Flying a Drone in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the ANAC Operator Number, the Free A1/A3 Exam, the 900-Gram Insurance Line, and the AAN Permission Every Camera Needs

Almost every drone sold today has a camera on it, and that single fact is what makes Portuguese drone rules more complicated than they look. Two separate authorities are involved, they answer different questions, and satisfying one does not satisfy the other. The Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil (National Civil Aviation Authority, ANAC) governs whether you may fly. The Autoridade Aeronáutica Nacional (National Aeronautical Authority, AAN) governs whether you may record what you see and publish it afterwards. Most people who get into trouble in Portugal have handled the first and never heard of the second.

This guide walks the whole sequence: registration, pilot competence, the operating rules, insurance, the camera permission, the geographic zones, and the fines. It applies to recreational flyers, to residents surveying their own land, and to visitors bringing a drone in a suitcase. It sits alongside our other Portuguese permit guides, including the five carta de navegador de recreio categories for recreational boating and the near-total ban on metal detecting and the one-year licence only the Culture Ministry can grant.

Step one: do you have to register as an operator?

You register as a UAS operator, not as an owner of a particular aircraft. You need a registration if any of the following is true of the drone:

• its maximum take-off mass is 250 grams or more; or
• it can transfer more than 80 joules of energy on impact; or
• it carries a camera, a microphone or any other sensor capable of capturing personal data.

That third condition is the one that catches everybody. A sub-250-gram drone with a camera still requires operator registration. In practice, almost nothing on the consumer market escapes.

Registration is done on the ANAC platform at uas.anac.pt. Before you start, you need an active Chave Móvel Digital (Digital Mobile Key, the CMD), which you request at any Loja do Cidadão. There is no alternative authentication route: ANAC has said plainly that because drones carry unlawful-interference risk, the CMD process and the ANAC registry are deliberately kept separate and handled by different bodies. When you fill in the form, select Portugal as the country of origin.

After ANAC validates the application, the platform generates your operator number automatically, in the format PRT-ABC0123456789. It appears on your dashboard, and you must physically display that same number on every drone you operate and on any Remote ID device you use. Registration is free.

The three-year trap. Operator registration has to be revalidated every three years. That does not mean a form: it means you must log in to the platform and update your data at least once inside each three-year window. If you never do, the registration number is revoked and cannot be recovered, and you have to start a new registration from scratch. Many people register once before a holiday and never return.

Where you register if you are not Portuguese

• EU citizens resident in another member state: register in your country of residence. ANAC cannot issue a Portuguese number to an EU resident of another country, and you do not need one to fly here.
• EU-incorporated companies: register in the country where the company is legally incorporated.
• Third-country individuals, including tourists: if Portugal is the first EU member state where you will fly, register here using the same process as a national, as a natural person. If you already hold a registration in another EU member state, you do not register again.
• Third-country companies: to register in Portugal, the company must be commercially established here, with a Portuguese address, a valid NIF and an active CMD.

For a visitor, this is a real friction point worth planning around. Obtaining a CMD means going to a government desk in person, and the desk may decline to issue one, or ask for a NIF, if it suspects the registration is linked to commercial activity such as selling footage. If you are coming to Portugal to shoot commercially, establish the company and get the NIF first.

Step two: the pilot certificate

Operator registration says who is responsible. Pilot competence is separate, and it is free.

A1/A3 (the one almost everyone needs). The training and the exam are both online, on ANAC's remote-pilot platform at rp.anac.pt. The exam has 40 questions, the pass mark is 75 percent, and you get one attempt. The platform requires you to read 100 percent of the course material and enforces a minimum time per page, so it cannot be skimmed. Enrolment is valid for one month from the date you sign up. Registration on the platform uses the CMD; foreign candidates without one submit registration forms to ANAC to have an account created.

If you fly a drone under 250 grams or one carrying a C0 class mark, you do not need an A1/A3 certificate at all as a remote pilot. You may still need the operator registration, because of the camera.

A2 (only if you want to fly closer to people). The training is online but the exam is in person at ANAC's premises, with 30 questions and the same 75 percent pass mark. You can only sit it if you already hold a valid A1/A3 completion proof, and you must submit a signed self-training declaration. Enrolment lasts six months.

Validity and renewal. The certificate lasts five years from issue. Six months before it expires the platform warns you, and a "repeat" button restarts the training and exam cycle for another five years. At the time of writing, ANAC charges nothing for the training or the exams.

