Will a 3D Tour Show on Zillow? What Real Estate Photographers Need to Know in 2026

Agents ask this one constantly now: "If I pay for a 3D tour, will buyers see it on Zillow?" The honest answer depends on who hosts the tour and what your MLS sends to Zillow. Here is what we could confirm and what we could not.

What changed between Zillow and Matterport in 2025?

On October 20, 2025, Zillow pulled every Matterport tour from Zillow and StreetEasy. Zillow said CoStar, which bought Matterport earlier that year, chose not to renew the Matterport API agreement and changed its terms to limit where tours could appear. CoStar said Zillow was misrepresenting those terms and that Matterport customers can share their tours anywhere, Zillow included (Real Estate News). Either way, a Matterport scan no longer shows on a Zillow listing. Our Matterport vs. 360 camera comparison covers what that means if you are deciding which 3D gear to buy.

Which 3D tours does Zillow show in the photos?

Zillow's help page for agents, last edited the day after the Matterport removal, spells it out (Zillow: Third-party 3D Home Tour). Every tour goes into the Virtual Tour field in the MLS. If the tour was made with Zillow 3D Home, or comes from one of Zillow's "high-quality third-party tour companies," it also displays prominently in the listing photos.

That list has about 35 names on it, including Kuula, CloudPano, iGuide, Cupix, Asteroom, Ricoh360, InsideMaps and Giraffe360. Matterport is not on it, and neither is PFRE Tour. If an agent wants the 3D tour inside Zillow's photo carousel, the tour has to come from Zillow or from a company on that list.

What happens to a tour link from a provider that is not on the list?

According to the same Zillow page, the tour shows up as a hyperlink in the Facts and Features section of the listing. SmartMLS in Connecticut tells its members the same thing: if the listing syndicates to Zillow and has a virtual tour URL, it appears as a link under "Other interior features." So a tour from any host can still be reachable on Zillow, as a text link partway down the page.

Two caveats. First, it depends on your MLS. Not every MLS sends the virtual tour field to Zillow, and some send only one of several tour fields. Second, it does not always work as described. After the Matterport removal, one member of the We Get Around Network forum checked about 20 local listings with Matterport links in the MLS and found none of them on Zillow, even as text links. The same poster said a single-page property website link does show up in Facts and Features. That is one person's report, not a rule, but it tells you not to assume.

The fix is simple. Before you tell agents how their 3D link will appear, open one of your own live listings on Zillow, scroll to Facts and Features, and look.

What are Zillow 3D Home, Showcase, and SkyTour?

Zillow 3D Home is Zillow's free capture app. Its help page lists an iPhone 7 or newer, certain Samsung, Pixel and Moto phones, and a short list of 360 cameras: several Ricoh Theta models and the Insta360 X2, X3 and One RS 1-inch. It is the surest way to get a tour into Zillow's photos. Zillow and Realtor.com also agreed in 2024 to share 3D Home tours across both sites (HousingWire).

Showcase is Zillow's premium listing format, and SkyTour is a 3D exterior view built with Gaussian splatting from drone footage. Per Zillow's July 2025 announcement, SkyTour is available on eligible Showcase listings when the drone footage is captured through the Zillow Media Experts premium package. It is exterior only, and not something an independent photographer can upload.

Where else does the MLS virtual tour link show up?

The MLS virtual tour field feeds more than Zillow, but each portal handles it differently, and the public documentation is thin:

• Realtor.com: vendor guides from Kuula and CloudPano say it pulls the tour link from the MLS feed and can show a tour button, and agents can also add a link in their Realtor.com dashboard. We could not find Realtor.com's own help page on it.
• Redfin: Redfin's current agent FAQ says it displays Matterport 3D scans and YouTube links. A 2020 Redfin post said other walkthrough links appear in the listing details section. We could not confirm that still holds.
• Homes.com: owned by CoStar, like Matterport. Vendor guides say it can take the MLS tour link, and agents can add a tour in its dashboard.
• Your MLS and IDX sites: the virtual tour field shows in the MLS itself and on many brokerage IDX websites, which is the main audience for an unbranded tour link.

What should you tell agents?

Be direct about what each option gets them:

• If showing up in Zillow's photo carousel is the priority, the tour has to be Zillow 3D Home or come from a provider on Zillow's list.
• Any other 3D tour still belongs in the MLS virtual tour field. It reaches MLS members, IDX sites and buyers who click through, and typically shows on Zillow as a text link, not a 3D tour.
• Matterport tours do not show on Zillow at all right now.
• The agent can still share the tour link directly: on their website, in email, on social and on a flyer QR code.

That is how we describe our own product, too. A PFRE Tour 3D walkthrough is not a Zillow-embedded tour. It gets an unbranded full-screen link, made for the MLS virtual tour field, that travels wherever your MLS sends that field. If you have not made a splat yet, start with how to make a 3D walkthrough with a 360 camera.

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