How to Price Cleaning Jobs: Hourly vs Flat Rate (With Examples)

Underpricing is the single most common mistake in the cleaning business. It's easy to quote a cleaning job off a quick mental estimate, and just as easy to end up working an extra unpaid hour because the house was bigger or messier than it looked from the driveway. Here's how to price cleaning jobs so your rate actually covers your time.

How do you charge for a cleaning job?

Most cleaning businesses price one of two ways:

• Hourly rate. Simple to explain, protects you on unpredictable jobs (first-time deep clean, hoarding situations, heavy grease). The tradeoff: customers sometimes push back on an open-ended hourly rate because they don't know the final cost upfront.
• Flat rate, priced per square foot or per room. Customers prefer knowing the total cost of house cleaning in advance, and it rewards you for working efficiently. The tradeoff: you carry the risk if the job runs long, so your per-square-foot rate needs a real buffer built in, not just your average time.

A common approach: quote flat rate for recurring cleaning (you'll know the space after the first visit) and hourly for one-time deep cleans or commercial cleaning jobs where the condition is unknown going in.

Is $50 an hour a fair rate for cleaning?

Cleaning rates vary a lot by market, and by whether you're solo or running a team — a rate that works for an independent cleaner in a lower cost-of-living area won't cover a two-person crew with supplies, insurance, and overhead in an expensive market. Rather than anchoring to a number you saw online, calculate your real hourly cost (wages, supplies, drive time, insurance) and price above that with margin — that's the number that keeps your cleaning business profitable, whatever your local market rate happens to be.

How much should you charge for a few hours of cleaning?

Multiply your hourly rate by realistic hours for the job — and round up, not down, for the first visit at a new house, since you don't yet know the client's actual mess level or how their layout slows you down. Once you've cleaned a space once or twice, you can price future visits more precisely (and often move that client to flat rate).

What do most cleaning companies charge?

House cleaning rates and commercial cleaning prices both vary widely by region, so instead of anchoring to a single "average" cleaning cost, build your own cleaning price list: a per-square-foot or per-room rate for house cleaning, and a separate per-square-foot rate for commercial cleaning jobs, since offices and retail spaces clean differently than homes. Most established cleaning companies publish a simple price list — standard clean, deep clean, move-out clean — rather than quoting every job from scratch, which is worth copying even as a solo house cleaner. It builds trust with a new client before you've even walked in the door, and it makes it obvious you're a real cleaning business, not someone guessing at a number.

Quote faster without underpricing

For house cleaning and light commercial cleaning jobs, photos of the space — square footage, number of rooms, general condition — are often enough to put together a fair, accurate quote without an in-person walk-through for every lead. Fast Snap Pro lets a customer send photos through a link and get back a price built from your own cleaning rates, not a generic per-hour guess, so you can respond to a new lead in minutes instead of scheduling a visit just to quote it.

Price your cleaning jobs consistently — hourly where the job is unpredictable, flat rate where you know the space — and your rate will actually reflect the work, not just a guess from the doorway.

Step by step: calculating your hourly cost

Before setting any price, work out what an hour of cleaning actually costs your business. A simple example for a two-person team:

Cost	Per crew hour (example)
Wages for two cleaners	$40.00
Payroll taxes and workers' comp	$6.00
Supplies	$3.00
Vehicle and fuel, including drive time	$5.00
Insurance, software, phone, marketing	$6.00
Total cost per crew hour	$60.00

Illustrative numbers only. Use your own costs.

If you want a 20% profit margin, divide cost by 0.8: $60 ÷ 0.8 = $75 per crew hour. Every flat rate you set should work back to at least that number at your real cleaning times.

Turning hourly cost into a flat price

Once you know your crew-hour price, time your cleans. If a standard clean of a 2,000 sq ft, 3-bed, 2-bath home takes your team about 2.5 crew hours, the price is 2.5 × $75 = $187.50, which you might round to $190. Keep a simple price grid by home size and service:

Home	Standard clean	Deep clean	Move-out
1–2 bed, up to 1,200 sq ft	$130	$240	$280
3 bed, 1,200–2,000 sq ft	$190	$350	$400
4+ bed, 2,000–3,000 sq ft	$260	$480	$550

Example grid only. Build yours from your own times and costs.

Add-ons that raise the average ticket

• Inside oven and inside fridge
• Interior windows and blinds
• Inside cabinets (common on move-outs)
• Laundry and bed changes
• Pet hair surcharge

Offer them on the quote as checkboxes. Customers often add one or two when they see them listed. See deep cleaning cost guide, recurring house cleaning pricing and move-out cleaning price.

Frequently asked questions

How do I price a house cleaning job?

Calculate your cost per crew hour, add your profit margin, estimate how long the home will take based on size, condition and service type, and multiply. Turn the results into a simple price grid so quotes are fast and consistent.

Should I charge more for the first clean?

Many cleaners price the first visit as a deep clean, since a home that hasn't been professionally cleaned takes longer. Recurring visits after that can be priced lower.

How much should I charge for commercial cleaning?

Commercial cleaning is usually priced per visit or per month from the square footage, the tasks and the frequency. See the commercial cleaning bid template and office cleaning cost per square foot.