Top 10 Most Expensive Private Jets Owned by Billionaires

Search "most expensive private jet" and the same three aircraft come back every time: a Saudi prince's $500 million Airbus A380, the Sultan of Brunei's gold-plated Boeing 747, and a Hong Kong tycoon's $367 million Boeing 747-8. The first was never delivered. The second belongs to a head of state. And the third figure is not what anyone paid: $367 million was Boeing's 2015 list price for an empty 747-8, before a single seat went in. The most repeated number in private aviation is a catalogue price.

That is the problem with this subject. Nobody who buys a widebody for personal use publishes the invoice, so the "price" of a billionaire's jet is usually a list price, a completion-centre leak or a journalist's guess that hardened into fact through repetition. The only hard numbers come from an unlikely source: sanctions paperwork. When the US Justice Department moved to seize Roman Abramovich's Boeing 787 in June 2022, it valued the aircraft at $350 million. When the US Treasury sanctioned Alisher Usmanov, it described his Airbus A340 as one of the largest privately owned planes in Russia; the Russian Asset Tracker records it at $350 million. Those are the most authoritative price tags in this article, and both aircraft are, as of 2026, effectively grounded.

This list ranks the ten most expensive jets owned by private individuals by best-supported total cost including interior, and says for every entry whose number it is and how much to trust it. The pattern is not the one the listicles sell: the famous names fly $70–80 million Gulfstreams, while the half-billion-dollar aircraft belong to tycoons most readers could not pick out of a line-up.

Methodology

Each entry is a specific aircraft owned, directly or through a holding company or trust, by a private individual. It is ranked by the best-supported total cost, airframe plus completion, with the basis of every figure stated in the text. Where an aircraft has both a government-filing valuation and a higher press estimate, we rank on the filing and report the range. Where the only figure is an uncited press number with no identifiable origin, we say so and place the aircraft below entries that have a documented floor, however large the headline figure.

Three categories are excluded. Heads of state and government aircraft: the Sultan of Brunei's Boeing 747 (reported by Le Monde, via LuxuryLaunches, at $100–400 million to buy plus about $120 million to fit out) and Donald Trump's Boeing 757, bought from Paul Allen in 2011 for a reported $100 million; Trump is a sitting head of state in 2026, whatever the ownership structure. Aircraft never delivered: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's VIP A380, ordered at the 2007 Dubai Airshow, was resold by the prince before delivery and formally cancelled by Airbus in February 2015 after he "never followed up with cabin interior design and installation," according to AIN. Simple Flying calls it the "never was" private jet, worth perhaps $500 million if completed; it was never a private jet at all. Aircraft supplied under a commercial deal rather than bought: Drake's Boeing 767 came through a partnership with the cargo airline Cargojet, so it is not his purchase.

Ownership is checked against the most recent public record we could find, because jets change hands quietly: Taylor Swift sold a Falcon 900 in 2024, Jeff Bezos put a G650ER on the market the same year, and Mark Cuban's Mavericks 757 was re-registered to a new entity in April 2025, per AeroCorner. Sources include the US Department of Justice, the OCCRP Russian Asset Tracker, AIN, Simple Flying, AeroCorner's FAA-registry tracking, and the completion-centre reporting cited in each entry. Several of these owners also appear in our rankings of the most expensive yachts and largest yachts, where the same sourcing problem applies.

List of the Most Expensive Private Jets Owned by Billionaires

10. Taylor Swift — Dassault Falcon 7X

Swift is the only entertainer on the list, here because of a fleet change that happened in public. For years she flew two Dassault jets: a Falcon 900 registered N898TS (her birth year and initials) and a larger, three-engine Falcon 7X. After a wave of criticism over short hops, including a much-mocked 13-minute flight, she sold the Falcon 900 in 2024. SlashGear reports the sale at about $40 million; other outlets put it nearer $20 million, and no document confirms either. The Falcon 7X she kept is the aircraft that works the stadium tours.

A new Falcon 7X listed at roughly $54 million; Swift's purchase price has never been disclosed, so this is a list-price placement. The $50–60 million band is crowded, with Bernie Ecclestone's 2008 Falcon 7X and the G650ER the Justice Department valued at $60 million in Abramovich's fleet in the same range. Swift takes the slot because hers is the only aircraft in that band both currently owned and currently flying on the public record.

