A Legacy 500 taxiing at Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, Texas, in December 2025. · Photo: DUNCAN KIRK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Embraer · Super-Midsize Jet
Legacy 500 (EMB-550)
Embraer's first clean-sheet super-midsize jet; the shorter Legacy 450 was derived from it, and the Praetor 600 replaced it.
The Legacy 500 delivers a stand-up, flat-floor cabin and coast-to-coast range for less money than a Challenger 350 or G280, and it costs less to run. The trade-offs are a small fleet, a narrower cabin and range that trails newer rivals.
Buy it if
You want a quiet six-foot cabin for six to eight people, fly mostly North American legs up to about 3,000 nm, use shorter runways, and would rather spend $12–17 million than pay up for newer rivals.
Skip it if
You need nonstop Europe or Hawaii with a full cabin, want the deepest service and resale network, or must have the widest cabin in the class; a Challenger 350 or G280 fits better.
Biggest compromise
Range. At 3,125 nm with four passengers it has the shortest legs in its peer group, and with full tanks only about 1,600 lb remains for people and bags.
The numbers that matter
Purchase price
$11.9M–$17.5M
guide value (Guardian Jet market data)
What it costs per year
$2.36M
at 300 hrs · two professional pilots
How far it flies
3,125 nm
2,948–3,125 nm with passengers
How fast
466 kt
high-speed cruise
Seats
8
8 typical, up to 12 by interior
Pilots needed
2
Two pilots are required on every flight.
Price
What one costs to buy
Guide value
$11.9M–$17.5M
Other sites
4.8% of the fleet
Priced vs call
with a price / call for price
Only one listing shows a price ($16.75M); recent sales last asked $11.3–15.0M, and Guardian Jet puts typical purchase prices near $14.7M.
Price vs its family and alternatives
Scroll to explore · select a jet for details
Legacy 500 (EMB-550) · This aircraft
$11.9M–$17.5M guide
Guide value, not a listed asking price.
The least expensive here; next up is the Challenger 350.
For sale now
None listed right now
Cost to own
What it costs per year to run
300hours / year
Per year
Per flight hour
Estimate — your operator will quote actual numbers.
Fuel, airframe maintenance, engine program, both engines, apu program and trip expenses rise as you fly more. Two professional pilots, recurrent training, hangar, insurance, management and charts, software and connectivity stay the same however much you fly.
Where the money goes
- Two professional pilots$414,17518%
- Recurrent training$45,8092%
- Hangar$63,6643%
- Insurance$44,1482%
- Management$90,0004%
- Charts, software and connectivity$91,2574%
- Fuel$690,33629%
- Airframe maintenance$324,75014%
- Engine program, both engines$281,07612%
- APU program$33,8131%
- Trip expenses$278,10012%
Fuel is the biggest single cost at 29% of the total.
The JetGrade
71 out of 100 — Slightly above its class
Peer group: Bombardier Challenger 350, Gulfstream G280, Cessna Citation Longitude (700), Embraer Praetor 600
Seven categories at a glance
- - - 70 = typical— This aircraft
Strongest on airport access, weakest on range & payload.
Grades are editorial opinions about the model, not any specific aircraft. Sponsors and affiliates have no input. Reviewed 2026-10-29.
Where it flies
Sample trips and reach
Typical trips on a map
Nonstop
8 of 8 sample trips are comfortable nonstops.
Sample flight times
- 0.9 hr
Carlsbad → Las Vegas
205 nm · Short hop with ample margin at any load
- 1.9 hr
Carlsbad → Aspen
625 nm · Summer departures from Aspen can be weight-limited
- 2.2 hr
Santa Ana → San José del Cabo
765 nm · John Wayne runway is ample for this jet
- 2.5 hr
Teterboro → West Palm Beach
900 nm · Easy nonstop with a full cabin
- 3.2 hr
Dallas → Teterboro
1,190 nm · Comfortable nonstop with eight passengers
- 3.7 hr
Teterboro → San Juan
1,410 nm · Overwater leg well within range
- 5.2 hr
Carlsbad → Teterboro
2,100 nm · Coast to coast nonstop with four passengers
- 5.5 hr
Los Angeles → Honolulu
2,215 nm · Long overwater leg; winter headwinds cut margins
Lineage
What came before and after
2014–2020
Embraer Legacy 500
Clean-sheet fly-by-wire super-midsize with a six-foot flat-floor cabin.
