How Old Is Satellite Imagery? Checking Imagery Dates Before You Quote

Every satellite measurement is a measurement of the past. The lawn you trace might be last winter's lawn, or it might be from before the customer poured a new patio. Most of the time that does not matter. When it does, it costs you money or credibility.

This guide explains where map imagery comes from, how old it really is (with capture dates we pulled for six U.S. locations), how to check the date yourself in Google Earth and Esri, and a simple rule for when to trust the image and when to ask the customer for a photo.

Satellite imagery is not live

Google is direct about this: "Images aren't in real time, so you won't see live changes" Google Earth Help. Each image is collected "at a specific date and time" by cameras on satellites and aircraft, and some areas are a mosaic of images from several days or months, which is why you sometimes see a date range instead of a single date Google Earth Help.

So the question is never "is it current?" It is "how old is it here, and what could have changed since?"

Where map imagery comes from

The base map in most measuring tools is stitched together from several kinds of sources. Esri's World Imagery layer, used by many quoting and GIS tools, lists its sources Esri World Imagery:

Source	Resolution	What it means for you
Vantor Vivid Advanced (satellite)	30 cm HD, for more than 1,000 metro areas	Sharp enough to trace beds and walks in most suburbs
Vantor Vivid Standard (satellite)	1.2 m down to 30 cm HD; 30 cm HD across the U.S.	Rural and small-town coverage
Community aerial photography (counties, cities)	30 cm to 3 cm	Very sharp, but on the local government's flight schedule
TerraColor (satellite)	15 m	Only for zoomed-out views, not measuring

There is also the federal aerial program. The USDA's National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) flies the continental U.S. "during the agricultural growing seasons," and moved to "a three-year cycle" in 2009, per the Google Earth Engine NAIP catalog. A three-year cycle means a NAIP image can be up to three years old before the next flight replaces it.

The short version: in metro areas, satellite vendors refresh more often. Outside them, or where a county aerial flight is the best layer, you may be looking at something older.

How old is it? A spot check of six U.S. locations

We queried the Esri World Imagery metadata service for six points on October 24, 2026. The service returns the capture date, resolution, and source for the best imagery at each location Esri World Imagery MapServer.

Location	Capture date	Age on Oct 24, 2026	Resolution	Source
Plano, TX (suburban street)	Dec 9, 2025	~10 months	0.34 m	Vantor Vivid Advanced
Atlanta, GA (downtown)	Feb 2, 2026	~9 months	0.5 m	Vantor Vivid Advanced
Minneapolis, MN (downtown)	May 3, 2025	~18 months	0.5 m	Vantor Vivid Advanced
Flagstaff, AZ	Apr 11, 2025	~18 months	0.34 m	Vantor Vivid
Rural central Kansas	Apr 11, 2025	~18 months	0.34 m	Vantor Vivid
Tampa, FL (downtown)	Feb 26, 2023	~3 years 8 months	0.15 m	Hillsborough County aerial

Two things stand out.

First, the age ranges from under a year to almost four years, even among big cities. You cannot assume a metro address has fresh imagery.

Second, the sharpest image was also the oldest. Tampa's best layer is a 15 cm county aerial from 2023. It looks great, which is exactly why it is easy to forget it is nearly four years old. Sharp does not mean recent.

Six points is a spot check, not a survey. Your customers' addresses will vary, which is the whole argument for checking the date on each job.

How to check the imagery date

Google Earth (web and mobile)

Move your cursor over the map and the date or date range of the image appears in the bottom status bar. Google notes that "an imagery date or range of dates may not be available in all locations or at all zoom levels" Google for Developers.

To compare older images, open Historical imagery from the toolbar and click through the timeline. "Years are marked by dots. Smaller dots indicate additional months," and historical imagery only works on the Satellite basemap Google for Developers.

Google Earth Pro

Pro has a time slider for historical imagery. "The lines on the timeline indicate the dates when images of your map are available" Google Earth Help. Use it to see whether a pool, patio, or addition appeared recently.

Esri World Imagery

Esri's layer carries "imagery provider, collection date, resolution, accuracy, and source," which you can see with the Identify tool in ArcGIS Online Map Viewer or in the World Imagery with Metadata web map Esri World Imagery. Esri also notes you "may need to zoom in to view the best available imagery," because the date shown applies only to the imagery at that location and scale.

What can change between the image and today

Most changes that matter to a quote are visible from the street, so the customer knows about them even if the map does not.

Change	Effect on the quote	How to catch it
New patio, pool, or addition	Lawn smaller than measured; flatwork larger	Ask "any new patios, pools, or additions in the last couple of years?"
Driveway widened or extended	Missed square footage	Ask for one photo from the street
New beds or removed beds	Turf area off by a few hundred sq ft	Compare the trace to a customer photo
New construction lot	Image may show dirt or nothing	Always confirm on new builds
Trees grown or removed	Canopy hides or reveals turf	Check the season of the image

The cost of missing one change is easy to estimate. Fixr publishes driveway pressure washing at $0.30 to $0.40 per square foot Fixr. If the image predates a 300 square foot driveway extension, that is $90 to $120 of slab you did not price. On lawns, LawnStarter's range of $0.01 to $0.06 per square foot for mowing LawnStarter means a 500 square foot patio sitting on what the map shows as grass is a $5 to $30 per visit overcharge, and the customer will see it.

Season matters too

The capture month changes what you can see. Several of the images above are from December through April, when deciduous trees are bare and turf edges under the canopy are visible. NAIP, by contrast, is flown during the growing season Google Earth Engine NAIP catalog, when full canopy can hide the lawn underneath. If the image is leaf-on and the yard has big trees, use historical imagery to find a winter capture and trace from that.

A simple rule for quoting from imagery

Use the imagery date and the property type together:

1. Under about a year old, established home, no customer mention of changes: quote from the image.
2. One to three years old: quote from the image, but ask one question about recent patios, pools, driveways, or additions.
3. Over three years old, new construction, or anything that looks off: ask for a photo before you price.

And put one line on every quote: "Price based on the areas listed; we'll confirm on the first visit." It protects you without making the customer wait for a site visit.

Our guide on measuring a lawn from satellite covers tracing technique, and using Google Earth's measure tool walks through the steps there. AboveYard's map uses Esri World Imagery, so the dates in the table above are the same imagery you would trace in the app; it is free with unlimited measurements and no credit card.

Sources

• Google Earth Help – How images are collected
• Google Earth Help – View a map over time
• Google for Developers – Find basemap imagery dates, altitude, and coordinates
• Google for Developers – View a map over time (Historical imagery)
• Esri – World Imagery (ArcGIS item description)
• Esri – World Imagery MapServer (metadata queried October 24, 2026)
• Google Earth Engine Data Catalog – NAIP: National Agriculture Imagery Program
• Fixr – Pressure Wash Driveway Cost
• LawnStarter – Lawn Mowing Prices