How Much to Charge for House Cleaning
Work out the hourly rate you need, then flat prices for each size of home.
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Your last 10 settings, saved only in this browser. Nothing is uploaded.
How to use the house cleaning pricing calculator
- Enter Pay you want per year in dollars, before income tax. The default is $45,000.
- Enter Billable hours per week. Count only time spent cleaning, not driving or admin. The default is 25.
- Enter Weeks worked per year. The default is 48.
- Enter Business costs per year in dollars, such as supplies, insurance and fuel. The default is $6,000.
- Set Profit / savings (%). The default is 10%.
- Choose your State to compare the result with local rates.
- Tick Include self-employment tax (15.3% on 92.35% of profit) if you are self-employed in the US.
- Read the hourly rate box, the receipt and the flat price table.
Read the result in three places. The hourly rate box gives the rate you need to bill. The receipt shows your pay, self-employment tax, costs, profit, sales needed and billable hours, so you can check each figure against your own numbers. Only the figures you enter change the result, so run the numbers again whenever your costs or hours change. The flat price table lists standard and deep clean prices for one to five bedrooms, plus a price per square foot, so you can compare home sizes side by side.
Settings stay in the page address, so the Copy link button shares or bookmarks your exact estimate. The Print button prints the result. On phones, wide tables scroll sideways inside their box, so you can read every column.
How much should I charge to clean a house?
Charge enough to cover the income you want, your costs and your profit, spread across the hours you actually bill. The calculator turns that total into an hourly rate, then into flat prices by home size. With the defaults, 1,200 billable hours a year (25 hours a week over 48 weeks) need $64,894 in sales, which works out to $54.08 per hour.
Should I charge by the hour or a flat rate?
Hourly billing is easy to track, but many clients prefer a flat price they can compare. The calculator gives you both. At $54.08 per hour, its time model (average condition, one cleaner) puts a 1-bedroom home at $160 and a 5-bedroom home at $385. Use the hourly rate to check that each flat price pays you fairly for the time the job takes.
How do I price my cleaning services?
Work backward from the money you need. Net profit needed = pay / (1 − 0.9235 × 0.153). Sales needed = (net profit + costs) / (1 − profit %). Hourly rate = sales / (billable hours per week × weeks). Each step uses the result of the one before it. To sense-check the result, compare it with typical US company rates of $36 to $48 per cleaner-hour (our estimate, based on the BLS median cleaner wage multiplied by 2.5). A rate above that range is not wrong, but it means you need to show clients why your service is worth more.
How much should I charge per square foot?
Price per square foot helps you compare homes of different sizes. The results table lists a price per square foot for each home size. To check one row yourself, divide its price by its square footage: a 3-bedroom home of 1,600 sq ft priced at $255 works out to about $0.16 per square foot. Treat that number as a check, not a fixed price. A heavily soiled or cluttered home takes longer than a tidy one, so add time for those conditions before you quote.
How do I account for self-employment tax?
If you are self-employed in the US, you pay self-employment tax of 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. It applies to 92.35% of your net earnings. Tick the box to include it, and the calculator raises the sales you need so that your pay still covers this tax. The receipt shows the amount. Income tax is not included in the result, so set aside money for it separately.
Frequently asked questions
Is this house cleaning calculator free?
Yes. It is free, runs in your browser, and needs no account or sign-up. Because nothing you type is uploaded, the figures you enter stay on your device.
Does the estimate include my income tax?
No. The formula does not include income tax, so set aside money for it yourself. Self-employment tax is handled by its own box, but income tax is separate.
What if I can only bill 20 hours a week?
Enter your real number. Fewer billable hours means each hour must bring in more sales, so the hourly rate goes up for the same pay and costs. Compare the new rate with the typical range before you change your prices, and check whether a higher rate is realistic in your area.
What does Profit / savings (%) do?
It sets the margin you keep on top of your costs. With the default 10%, the calculator divides the sales you need by 0.9, so the extra above your costs is your profit or savings. Raise the figure to build a reserve for slow months, or lower it if you need more of your sales to cover the work itself.
Can I save or share my estimate?
You can share or bookmark it with the Copy link button, because the settings live in the page address. Saving estimates is coming soon but is not available yet.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. The page works on phones, and wide tables scroll sideways inside their box so you can read every column.
Related tools
- House cleaning estimate calculator: use it to build a quote for a specific home once you know your rate.
- House cleaning rates per hour: use it to compare your hourly rate with what others charge.
- How to start a cleaning business: use it if you are setting up your business for the first time.
- Cleaning business plan: use it to plan your costs, goals and growth over the next year.
- Cleaning estimate template: use it to put your prices into a written quote for clients.
- House cleaning cost calculator: use it to get a quick cost check on the home page.