Size and cabin
How big it is, inside and out
Outside
Silhouette · scaled to length
Length
Wingspan
Height
Inside the cabin
Cabin length
Width
Height
Compare
How it stacks up
This aircraft
Legacy 500 (EMB-550)
- JetGrade
- 71
- Price
- $11.9M–$17.5M guide
- Cost per year
- $2.36M
- Range
- 3,125 nm
- Speed
- 466 kt
- Seats
- 8
- Cabin length
- 26′ 10″
- Pilots
- 2
- Years built
- 2014–2020
After →
- JetGrade
- 78
- Price
- $20.5M–$23.29M guide
- Cost per year
- $2.37M
- Range
- 4,018 nm
- Speed
- 466 kt
- Seats
- 8
- Cabin length
- 27′ 7″
- Pilots
- 2
- Years built
- 2019–now
Alternative
- JetGrade
- 75
- Price
- $12.9M–$25.9M guide
- Cost per year
- $2.36M
- Range
- 3,200 nm
- Speed
- 470 kt
- Seats
- 9
- Cabin length
- 25′ 2″
- Pilots
- 2
- Years built
- 2014–2022
Alternative
- JetGrade
- 72
- Price
- $17.75M–$22.5M guide
- Cost per year
- $2.3M
- Range
- 3,600 nm
- Speed
- 482 kt
- Seats
- 9
- Cabin length
- 25′ 10″
- Pilots
- 2
- Years built
- 2012–now
- Bombardier Challenger 350 instead: Wider cabin, far larger fleet and stronger resale with similar range; expect to pay several million dollars more and somewhat higher running costs.
- Embraer Praetor 600 instead: Same cabin and cockpit with about 900 nm more range, so New York to London is nonstop, at a much higher price.
- Gulfstream G280 instead: About 3,600 nm of range and faster cruise in a wider cabin, but it needs longer runways and costs more to buy.
Gold marks the best figure in each row.
Owning one
What to know before you buy
Engines & inspections
2 × Honeywell HTF7500E · 7,036 lbf each
Engine hours until overhaul
- 750-hour inspection · 750 hr
- Cockpit side window inspection · 750 hr
- Engine major inspection · 4,000 hr
- Engine fuel control overhaul · 7,000 hr
- 12-month inspection every 12 months
- 60-month inspection every 60 months
- 120-month heavy check every 120 months
- Landing gear overhaul every 120 months
No fixed overhaul: engines run on condition with a major inspection at 4,000–4,500 hours, so pay-per-hour coverage protects value.
Known issues
Pitch trim actuator directive
A 2026 emergency directive requires stabilizer trim actuator checks; replacement runs about $154,000 if one fails, possibly under warranty.
Engine program status
Engines without Honeywell MSP or JSSI coverage carry major-inspection and repair exposure that can move the price substantially.
Interim approach speed limits
After hard landings, interim approach limits apply until new flight-control computer software is installed; confirm its status.
Pre-buy checklist
0 of 10 checked
Embraer runs US service centers in Mesa, Arizona, and Melbourne and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, added Dallas, Cleveland and Sanford sites in 2024, and fields mobile teams; Duncan Aviation is also authorized.
Review
The full review
Strengths
- Short runways: 4,084 ft takeoff at maximum weight beats the Challenger 350's 4,835 ft and opens more airports.
- Six-foot flat-floor cabin, 26 ft 10 in long, with a 6,000 ft cabin altitude at 45,000 ft.
- Runs about 15% cheaper per year than a Challenger 350 or G280 on the same cost assumptions.
Limitations
- Range of 3,125 nm with four passengers trails the G280's 3,600 nm and the Praetor 600's 4,018 nm.
- Only about 84 are flying, so specialist shops, pilots and buyers are thinner than for Bombardier or Gulfstream.
- Cabin is 6 ft 10 in wide, about 4 in narrower than the Challenger 350 and G280.
The Embraer Legacy 500 was the Brazilian maker's first clean-sheet super-midsize jet, certified in 2014 and built until 2020; about 84 are still flying. It shares its wing, cockpit and fly-by-wire flight controls with the shorter Legacy 450, and in 2019 Embraer replaced it with the Praetor 600, which keeps the same fuselage and adds fuel, larger winglets and range. That makes the Legacy 500 the lowest-cost way into a cabin Embraer still sells new.
Pilot's take
From the flight deck the Legacy 500 feels a generation newer than its age. Sidesticks and closed-loop fly-by-wire hold the flight path, protect the flight envelope and trim automatically, while the Pro Line Fusion cockpit and autothrottles keep workload low. It climbs to the low 40s in about 20 minutes and stops short on carbon brakes. The protections demand respect, though: the angle-of-attack limiter has been linked to hard landings when icing speed additives were missed, so type-specific training and current flight-control software matter.
Who this is for
Owners and flight departments flying 200–400 hours a year with four to eight passengers, mostly within North America, who want a super-midsize cabin and short-runway access at a used price well below newer rivals.
Ask about this aircraft
Answers come only from our research file on the Legacy 500.
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