Disclosure: FieldStack.pro earns money when you click our links and sign up for software. This keeps our reviews free. We only recommend tools we would use ourselves. Our opinions are our own. Full disclosure.
Charge $25-$50 per hour per cleaner, $0.08-$0.20 per square foot, or a flat $120-$250 for a standard whole-home clean. Deep cleans run 1.5-2.5x that. Whatever model you use, keep labor at 30-40% of the price and aim for a 20-40% net margin. Quote flat rates for recurring work; charge hourly when you can't predict the condition.
The Three Pricing Models
Every cleaning business prices with one of three models. Most successful ones use all three, matched to the job.
Hourly
You charge a rate per cleaner per hour. Simple, and the safest choice when you cannot predict how dirty a place is — first-time cleans, deep cleans, post-construction, or move-outs. The downside: it punishes you for getting faster and better. As your crew improves, an hourly job pays you less for the same result. Use it to protect yourself on unknowns, not as your default for recurring work.
Per square foot
You charge a rate per square foot of the home. Good for quoting quickly over the phone and for scaling across different home sizes. The catch is that square footage alone does not capture condition — a 2,000 sq ft home with three kids and two dogs is not the same job as an empty 2,000 sq ft rental. Use it as a starting estimate, then adjust for condition.
Flat rate
You quote one price for the whole job regardless of hours. This is the best model for recurring residential cleaning: customers love a predictable price, and — critically — it rewards you for getting faster. Beat your time estimate and the extra margin is yours. The right way to set a flat rate is to build it up from an hourly cost estimate (see the step-by-step method below), not to guess.
2026 Rate Ranges
These are typical U.S. ranges for residential cleaning. Rates run higher in major metros and lower in rural markets — treat these as a starting point and price against your local market, not the national average.
| Model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly, per cleaner | $25-$50/hr | Unknowns: first cleans, deep cleans, move-outs |
| Per square foot | $0.08-$0.20/sq ft | Fast phone quotes, scaling across home sizes |
| Flat, standard clean | $120-$250 | Recurring residential (weekly, biweekly, monthly) |
| Flat, deep clean | $200-$500+ | First-time and heavily soiled homes |
| Move-in / move-out | $250-$600+ | Empty homes, turnover cleans |
Recurring frequency also moves the price. Because a weekly home stays cleaner, each visit is faster — so weekly visits are usually priced lower per visit than monthly. A common structure: weekly is the lowest per-visit rate, biweekly slightly higher, monthly the highest, and one-time the highest of all (often priced like a deep clean).
How to Price a Job, Step by Step
Do not pull a number out of the air. Build every flat-rate quote the same way, so you know each job actually clears your margin before you send it.
Estimate the hours
Walk or visualize the home and estimate cleaner-hours. A rule of thumb for a standard clean: roughly 1 cleaner-hour per 300-400 sq ft in decent condition. Adjust up for pets, kids, clutter, or a home that has not been cleaned in a while.
Multiply by your fully-loaded labor cost
Not just wage — add payroll taxes, workers' comp, and any benefits. If you pay $18/hr, your true cost is closer to $23-$25/hr. This is the floor the job has to clear.
Add supplies and drive time
Estimate product cost per job (usually a few dollars) and the paid drive time to and from. Long drives can quietly erase the margin on a small job — price them in.
Add overhead and profit
Layer on your overhead (insurance, software, marketing, admin) as a percentage, then your target profit margin. Aim to land with labor at 30-40% of the final price.
Sanity-check against the rate table
Compare your built-up number to the per-square-foot and flat ranges above. If you are far outside them, re-check your hours estimate or your local market before sending the quote.
Standard vs Deep Clean
The single most common pricing mistake is charging standard-clean rates for a first-time visit. A standard clean maintains an already-clean home. A deep clean tackles everything that builds up over months — baseboards, inside the oven and fridge, grout, ceiling fans, window tracks — and it takes far longer.
Price a deep clean at 1.5 to 2.5x a standard clean. The right play for a new customer: quote the first visit as a deep clean, then drop to standard-clean pricing on recurring visits once the home is at a maintainable baseline. Set that expectation up front — "the first clean is a deep clean at $X, then it's $Y every two weeks after that" — and you avoid the trap of eating hours on a filthy first visit you priced like a maintenance clean.
Mistakes That Kill Margin
- Pricing on square footage alone. Condition matters as much as size. Always adjust for pets, kids, and how long since the last clean.
- Not charging for drive time. A $120 job 40 minutes away can be less profitable than an $90 job next door. Price the windshield time.
- Staying hourly on recurring work. As your crew gets faster, hourly pays you less for the same clean home. Move recurring customers to flat rate.
- Never raising rates. Costs go up every year; your prices should too. A small annual increase on your book is easier than replacing customers you priced too low to serve.
- Not tracking labor as a percent of price. If you are not measuring it per job, you cannot tell your profitable jobs from the ones quietly losing money.
Software That Quotes and Schedules for You
You can run a handful of clients on a spreadsheet and a paper calendar. Once you are booking recurring cleans across a crew, the quoting, scheduling, and recurring billing are what eat your evenings — and that is what cleaning software takes off your plate. Two are worth looking at for a residential cleaning business.
ZenMaid is purpose-built for maid services — recurring schedules, automated customer reminders, and route optimization so your crews spend less time driving. If cleaning is your whole business, a tool built for cleaning beats a generic one. See our maid service software guide for the full breakdown.
Jobber builds a quote, books the recurring visit, and sends the invoice from one place. It is not cleaning-specific, but the quoting and recurring-billing tools are excellent and it scales as you add services. Full details in our Jobber review.
For a deeper comparison of options, see our guides to cleaning scheduling software and online booking software.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much should I charge for house cleaning?
- $25-$50 per hour per cleaner, $0.08-$0.20 per square foot, or a flat $120-$250 for a standard whole-home clean. Deep cleans run 1.5-2.5x that. See the full rate table.
- Should I charge hourly or flat rate?
- Flat rate for recurring residential work — customers prefer a predictable price and it rewards you for getting faster. Charge hourly when you cannot predict the condition: first cleans, deep cleans, and move-outs.
- How do I price a deep clean vs a standard clean?
- Price a deep clean at 1.5-2.5x a standard clean. Quote the first visit as a deep clean, then move to standard-clean pricing on recurring visits. See standard vs deep clean.
- What profit margin should I aim for?
- A 20-40% net margin, with labor at 30-40% of the job price. If labor is above 50% of price, you are underpricing or overstaffing the job.
Build every quote up from your real hourly cost, then price it flat. Estimate the cleaner-hours, multiply by fully-loaded labor, add supplies, drive time, overhead, and profit — and keep labor at 30-40% of the final number. Quote first visits as deep cleans. Once you are booking recurring work across a crew, let ZenMaid (built for maid services) or Jobber handle the scheduling and recurring billing so you stop losing evenings to admin.