Planet Tasking

Organisations that need a fresh, detailed view of a specific site often cannot rely on scheduled passes or on archive imagery that is already out of date. Planet Tasking lets customers choose a location and a time window and direct Planet's high-resolution satellites to capture new imagery, or buy from an archive of past collections that dates back to 2014.

Collections come from two Planet-operated constellations. SkySat (15 satellites) produces four-band and panchromatic imagery sampled at 50 cm when orthorectified, and can collect frame imagery, stereo pairs and video of up to 120 seconds; Planet states it can revisit a location up to 10 times a day. Pelican, Planet's next-generation constellation, began commercial operations in 2025 and adds 50 cm class imagery with a panchromatic band and six multispectral bands. Planet states that imagery is delivered in less than four hours from capture. Orders can be flexible (a time range with automated retries for cloud-minimised images) or assured (a specific date with a prioritised collection window regardless of weather), as point, line, area or stereo collects.

Buyers can order SkySat imagery pay-as-you-go through the self-service Planet Select portal, run with partner SkyFi, at published per-square-kilometre prices, or buy annual tasking credits for Pelican, larger volumes and defence use. Credit customers work in the Tasking Dashboard or the REST Tasking API, with automated delivery to their own cloud storage and a tasking panel in the Planet QGIS plugin. Paired with Planet Monitoring, the service supports a "tip and cue" workflow: the Middlebury Institute of International Studies spotted construction near Iran's Natanz site in daily PlanetScope imagery, then tasked a SkySat collect for a closer look.