Free tool · for cleaning business owners
House cleaning price calculator for cleaning businesses
Pricing a clean from your own numbers, not from a competitor's flyer. Enter the size of the home or office, the type of clean, your labor cost and the margin you want: the calculator gives you the labor hours, the time on site and a price per visit you can put on your estimate. Every default is a placeholder you can change.
Updated October 4, 2026 · for owners of home and office cleaning businesses
Calculate a cleaning quote
This calculator is for the business doing the cleaning. It does not use market prices: the result comes only from your cost, your time assumptions and your margin. Nothing you type is stored or sent.
How the calculator works out the price
The logic is the one most cleaning business owners use on paper, made explicit so you can check it:
Labor hours = (area ÷ area per hour) or (kitchen and living + bedrooms × minutes + bathrooms × minutes) ÷ 60
× time factor of the cleaning type, rounded up to the quarter hour
Cost = labor hours × labor cost per hour + supplies and travel
Price = cost ÷ (1 − target margin) × (1 − recurring discount), rounded up to the next 5
Time on site = labor hours ÷ cleaners on the job
With the default values (a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home, standard clean, $25 per labor hour, 30 % margin), that gives 4 labor hours, a cost of $100.00 and a price of $145 per visit. Two cleaners are on site for 2 hours. The same home as a one-time deep clean, with a time factor of 1.5, comes to 6 labor hours and $215.
Margin is not markup
A 30 % margin means you keep 30 % of the price, so the price is the cost divided by 0.7. Adding 30 % on top of the cost (a markup) only leaves you about 23 % of the price. The calculator uses margin, because that is the number your profit and loss statement shows.
Why the time assumptions matter most
Every price comes from the hours. If your team actually cleans more slowly than the assumptions, you lose money on every job without noticing. Open "Time assumptions" in the calculator and replace the defaults with your own: time three or four typical jobs, divide by the area or count the rooms, and keep separate factors for deep and move-out cleans.
Find your real labor cost per hour
The hourly wage is only part of what a cleaning hour costs you. Before you trust any price, work out the full cost of one hour of cleaning:
- Wages, including paid travel time between jobs if you pay it.
- Payroll taxes and benefits your business pays on top of wages where you operate.
- Insurance and bonding, if you carry them, spread over your billable hours.
- Non-billable time: training, re-cleans, time at the office.
Add all of that for last month and divide by the hours your team actually spent cleaning for clients. That is the number to put in "Labor cost per hour". If you work alone, include what you want to pay yourself: your own time is not free.
Hourly, per room or per square foot: three ways to price
| Method | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | You bill the hours worked at a set rate per cleaner. | Clients cannot compare quotes easily and may worry about slow work. Fast teams earn less. |
| Per room | A price per bedroom and per bathroom, plus a base for kitchen and living areas. | Room sizes vary a lot: a large home with few rooms gets underpriced. |
| Per square foot or square meter | A price per unit of floor area, sometimes with a minimum. | Clutter, pets and condition change the time far more than the area does. |
| Flat rate from estimated time | You estimate the hours from the size and rooms, then quote one price. | Only as good as your time assumptions, which you need to check against real jobs. |
The calculator uses the last method: it estimates the time, then turns it into a flat price. That gives clients a single number to say yes to, and gives you a check on what every job earns per labor hour.
Turning the number into a house cleaning estimate
Get the facts
Size, bedrooms, bathrooms, floors, pets, and the current condition. Photos or a short walkthrough avoid most surprises.
Price the first clean separately
A home that has not been professionally cleaned for months takes longer the first time. Quote the first clean as a deep clean, then the recurring price.
Run the numbers
Use the calculator with your own cost and margin, and check the effective rate per labor hour against your target.
Write the scope
List what is included and what is not, so the client knows exactly what the price covers. Our cleaning quote template has the full list.
Send it quickly and follow up
A quote sent the same day, with a clear next step to book, wins more jobs than a perfect one sent next week.
How to charge for office cleaning
Office cleaning is usually sold as a contract with a set number of visits, so the price per visit matters less to the client than the monthly total. Price it in the same way, then convert it:
- Estimate the time per visit from the floor area, plus the restrooms, kitchen areas and the number of desks or trash bins. Choose "Office clean" and "Floor area" in the calculator.
- Turn it into a monthly price: price per visit × visits per month. Weekly is 52 ÷ 12, about 4.33 visits a month; twice a week is about 8.67.
- Decide who supplies consumables such as paper towels, toilet paper and soap. Either include them at cost plus margin or bill them separately; write it in the contract.
- Account for after-hours work: evening or weekend cleaning can cost you more per hour. Enter that cost in the calculator.
- Plan a walkthrough before quoting, and a review after the first month: the real time is often different from the estimate.
For example, a 3,000 sq ft office cleaned weekly by two cleaners, with the default assumptions, takes 7.5 labor hours a visit and comes to $270 per visit, about $1170 a month. Change the assumptions to your own before quoting anything.
Quoting faster for your clients
A calculator works on your side of the phone call. Cleaning Crew App is being built to put the same logic in front of your clients: they enter the size and rooms or send photos, the AI estimates the time from your own rates, and you approve the price before it goes out. The accepted quote becomes a booked job on a cleaner's schedule.
It is in development. Join the early access list to get instant quotes for your clients when it opens, with 50 % off for life for founding members.
Questions, answered
How much should I charge for a house cleaning?
It depends on your costs, your speed and your market, which is why this calculator does not use market prices. Work out your real labor cost per hour, time a few jobs, set the margin you need, and compare the result with what local competitors publish.
Is it better to charge by the hour or a flat rate?
Many cleaning businesses quote a flat rate per visit, built from the estimated hours, because clients prefer a single price. Hourly billing can suit one-off jobs where the condition is unknown. Either way, track the hours each job really takes.
How do I price a deep clean or a move-out clean?
Estimate the hours of a standard clean, then apply a time factor for the extra work: baseboards, inside cabinets, appliances, heavy buildup. The calculator uses 1.5 and 1.75 as placeholders; replace them with what your own jobs show.
Should recurring clients get a discount?
Recurring cleans usually take less time than a first clean, and steady work has value. If you offer a discount, enter it in the calculator to see what it does to your margin before you promise it.
Does the calculator save or send what I type?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you type is stored or sent. We only count that the calculator was used, with the cleaning type and frequency, to know if the page is useful.
Keep reading
More free resources
Cleaning quote template
A free cleaning services quotation template for Excel, Google Sheets or print, the items every quote should include, and a filled example.
Download the free templateZenMaid alternatives
Maid service and cleaning business software compared on their public prices and features as of October 2026, and which one fits which kind of cleaning business.
See the comparisonGet instant quotes for your clients
Cleaning Crew App will turn size, rooms and photos into a price from your own rates, and the accepted quote into a scheduled job. Join the early access list.