How Much to Charge for House Cleaning in 2026

There is no universal price for house cleaning. The right number depends on your market, the customer you want to serve, the type of cleaning, the condition of the home, and what it costs you to deliver a reliable service.

Before you copy a competitor's price or choose a number that simply feels right, decide where you want your company to sit in the local market. You can compete on price, aim for the middle, or build a premium service. Each choice requires a different customer experience and a different margin.

The model I use in this guide sits around the middle to higher end of the market. It generally targets $40 to $70 in customer revenue per cleaner-hour, depending on the job details. That is the amount the business charges for one hour of one cleaner's labor. It is not the cleaner's wage, and it is not a universal market average.

If you want a starting number while you read, open the free house-cleaning pricing calculator. It uses the same factors covered below, and you can adjust the result to fit your market.

Start by choosing your position in the market

Pricing starts with positioning. Two cleaning companies can serve the same ZIP code and charge very different rates because they sell different experiences.

• Value-priced companies usually win on affordability and volume. The scope has to be tight because there is less room for overtime, re-cleans, and special requests.
• Middle-market companies compete on consistent quality, dependable scheduling, clear communication, and a professional customer experience.
• Premium companies may offer more detailed work, highly trained teams, stronger guarantees, flexible communication, and a higher-touch service.

Look at local competitors, but compare the full offer. A low online price may cover less work, exclude supplies, or assume a home is already in good condition. Your goal is not to match the cheapest company. Your goal is to charge enough to deliver the service you promise and still run a healthy business.

The basic house-cleaning pricing formula

I prefer to give customers a flat price. Customers know what they will pay, and the team is not rewarded for moving slowly. Behind that flat price, I still use labor time to check the math.

Starting price = estimated cleaner-hours × target billable rate + scope adjustments − any earned recurring discount

A cleaner-hour is one cleaner working for one hour. If two cleaners spend three hours in a home, that job used six cleaner-hours. At a target of $55 per cleaner-hour, six cleaner-hours support a $330 starting price before unusual add-ons or travel.

This distinction matters. Dividing a $330 job by three hours would make it look like the business earned $110 per hour. The crew actually used six labor hours, so the effective rate was $55 per cleaner-hour.

What should change the price of a cleaning job?

The price should move when the work moves. I use seven main inputs.

1. Type of cleaning

A standard maintenance clean is not the same job as a first-time deep clean or a move-out. Give each service its own pricing logic instead of using one base price for everything.

2. Square footage

Square footage establishes the size of the job. For regular residential cleaning, 500-square-foot bands are practical because a customer usually knows a home's rough size. Exact square footage matters more for post-construction cleaning, where the entire project is commonly priced by the square foot.

3. Bedrooms and bathrooms

Two homes with the same square footage can require very different amounts of work. Bathrooms, in particular, can add substantial labor. Bedrooms, occupied rooms, and living areas also help estimate how much of the home the crew will actually clean.

4. Current condition

Condition can turn a routine visit into a major reset. I like a simple 1-to-10 scale: 1 to 3 for light upkeep, 4 to 6 for an average lived-in home, 7 to 8 for heavy buildup, and 9 to 10 for restoration-level work. For high-condition jobs, request photos or schedule a walkthrough before guaranteeing the price.

5. Pets and heavy-duty work

Pet hair, heavy buildup, and neglected surfaces add time even when the house size stays the same. Treat them as real scope changes, not favors the crew is expected to absorb.

6. Extras

Inside the refrigerator, inside the oven, cabinet interiors, windows, blinds, laundry, dishes, and changing bedding all require labor. Price those services separately and define whether a charge covers one item, one load, one room, or the whole home.

7. Frequency

Recurring homes are often faster and more predictable after the first visit. Weekly, every-two-week, every-three-week, and monthly service may justify different per-visit prices. The discount should reflect real efficiency, not an automatic promise that erases your margin.

The cleaning quote calculator asks for these inputs in the same order, so you can see how each choice changes the starting estimate.

