97% of Contractor Drones Are Chinese-Made. New FTC Rules Restrict Replacements.

Among contractors who fly drones on U.S. jobsites, 97.1% run DJI as their primary model and 2.9% run Autel Robotics, both Chinese drone makers, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors' 2026 membership survey, fielded May 1–15, 2026.

Thirty-six percent of respondents said they fly drones at all, and 75% of those surveyed work in commercial construction. The 97.1% / 2.9% split describes only that 36%; the survey does not address non-users, and its mostly-commercial sample limits generalization to residential or public-sector work.

The dependency number lands against a federal policy backdrop. The Federal Trade Commission updated its Covered List in December 2025 to include foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems and critical components, blocking imports of new models. Existing fleets are not prohibited; the rule is a forward wall on replacement supply, not a recall of drones already in service.

Sixty-two percent of drone-using respondents reported spending only $1,000–$10,000 on hardware and related equipment, anchoring any shift to non-Chinese platforms to a commodity price band. Top reported uses were site progress monitoring, marketing and media, inspections, and mapping.

"Drone use is a mainstream category of technology used on the jobsite," Matt Abeles, ABC's VP of construction technology and innovation, told DroneLife, with room to grow from the one-third adoption base. What remains unknown is how easily that fleet can be substituted, and at what price.