Reported cost: ~$54 million (list price, 7X new); Falcon 900 sold 2024 for a reported $20–40 million.

9. Bill Gates — Two Gulfstream G650ERs

Gates runs the most quietly organised fleet on this list: two ultra-long-range Gulfstream G650ERs, registered N887WM and N194WM, both delivered in 2018, plus two Bombardier Challenger 350 fractional shares through NetJets. The tail numbers are a private code: according to AeroCorner, N887WM encodes August 1987, the month Gates met Melinda French, and N194WM January 1994, the month they married. The jets are held through MENTE LLC, a Gates-controlled Washington entity, and a trustee, and are based at Boeing Field in Seattle.

At roughly $70 million each, the pair is a $140 million commitment, but this list ranks aircraft, not fleets, so Gates sits in the Gulfstream tier with the other founders of the most valuable tech companies. The figure is the published list price, not a disclosed invoice.

Reported cost: ~$70 million per aircraft (list price), two aircraft, delivered 2018.

8. Larry Ellison — Gulfstream G650

The Oracle co-founder's primary jet is a Gulfstream G650 registered N817GS, serial number 6111, built in 2014 and brought into his fleet in 2015 through a holding company with the best name in business aviation, Wing and a Prayer Inc. AeroCorner puts the list price at about $75 million, slightly above the G650ER figure because of how Gulfstream priced the model at the time, and reports that as of June 2026 Ellison has not announced an upgrade to the G700 or G800.

Ellison's aviation history is more colourful than the aircraft: a Gulfstream V in the late 1990s, a legal fight over landing it after dark at San Jose, a SIAI-Marchetti S.211 military trainer, and an attempt to import a MiG-29 from Russia that the US government blocked.

Reported cost: ~$75 million (list price), built 2014, acquired 2015, active.

7. Elon Musk — Gulfstream G700

Musk's best-known jet is the Gulfstream G650ER, N628TS, delivered in 2016 and made famous by the flight-tracking accounts he spent years trying to shut down. The G700 entry is newer and needs a caveat. Musk ordered a G700 in 2022; Simple Flying still listed it as pending in April 2025 after Gulfstream's certification delays. AeroCorner, which tracks the FAA registry, reports that a Gulfstream G800, N8628, was registered to Musk on 27 February 2026 and a G700, N7628, joined the fleet on 12 June 2026, with his oldest G550 leaving the registry. The tail numbers encode his 28 June birthday. We could not confirm those deliveries against a second independent source, so treat them as registry-tracker reporting rather than settled fact.

The G700's factory list price was $79 million as of mid-2025, per BlackJet, with dealer asks near $91 million because of a backlog stretching into 2028. If both 2026 deliveries are real, Musk added roughly $155 million of Gulfstreams in four months.

Reported cost: ~$79–80 million (list price); delivery reported June 2026, unconfirmed by a second source.

6. Jeff Bezos — Gulfstream G700

Bezos was first among the famous names to the G700. His aircraft, N11AF, was delivered on 10 July 2024 as the twentieth G700 off the Savannah line and is held through TVPX Aircraft Solutions, a Utah trust company, according to Simple Flying. The widely reported price is $80 million. The G700 seats up to 19, sleeps 13 and offers five living areas behind twenty of Gulfstream's oval windows; it is the aircraft Musk's order was chasing.

Bezos kept a 2019 G650ER, N758PB, and in late 2024 listed his 2015 G650ER, N271DV, for just under $39 million, a reminder that a $70 million Gulfstream loses close to half its value in a decade. Set against the roughly $500 million reported for his sailing yacht Koru, on our most expensive yachts list, the G700 is the cheaper vehicle by a wide margin.

Reported cost: ~$80 million (press figure, consistent with list price), delivered 10 July 2024, active.

5. Mukesh Ambani — Boeing BBJ 737 MAX 9

The Reliance Industries chairman owns the first Boeing Business Jet MAX 9 in India, and it marks the point where this list leaves Gulfstreams behind. The aircraft, manufacturer serial number 8401, went into completion at Basel EuroAirport in Switzerland from April 2023, flew test sorties over Switzerland and London Luton, and arrived in Delhi on 27 August 2024 wearing the San Marino registration T7-LOTUS before re-registering in India as VT-AKI, per CurlyTales and CEOWORLD.