Step three: the open category rules

Most private flying in Portugal falls in the Open (Aberta) category, which covers low-risk operations with aircraft under 25 kilograms. No operational authorisation from ANAC is required. The general rules apply to all three subcategories:

• You fly VLOS, within visual line of sight.
• You fly no higher than 120 metres above the terrain.
• You may fly by day or by night without ANAC authorisation.
• You may never fly over concentrations of people.
• You may not fly in prohibited or operationally restricted zones around airports and heliports.
• You may go 15 metres above an artificial obstacle taller than 105 metres, provided you stay within 50 metres of it and the request comes from the entity responsible for it.
• You may not operate inside an area where a rescue or emergency operation is under way, unless the services running it have given you permission.
• Gliders may go 120 metres above the terrain but never 120 metres above the remote pilot, which matters if you are standing on a ridge above a valley.

The subcategories then set the distance rules:

• A1: drones under 250 grams, or class C0 or C1. You may occasionally overfly uninvolved people, but never crowds. Requires the A1/A3 completion proof, except for sub-250-gram and C0 aircraft.
• A2: class C2 only. Keep 30 metres from uninvolved people, reducible to 5 metres under the 1:1 rule if you use a C2 aircraft in low-speed mode. Requires the A2 certificate.
• A3: anything from under 250 grams up to C4 and under 25 kg. Keep 150 metres from uninvolved people and from residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas. Requires the A1/A3 completion proof.

Classes C5 and C6 are not open-category aircraft; they are used under Standard Scenarios in the Specific category. If you cannot comply with the open-category rules, you are in the Specific category and a different regime applies.

Step four: insurance, and the 900-gram line

This is where Portugal departs from the common European baseline, and it catches people out. Under article 10 of Decreto-Lei n.º 58/2018 of 23 July, civil liability insurance is compulsory for any drone with a maximum operational mass above 900 grams. The coverages, conditions and minimum capitals are set by Portaria n.º 2/2021 of 4 January, in force since 3 February 2021.

The minimum insured capital is expressed in Special Drawing Rights (Direitos de Saque Especiais, the IMF unit), per annuity and regardless of the number of claims:

• Above 900 g and up to 1.5 kg: 0.26 million SDR;
• Above 1.5 kg and up to 4 kg: 0.38 million SDR;
• Above 4 kg and up to 20 kg: 0.56 million SDR;
• Above 20 kg: 0.75 million SDR, in line with Regulation (EC) No 785/2004.

The SDR has been trading around 1.19 euros in early September 2026, which puts those bands at roughly 310,000, 450,000, 665,000 and 890,000 euros respectively. Because the figure is set in SDR rather than euros, the euro equivalent moves with the exchange rate.

Other things worth knowing about the policy:

• It covers damage from accidents in flight and on the ground.
• Territorially it responds to incidents arising from use of the drone in national territory.
• It covers claims presented up to one year after the contract ends, provided no later valid policy covers them.
• It may exclude damage to the policyholder, the operator, the remote pilot, their spouse or partner, ascendants, descendants and those living with them or dependent on them.
• It excludes criminal fines, administrative fines and legal costs, and damage from war, strikes, riots, sabotage, terrorism, vandalism and hijacking.
• A deductible (franquia) is allowed, but it cannot be raised against an injured third party. The insurer pays in full and then recovers the deductible from the operator.
• Operators already covered by a sports-practice liability policy are exempt from the separate obligation.

Step five: the camera permission almost nobody knows about

Here is the part that trips up residents and visitors alike. Carrying out levantamentos aéreos (aerial surveys, meaning the capture of images, sound or other data from an aerial platform) over Portuguese territory, and publishing the result, requires authorisation from the AAN. The legal base is old and still in force: Decreto-Lei n.º 42071 of 30 December 1958, and Portaria n.º 17568 of 2 February 1960, as amended by Portaria n.º 358/2000 of 20 June.

Practically, this means that if your drone has a camera, ANAC's own guidance sends you to the AAN. If you also intend to fly in airspace under military responsibility, you additionally need Portuguese Air Force authorisation, which the AAN issues after coordinating with the Air Force.

How it works now:

• Applications go exclusively through the e-AAN application. Email, post and fax submissions are no longer accepted.
• Full access requires prior registration on the platform plus a signed declaration of commitment on honour. Once both are in place, you can submit requests and enter your aircraft, pilot and insurance data.
• Registration and the authorisation itself are free.
• Since 24 March 2025, authorisations have a maximum validity of 30 consecutive days.
• Processing is not automatic. It involves AAN technical advisers and, where relevant, coordination with the Air Force and security services.
• Only requests submitted ten days in advance are guaranteed a decision before the activity is due to start. A request filed after 17:00 the day before an 08:00 start cannot be granted.

Ten days is the number to plan around. If you are arriving on a Friday for a weekend of filming, the application should already be in.