How to price each type of house cleaning

Standard cleaning

Standard cleaning is routine maintenance for a home that has already reached your company's baseline. It usually covers recurring surface cleaning, kitchens, bathrooms, floors, dusting, and the specific tasks listed in your checklist.

Use standard cleaning as your baseline price. Start with the square-footage band, then adjust for bedrooms, bathrooms, condition, pets, and selected extras. If the first visit needs substantially more work, price that visit as a deep clean and move the customer to standard recurring service afterward.

Deep cleaning

Deep cleaning requires more detail, more labor, and more recovery time for the crew. It may include buildup, detailed edges, fixtures, baseboards, doors, and other tasks outside a maintenance visit.

Do not take a standard price and add a small random fee. Set a separate deep-clean base by home size, then add the same room, condition, and extra-service adjustments. For a closer look at that service, read my guide on how to price a deep clean.

Move-in cleaning

A move-in clean prepares an empty or mostly empty home for a new occupant. Empty rooms can be easier to access, but customers often expect detailed work inside cabinets, appliances, closets, and drawers. Define exactly what the base service includes so the team and customer have the same expectations.

Move-out cleaning

A move-out clean often includes the detail of a deep clean plus the wear left after someone has emptied the home. Adhesive, marks, appliance interiors, cabinet interiors, and overlooked buildup can add hours. Price move-in and move-out work from a dedicated base, even if you sell them under one service name.

Post-construction cleaning

Post-construction cleaning is the service where exact square-foot pricing makes the most sense. My current starting model uses three condition levels:

• Light condition: $0.30 per square foot
• Standard condition: $0.50 per square foot
• Heavy condition: $0.70 per square foot

For example, 2,000 square feet at the standard $0.50 starting rate produces a $1,000 base estimate before special scope or add-ons.

Those rates are starting points from my model, not universal prices. Construction phase, fine dust, debris removal, window stickers, paint or adhesive, floor protection, access, and deadline pressure can change the job dramatically. Ask for photos, plans, or a walkthrough before committing to a large project.

Airbnb and short-term-rental turnovers

Turnovers combine cleaning with a deadline and a reset checklist. Laundry, beds, restocking, dishes, damage reporting, and a narrow checkout-to-check-in window can matter as much as square footage. Give turnovers their own scope and expected duration instead of treating them as discounted standard cleans.

You can compare standard, deep, move-in or move-out, Airbnb, and post-construction estimates in the free cleaning job pricing tool.

A practical house-cleaning price example

Here is one example from the current ScheduleDrop starting model. Assume the job is a one-time clean with no pets or extras:

• 1,500 to 1,999 square feet
• 3 bedrooms
• 2 bathrooms
• Condition level 3 out of 10

The standard-clean calculation is:

$139 size-band base + $50 for three bedrooms + $50 for two bathrooms + $14 for condition = $253

The same home starts at $403 for a deep clean and $503 for a move-in or move-out clean because those services use higher bases for the additional work.

Now check the price against labor. If the $253 standard clean takes five cleaner-hours, it earns $50.60 per cleaner-hour. If it takes seven cleaner-hours, it earns only $36.14 per cleaner-hour. The second result falls below the $40 to $70 target range, which tells you to review the estimate, scope, or price.

Do this comparison with completed jobs, not only predicted times. The difference between estimated and actual cleaner-hours is where a pricing model gets smarter.

How much should recurring customers save?

Recurring discounts should come from efficiency. The home stays closer to your baseline, the work is easier to plan, and the business spends less time replacing one-time jobs.

My current starting model uses these per-visit adjustments:

• Weekly: 30% below the one-time starting estimate
• Every two weeks: 20% below
• Every three weeks: 15% below
• Monthly: 10% below

Test these percentages in your own operation. If monthly homes regularly arrive in deep-clean condition, a 10% discount may not be justified. If a weekly home becomes highly efficient and predictable, the recurring price can still produce a strong cleaner-hour rate.

How to pay cleaners

Pricing and provider pay belong in the same conversation. A job can look profitable until you compare the customer price with the actual labor required.