Indian outlets priced it at ₹1,000 crore, about $118.5 million, and CEOWORLD at an estimated $120 million after customisation. Neither cites a source, and a green BBJ MAX 9 lists well below that, so the figure assumes a very expensive interior. Ambani's wider fleet, including an Airbus ACJ319, a Global 6000, two Global 5000s and two Falcon 900s, is the largest on this list by aircraft count.

Reported cost: ~$118.5–120 million (uncited Indian press estimate), arrived India 27 August 2024, active.

4. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal — Boeing 747-400

This is the aircraft the prince actually owns, as opposed to the A380 he never took. HZ-WBT7 is a Boeing 747-4J6 originally delivered to Air China in the mid-1990s, acquired by Alwaleed in 2005 and operated by his Kingdom Holding Company. It surfaced again in August 2023 when the Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo posted a tour from inside it on the way to a tournament in Morocco, as reported by aeroTELEGRAPH: a dining room for fourteen with gold accents, guest suites, meeting rooms, a hammam, a prayer room and, at the centre, a throne of real gold. Saudi football money has a way of surfacing in these stories, as readers of our highest-paid athletes ranking will know.

The reported price is around $450 million. That number has no identifiable origin; a twenty-year-old 747-400 is worth a small fraction of it, so nearly all of the figure would have to be interior. With no filing, completion-centre statement or owner-side figure behind it, the aircraft with the largest headline price on the list sits fourth, below three jets whose valuations appear in government paperwork.

Reported cost: ~$450 million (uncited press figure, no documented floor); acquired 2005, last publicly seen flying 2023.

3. Roman Abramovich — Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

Abramovich's Dreamliner, P4-BDL, serial number 37306, is the only jet here whose value appears in a court document. On 7 June 2022 the US Department of Justice announced a seizure warrant for two of his aircraft, valuing the 787 at $350 million and a Gulfstream G650ER, LX-RAY, at $60 million, for breaches of the Export Control Reform Act after both flew to Russia in March 2022 without licences. Abramovich had bought the 787 in December 2021, nicknamed it "The New Bandit," and funded an interior overhaul reported at around $100 million with seating for fifty.

The aircraft flew to Moscow on 4 March 2022 and on to Dubai the same day. Added to the US Entity List, it cannot legally be refuelled, serviced or supplied with parts without US permission, and the last public reporting places it grounded at Al Maktoum International Airport. Simple Flying muddies the number, citing both $350 million and a $248 million purchase plus $100 million interior; we rank on the Justice Department's figure. His yachts Eclipse and Solaris sit in the same limbo on our largest yachts list.

Reported cost: $350 million (US Department of Justice, June 2022); bought December 2021, grounded in Dubai under US seizure warrant.

2. Alisher Usmanov — Airbus A340-300 "Bourkhan"

Usmanov bought his four-engine Airbus A340-300 in 2012, reported at the time by The Moscow Times, registered it in the Isle of Man as M-IABU, a spelling-out of "I'm Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov," and named it Bourkhan after his father. The widely circulated cost is $238 million for the aircraft plus $170 million for the interior, about $408 million, per Simple Flying. The OCCRP Russian Asset Tracker, drawing on the US Treasury's March 2022 designation, records it at $350 million, held through Klaret Aviation Limited of Cyprus. We rank on the lower figure.

The jet flew from Munich to Tashkent on 28 February 2022 and has been reported in storage there since; the Isle of Man deregistered it the following month. Usmanov's legal position has shifted: German prosecutors dropped their investigation, the EU General Court dismissed his delisting application on 3 September 2025, and reports in September 2026 say the EU then removed him from its list. We could not independently confirm that removal, and have seen no report of the US or UK lifting theirs. His yacht Dilbar, valued by the Treasury at $600–735 million, tops our most expensive yachts ranking.

Reported cost: $350 million (US Treasury via OCCRP) to ~$408 million (press); bought 2012, deregistered March 2022, stored at Tashkent.

1. Joseph Lau — Boeing 747-8 VIP

The Hong Kong property developer behind Chinese Estates Holdings owns, or owned, the largest and most expensive aircraft any private individual is credibly reported to have bought: a Boeing 747-8 VIP with roughly 4,800 square feet of cabin across two decks. Boeing named him the first private customer for the 787 Dreamliner in 2007, an order he cancelled in 2009 before switching to the jumbo.

