year.” (Get an Operator ID)

That’s the fee as of July 2026. It has moved roughly once a year, so check the CAA page before relying on it. The one-year validity is real: when it lapses, you renew and pay again. Your Operator ID number stays the same, but an expired registration means unregistered flying.

The Flyer ID, for contrast, is free and lasts five years. If you’re not sure which of the two you actually need, start here.

Under 18? You can’t hold an Operator ID at any price. A parent or guardian registers as the operator instead, and the drone carries their Operator ID; you can still fly it on your own Flyer ID (Drone and Model Aircraft Code, CAP2320, March 2026).

How to register, step by step

Check you’re in scope. Use the table above. If none of the triggers apply, you don’t need an Operator ID at all, though the Flyer ID may still be required.
Sort out who registers. You, if you’re 18 or over. A parent or guardian, if you’re not.
Register on the CAA’s own site, through Get an Operator ID.
Pay the £12.34. Your registration runs for one year from here.
Take the Flyer ID test while you’re at it, if you’ll be flying the drone yourself. It’s a free theory test, taken on the same CAA service (Get a Flyer ID), and anything of 100 g or more requires the person flying to have one.
Collect your numbers. You’ll come out of this with more than one ID, and only one of them belongs on the drone. That’s the next section.

The numbers you get back

The Operator ID starts GBR, then OP, then twelve upper-case characters (AMC1 Article 14(6)). This is the number that goes on the aircraft. One Operator ID covers every drone and model aircraft you’re responsible for. If yours doesn’t look like examples you’ve seen online, trust yours: a wrong 7-digit example has been circulating for years, and the first guide breaks down the real format character by character.

The Flyer ID is your test pass. It proves you can fly; it says nothing about who owns the aircraft, and it never goes on the drone.

The Remote ID number is the third one, and the one to be careful with. The CAA now issues one to every registered operator (Remote ID). It looks confusingly similar to an Operator ID, but it’s case sensitive, mostly lower case, and its last three characters are a private key. The CAA’s instruction is blunt:

“Never write your private key on your drone or model aircraft.”

The Remote ID lives in the drone’s software, where it’s broadcast electronically. No part of it is ever printed on the airframe. A quick tell: if the characters after GBR are lower case, you’re looking at your Remote ID, not your Operator ID. More on the private key here.

Label the drone, then you’re done

The same article that makes you register makes you display the number, and since 1 January 2026 failing to display it is an offence under the Unmanned Aircraft (Offences and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025. The CAA’s requirements for the label, verbatim (Labelling your drone or model aircraft):

“visible from the outside, or within a compartment that can easily be accessed without using a tool”

“clear and in block capitals taller than 3mm”

“secure and safe from damage”

“on the main body of the aircraft”

Read that height rule literally: taller than 3 mm, not “at least”. Print bigger than the minimum and the question never comes up.

If the drone is too small for an external label, the answer is location, not size: AMC1 Article 14(8) accepts a marking inside a compartment you can open without tools, at full size. No published rule lets you shrink below 3 mm. The same AMC also permits adding a QR code alongside the printed ID, as a supplement, never a replacement.

Common questions

Does a drone under 250 g need an Operator ID?

Only if it has a camera and weighs 100 g or more. A 249 g camera drone: yes. A 90 g camera drone: no. Between 100 g and 250 g without a camera: no Operator ID, though the person flying still needs a Flyer ID. Before 1 January 2026 the answer was different, which is why older pages disagree with this one.

Is there still a toy exemption?

No. The exemption for drones complying with the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 was deleted outright on 1 January 2026 by SI 2025/1106. A camera drone sold as a toy is treated like any other aircraft: 100 g or more means registration.

Which of the numbers goes on the drone?

The Operator ID, and only the Operator ID. Never the Flyer ID, and never any part of your Remote ID, whose last three characters are a private key the CAA tells you never to write on the aircraft. If you can’t tell your numbers apart, this guide shows the reliable tells.

Next step

Registered? Then the drone on the table needs its label. Open the generator: type your Operator ID, check the preview, download a print-ready A4 sheet of stickers in block capitals above the 3 mm minimum. It runs entirely in your browser, so the number never leaves your machine.

Fees and thresholds on this page verified against CAA and legislation.gov.uk sources on 28 July 2026. The £12.34 Operator ID fee is reviewed roughly annually. Check Get an Operator ID before quoting it.