Step six: geographic zones

Before every flight, check the zone. ANAC publishes the geographic zones at uas.anac.pt/explore and through the VOANABOA app for iOS and Android. The main restrictions in the open category:

• Emergency medical helipads (HEMS): open-category flight is prohibited within a 1 km radius.
• International airport operational protection zones: flight is prohibited in the prohibited area; maximum height is 30 m in Area 1, 60 m in Area 2 and 80 m in Area 3. In those areas, a height-above-ground function on the aircraft is mandatory.
• Civil heliports, aerodromes without ATZ/TMZ or CTR, and ultralight strips: flying within 2.5 km needs the authorisation of the director of that facility.
• AFIS aerodromes or aerodromes with an ATZ/TMZ: authorisation of the AFIS or the aerodrome director.
• Danger (D), temporarily reserved (TRA) and prohibited (P) areas of military jurisdiction: authorisation of the AAN.
• Parks, nature reserves and protected areas: authorisation of the ICNF on the mainland, the IFCN in Madeira, and the Direção Regional do Ambiente in the Azores. This one matters a great deal in Portugal, where a large share of the most photogenic coastline and interior sits inside a protected area.

Remote ID. In the open category, remote identification is required only where the geographic zone demands it, and then only for C1, C2 and C3 aircraft. In the Specific category it is always mandatory.

Open-category operators also remain responsible for other legal regimes that have nothing to do with aviation: personal-data capture and privacy, noise, environmental protection, coastal-zone management plans, and the rules protecting organs of sovereignty and the state.

What it costs if you get it wrong

Decreto-Lei n.º 58/2018 sets the penalties, and they are not nominal:

• Very serious offences: 2,000 to 3,500 euros for individuals, 5,000 to 7,500 euros for companies. This band covers operating an unregistered UAS, missing or illegible identification marks, non-resident operators without identification, missing or non-functioning electronic identification, failure to declare a sale, and operating without the required insurance.
• Serious offences: 1,000 to 2,500 euros for individuals, 3,000 to 5,000 euros for companies. This covers an expired operator registration and failure to notify a transfer of the aircraft.
• Minor offences: 300 to 600 euros for individuals, 800 to 1,200 euros for companies, for late notification of a transfer.
• Accessory sanctions: ANAC can ban you from operating UAS for up to two years, or declare the aircraft forfeit to the state.

Note that the expired-registration offence and the very serious unregistered-operation offence are different things. The three-year revalidation rule is not administrative housekeeping.

What this means for you

• The weekend visitor with a small camera drone. You need operator registration because of the camera, and that needs a CMD obtained in person in Portugal, unless you already hold an EU registration from your home country. If your drone is under 250 grams you do not need the A1/A3 certificate, and under 900 grams you do not need the insurance. You still need AAN permission to shoot and publish, and that wants ten days.
• The new resident with a mid-range drone. A typical 900-gram-plus consumer drone puts you over the insurance line, in the 0.26 million SDR band. Get the CMD as part of your general set-up, take the free A1/A3 exam in an evening, and treat the AAN authorisation as a recurring 30-day renewal rather than a one-off.
• The property owner surveying land. Check whether your land sits inside a protected area, or inside a hunting zone, before anything else; 78 percent of mainland Portugal sits inside a hunting zone; the ICNF authorisation is separate from everything ANAC asks for, and rural Portugal is heavily covered. The rules on land use are worth reading alongside our guides to cutting down a tree on your own land.
• The commercial operator or content creator. If you are selling the footage, the desk issuing your CMD may ask for a NIF, and a third-country company must be commercially established in Portugal first. Build that into the timeline before you book anything.
• Anyone filming other people. Aviation law is only half of it. A drone camera over a beach, a street or a neighbour's garden engages personal-data rules independently of anything ANAC or the AAN has authorised. Our guide to your data rights in Portugal sets out how the CNPD handles complaints, which is what you would be on the receiving end of.

The pre-flight checklist

1. Get a Chave Móvel Digital at a Loja do Cidadão.
2. Register as an operator at uas.anac.pt, free, and write the PRT number on every aircraft.
3. Diarise the three-year revalidation.
4. Take the free A1/A3 course and exam at rp.anac.pt, 40 questions, 75 percent, one attempt, valid five years.
5. If the drone is over 900 grams, buy the compulsory liability policy at the right SDR band.
6. If the drone has a camera, register on e-AAN and apply at least ten days before you fly. The authorisation lasts 30 days.
7. Check the zone on uas.anac.pt/explore or VOANABOA before every flight, and get any ICNF, aerodrome or AAN clearance the map calls for.
8. Fly VLOS, under 120 metres, never over crowds, and never over an active rescue operation.

Portugal is not a hostile country for drone flyers. The open-category rules are the ordinary European ones, night flying is permitted without special authorisation, the exam is free, and the registration costs nothing. What Portugal does have is one extra layer, the aerial-survey authorisation, resting on legislation written in 1958, and a compulsory insurance threshold that starts lower than most people expect. Get those two right and the rest is a checklist.

Rules change. Before you fly, confirm the current position on ANAC's unmanned aircraft pages and on the AAN site, particularly the geographic zones, which are updated more often than anything else in this guide.