Now the number. The "$367 million" attached to this jet in nearly every list is, per the completion-centre reporting summarised by AzureAzure in 2015, the list price of a green 747-8 with no interior. The same reporting put the Greenpoint Technologies completion of a 747-8 VIP, with a 14-seat dining room, master suite, private office, an eight-bed Aeroloft and an Aerolift elevator to the tarmac, at about $200 million more, for a total over $500 million. Greenpoint never named the client, and the link to Lau is an industry assumption rather than a confirmation. BlackJet offers a different split, $153 million airframe and $214 million interior, which lands back at $367 million by coincidence. The honest statement is a range: $367 million to more than $500 million, depending on whether the Greenpoint aircraft is his.

Ownership is the other open question. Lau was convicted in Macau in 2014 on bribery and money-laundering charges and has not served the sentence, since Hong Kong has no extradition arrangement with Macau. Simple Flying noted in March 2024 that it was unclear whether he still flew the 747-8, and nothing public since resolves it. That the most expensive private jet in the world has an uncertain price and an uncertain owner is, in its way, the point of this list.

Reported cost: $367 million (green list price) to over $500 million (Greenpoint completion, client undisclosed); ownership status unclear as of 2026.

Summary of the Top 10 Most Expensive Private Jets Owned by Billionaires

The Gulfstream Ceiling

Read the table from the bottom and a pattern appears that the headline lists bury. Six of the ten entries, and every American on the list, cluster between $54 million and $80 million: the price of a top-of-range Gulfstream or Dassault. Bezos, Musk, Gates and Ellison are among the richest people alive and own exactly zero widebody jets between them. The half-billion-dollar aircraft belong to a Hong Kong developer, two sanctioned Russians and a Saudi prince.

That is not frugality. Gulfstream's G700 and G800 are the largest purpose-built business jets money can buy; anything bigger means taking an airliner off Boeing or Airbus's line and spending years and a further nine figures in a completion centre. A G700 is delivered finished; a 747-8 VIP is a construction project. Billionaires who fly weekly choose the finished product. The widebody owners are people for whom the aircraft is a statement rather than a tool, which is also why three of the top four are grounded, deregistered or of uncertain ownership. The most expensive private jets in the world mostly do not fly.

Notice, too, the price of information. The two best-documented figures on the list exist only because their owners were sanctioned. For everyone else the number is a list price, which overstates what large customers pay and understates what interiors cost. Bezos's 2015 G650ER on the market at just under $39 million says more about the real economics than any "$70 million" headline: these are depreciating machines, not stores of value.

Who Just Missed the Cut

Bernie Ecclestone has flown a Dassault Falcon 7X, N999BE, since 2008, level with Swift's aircraft but older and less documented. Mark Cuban holds the Guinness World Record for the largest single online purchase, a $40 million Gulfstream V bought by email in 1999, as CNBC recounted; he now flies a G550, N718MC. Jackie Chan owns an Embraer Legacy 650 (N688JC, about $30 million list) in a self-designed dragon livery and a Legacy 500, both tied to his role as Embraer's brand ambassador, per AeroCorner. Oprah Winfrey has moved her N540W tail through a Gulfstream IV, a Global Express XRS, a G550 and a G650ER; BlackJet reports a G700 delivered in 2025, which would place her alongside Bezos and Musk, but we could not confirm it elsewhere and have not ranked it.

Then the excluded. The Sultan of Brunei's 747, with its solid-gold basins and Lalique crystal, would rank near the top if state aircraft counted; Business Jet Traveler reports roughly $100 million to buy and $120 million to upgrade. Donald Trump's 757 is privately held but flown by a sitting head of state. And Prince Alwaleed's A380, which opens most rival lists, exists only as a cancelled order and an airframe that sat in Toulouse for years without a cabin.

The practical takeaway is simple: when a price for a private jet has no stated source, assume it is a list price, and when it has a government source, assume the aircraft is in trouble. Between those poles lies almost everything written about the subject. The fastest check is the one we used here: find the tail number, find the registry, and see whether the jet has moved in the last year. The ones that have not are usually the ones with the biggest numbers attached.