When your quad is too powerful, a few millimeters of throttle stick movement can take it from falling out of the sky to shooting toward space. This overly sensitive throttle makes smooth flying difficult — especially when flying through tight gaps or trying to maintain altitude. That’s why Betaflight provides Throttle Mid and Throttle Expo settings. When configured correctly, they give you far more precise throttle control and smoother cruising. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set them up.
Why Use Throttle Mid & Expo?
There are other ways to reduce throttle sensitivity, but each comes with some drawbacks:
- Reducing power using throttle scale or motor output limit → lowers your maximum speed and drone performance.
- Using a custom throttle curve in your radio → reduces throttle resolution.
The best solution is to configure Throttle Mid and Throttle Expo in Betaflight. This allows you to make throttle control more precise without sacrificing top speed or performance.
However, it can be quite a confusing feature for newcomers, which is why it’s often overlooked. I’m sure there are other ways to approach this, but here’s the method I use that works well for me personally.
How to Set These Values (Initial Setup)
Starting with Betaflight 2025.12.0 (formerly Betaflight 4.6), a new Hover Point setting was introduced alongside Throttle Mid and Throttle Expo. This allows the throttle curve to be anchored around your quad’s actual hover throttle value, making it more intuitive to use.
Step 1 — Find Hover Throttle
Leave everything at default, you will get a linear throttle response:
Throttle Mid = 0.50Hover Point = 0.50Throttle Expo = 0
If you check throttle curve preview, Input should be the same as Output through out the whole throttle range (when moving your throttle stick from 0% to 100%).
Hover your quad and observe the throttle position value in OSD.
Example:
- At 24% throttle → quad descends
- At 26% throttle → quad climbs
- So the hover point would be 25%.
Enter this into Betaflight:
Hover Point = 0.25
Step 2 — Set Throttle Mid
Throttle Mid determines where you want the hover point to be on your throttle stick.
You can put it anywhere between 0% and 100%, it’s purely a personal preference.
I usually place the hover point around 35% stick position because:
- That’s my most comfortable throttle stick position and I feel like I have the most control
- Around mid throttle stick (45% to 55%), that would be my normal cruising speed
So:
Throttle Mid = 0.35
This means, 35% stick position outputs 25% motor throttle.
You can verify this in the Throttle Curve Preview.
Step 3 — Set Throttle Expo
Throttle Expo controls how sensitive the throttle feels around Throttle Mid. You can set it to any value between 0 and 1. The higher the value, the less sensitive the throttle will feel around the center stick. However, if set too high, it may start to feel sluggish and unresponsive.
A good starting point:
Throttle Expo = 0.65
If you check the preview, you’ll see that the input and output are no longer linear — you get much finer control across the first 3 quarters of the throttle curve, which is exactly what we want.
We’ve now established a good starting point. Go out and test these settings. Try flying through tight gaps while maintaining a constant speed and altitude, and see how it feels.
If you’re happy with the results, there’s no need to change anything. However, depending on your skill level, flying style, and intended speed, you may want to fine-tune the settings further.
How to Adjust Throttle Mid/Expo
We can divide the throttle curve into 3 zones. For most pilots, the middle zone (precision zone) is probably the most important as you will be spending most of your time in this zone during flight.
Cinematic builds and slow cruisers can benefit from a wider “precision zone” for finer throttle control. However, if it’s too wide, the throttle may feel less responsive, and you’ll need to move the stick more to adjust altitude.
Throttle Mid
To tune Throttle Mid, here’s what I do.
When you lower the throttle during flight (for example, when trying to slow down):
- If the quad doesn’t descend fast enough → increase Throttle Mid
- If the quad drops too quickly → decrease Throttle Mid
Even a small adjustment can make a noticeable difference, so make small changes each time (e.g., 0.01–0.02).
Throttle Expo
Throttle Expo controls the sensitivity around center stick.
- Higher expo (closer to 1) → finer, smoother control but less responsive, better for relaxed, cinematic flying
- Lower expo (closer to 0) → more linear, responsive and twitchier, better for aggressive flying
As an example, for my Air65 tiny whoop (champion edition) I ended up with these values:
- Throttle Mid: 0.32
- Hover Point: 0.26
- Throttle Expo: 0.65
Without using Throttle Mid & Expo, I had to limit throttle to 80% just to fly indoors without constantly crashing — the quad was simply too fast. With these throttle settings, I can now fly comfortably without any throttle scaling.
It’s truly a game changer if you’ve never tried this before.
Older Betaflight (Before Version 2025.12)
Older versions only have Throttle Mid and Throttle Expo settings — no Hover Point, so configuration is different. When you set Throttle Mid, it uses the same value as your “hover throttle” too and it flattens the curve around that point when you apply Expo. Yes, it’s confusing and that’s why I really like the new approach. Anyway if your quad still has old Betaflight on it you might find this useful.
Initial Setup
Set Throttle Mid near your normal cruising throttle (or slightly higher than hover throttle).
For example, my tiny whoop, the hover throttle is 25%:
Throttle Mid = 0.25
For Throttle Expo, 0.65 is a good starting point:
Throttle Expo = 0.65
Fine Tuning
Try to go through tight gaps (try to maintain constant speed and altitude):
- If the quad feels too fast → decrease Throttle Mid.
- If the quad feels too slow → increase Throttle Mid.
Adjust in small increments each time (0.01 to 0.02).
To change throttle sensitivity:
- Higher Expo → smoother but softer feel
- Lower Expo → more direct response
Throttle Value in OSD Looks Wrong
After changing Throttle Mid and Expo, you may notice the throttle position in the OSD no longer matches hover throttle when you hover.
If you need to re-measure true hover throttle (e.g. for GPS Rescue or Position Hold):
- Temporarily reset Throttle Mid, Hover Point, and Expo to 0 before doing hover test, or
- Use Blackbox logs to read the real throttle output.
Conclusion
Throttle tuning is one of the most underrated features. By correctly setting:
- Hover Point
- Throttle Mid
- Throttle Expo
you can transform an overly powerful quad into something precise, predictable, and much easier to fly smoothly — without sacrificing performance.
Spend a few minutes dialing these settings in, and your flying will immediately feel more controlled and confident. As long as it works for you, there’s no right or wrong value as it largely comes down to personal preference. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try different values until it feels right.