There are three common ways to pay cleaners.

Hourly pay

The cleaner earns a set rate for each hour worked. This is easy to understand and protects the cleaner when a job runs long. The business carries the risk of a poor estimate or slow production, so accurate time tracking and clear performance standards matter.

Percentage of the job price

Some companies pay roughly 40% to 50% of the customer price. This automatically moves provider pay with the ticket, but the percentage must match the real scope. Fifty percent left after provider pay is not 50% profit. Supplies, payroll costs or contractor expenses, insurance, travel, software, marketing, re-cleans, refunds, and overhead still come out of the remainder.

Fixed pay per job

This is my preferred method. I estimate how long the job should take and multiply that time by the cleaner's target pay rate.

If I estimate that a job will take three hours and want the cleaner to earn $25 per hour, I assign $75 in fixed pay for that job. The cleaner knows the payout in advance, and the business can compare the job price with a known labor cost.

Fixed pay only works when estimates are fair. Create rules for approved extra time, scope changes, re-cleans, training jobs, and work that was misrepresented by the customer. Whatever method you choose, follow the wage, overtime, payroll, and worker classification requirements that apply to your business and location.

Protect the margin after cleaner pay

The customer price has to cover more than the cleaner's payout. Before approving a rate, account for:

• Cleaner or provider pay
• Payroll taxes, workers' compensation, or contractor-related costs
• Cleaning supplies and equipment
• Drive time, fuel, parking, and tolls
• Insurance, software, office labor, and customer support
• Marketing and payment-processing costs
• Re-cleans, refunds, breakage, and other quality costs
• The profit needed to reinvest in the business

This is why I use customer revenue per cleaner-hour as a health check. It gives every job a common measurement even when ticket sizes and crew sizes differ.

Review your cleaning prices with real job data

A pricing sheet is a starting system, not something you set once and forget. Review your numbers whenever wages, supplies, travel costs, insurance, demand, or the scope of a service changes.

Track at least these numbers by service type:

• Quoted cleaner-hours versus actual cleaner-hours
• Customer revenue per cleaner-hour
• Provider pay as a percentage of job revenue
• Average job price
• Quote acceptance rate
• Re-clean and refund rate
• One-time customers who convert to recurring service

If customers accept nearly every quote and your calendar is full, you may have room to raise prices. If acceptance is weak, look at positioning, trust, and scope before assuming the number alone is the problem. If jobs regularly run longer than estimated, fix the inputs or production assumptions before offering deeper discounts.

House-cleaning pricing questions

Should a cleaning business charge hourly or use a flat rate?

I recommend presenting a flat rate to the customer and using cleaner-hours behind the scenes to build and audit it. Hourly customer pricing can work when the scope is unknown, but a defined flat price is easier to approve and schedule.

How much should I charge per hour for house cleaning?

There is no single correct rate. In my medium-to-higher-end model, I generally aim for $40 to $70 in customer revenue per cleaner-hour. Research your local market and adjust for wages, overhead, service quality, and the margin your business needs.

How much should I charge per square foot?

For standard residential cleaning, I prefer square-footage bands combined with bedrooms, bathrooms, and condition. For post-construction work, my starting model uses exact square footage at $0.30, $0.50, or $0.70 per square foot based on condition.

How do I price a deep clean?

Use a dedicated deep-clean base, then adjust for home size, rooms, condition, pets, and extras. Do not price it like a standard visit when the scope requires several more cleaner-hours.

What percentage of a cleaning job should go to cleaner pay?

Some businesses use 40% to 50% of the job price. Others pay hourly or set a fixed job amount. I prefer a fixed payout based on the estimated duration and the target cleaner pay rate, then I compare that cost with the customer price and remaining overhead.

Build your starting price

Choose your market position first. Estimate the cleaner-hours honestly. Adjust for the service, home, condition, extras, and frequency. Then compare the result with your labor cost and target margin.

Use the ScheduleDrop house-cleaning pricing calculator to build a starting estimate, and keep tuning your prices with the actual time and results from completed jobs.