Data Format Documentation

Overview

DroneCompare publishes its complete drone comparison dataset as a single JSON file. The data is updated whenever an admin refreshes the export and is available at:

https://cdn.dronecompare.org/data.json

The data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0). You are free to use, share, and adapt the data for any purpose, as long as you provide appropriate attribution to DroneCompare (dronecompare.org).

Top-Level Structure

{
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "attribution": "DroneCompare (dronecompare.org)",
  "schema": { ... },
  "entities": [ ... ],
  "exportedAt": "2026-02-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Schema Object

The schema describes all fields, their types, validation rules, translations, and display configuration. It contains four arrays:

{
  "schema": {
    "fields": [ ... ],
    "categoryOrder": [ "identity", "pricing", "physical", ... ],
    "units": [ ... ],
    "tags": [ ... ]
  }
}

Field Object

Each field in schema.fields has the following structure:

Field Translations

"translations": {
  "en": {
    "displayName": "Weight",
    "description": "Total takeoff weight including battery"
  },
  "nb": {
    "displayName": "Vekt",
    "description": "Total startvekt inkludert batteri"
  }
}

Entity Object

Each entity (drone) in the entities array has this structure:

{
  "id": "01900000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001",
  "slug": "dji-mini-4-pro",
  "values": {
    "identity.name": "DJI Mini 4 Pro",
    "physical.weight": 249,
    "camera.resolution": [
      { "index": 0, "value": "48 MP", "tags": ["primary"] },
      { "index": 1, "value": "12 MP", "tags": ["secondary"] }
    ],
    ...
  },
  "createdAt": "2026-02-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Field Types Reference

Special Value Formats

LocalizedString

String fields that support translations use a special wrapper object instead of a plain string. Identified by the _localized: true flag:

{
  "_localized": true,
  "translations": {
    "en": "Primary Camera",
    "nb": "Hovedkamera"
  }
}

Multi-Instance Values

Fields inside a group with allowsMultiple: true store an array of instance values. Each instance has an index, value, and optional tags:

[
  { "index": 0, "value": "48 MP", "tags": ["primary"] },
  { "index": 1, "value": "12 MP", "tags": ["secondary"] }
]

Null Values

Missing or unknown values are represented as null. Not every entity has a value for every field. This is by design (sparse data model).

Units

Units are defined in schema.units and referenced by fields via unitId:

{
  "id": "...",
  "key": "grams",
  "translations": {
    "en": {
      "singular": "gram",
      "plural": "grams",
      "abbreviation": "g"
    }
  }
}

Tags

Tags are used to semantically label multi-instance values (e.g., "primary camera", "wide-angle lens"):

{
  "id": "...",
  "key": "primary",
  "category": "payload",
  "sortOrder": 0,
  "translations": {
    "en": { "displayName": "Primary" },
    "nb": { "displayName": "Primær" }
  }
}

Enum Options

Fields with type: "enum" include an enumOptions array defining all valid values:

{
  "id": "...",
  "fieldId": "...",
  "value": "manual",
  "sortOrder": 0,
  "translations": {
    "en": { "displayName": "Manual" },
    "nb": { "displayName": "Manuell" }
  }
}

Attribution

When using DroneCompare data, please provide attribution. A suitable credit looks like:

Data from DroneCompare (https://dronecompare.org), licensed under CC-BY-4.0.

For code projects, including the attribution in your README or about page is sufficient. For data visualizations, a small credit line is appropriate.