Free calculator
Lawn Care Price Calculator
Price a weekly mow, a spring cleanup or a mulch job from your own numbers: break-even rate, target rate and a quote with crew time, drive time and self-employment tax counted. Free, no sign-up.
- Your time on site$0
- Drive time (0 each)$0
- Vehicle$0
- Supplies$0
- Price floor, zero profit$0
How it works
Most lawn care owners price a cut or a cleanup by what the next company charges, or by pay divided by hours. That leaves out the hours nobody pays for (driving, quoting, rain days), the equipment and costs that run every month, and self-employment tax.
This calculator grosses your take-home up for self-employment tax (15.3% on 92.35% of profit) and your income tax estimate, adds a year of business costs, and spreads the total over the hours customers actually pay for. That is your break-even rate. Your margin on top gives the target rate.
A job's price floor is every crew member's time on site and drive time at the break-even rate, plus vehicle cost per mile and supplies such as fuel, blades and bags. The quote adds your margin and rounds up to the next $5.
A worked example
A $52,000 take-home goal with a 12% income tax estimate needs $70,394 of profit before tax. Add $6,540 a year of business costs and you need $76,934 of revenue. At 48 weeks of 45 hours with 65% paid, that is 1,404 paid hours: a break-even rate of $54.80 and a target of $64.47 with a 15% margin. Pay divided by all hours would say $24.07. A 2-person spring cleanup (4 hours on site each, a 10-mile round trip, $20 of supplies) has a $502.50 price floor and quotes at $595, with $92.50 of profit inside it. A weekly mow of a small yard (45 minutes on site, a 10-mile round trip, $3 of fuel and blades) has a $69.96 floor and quotes at $85.
Price every job at once
The full Service Pricing Calculator workbook uses this same maths for Excel and Google Sheets: a quote builder, a printable price sheet for every job type, a job tracker that flags jobs below your floor, and 20 example jobs across 7 trades, lawn care among them. $2.99, instant download.
Questions
How much should I charge to mow a lawn?
It depends on your pay goal, your costs, your drive and how long the yard takes you. With the example numbers a small yard that takes 45 minutes needs $85 to pay its share. Enter your own numbers to see yours.
How do I price a spring cleanup with a crew?
Pick the spring cleanup example or type your own hours and set people on the job to your crew size. Every person's time on site and drive time is counted, so a 2-person job costs twice the labor of a solo one.
Should I charge per cut or per month?
This calculator prices one visit. For a monthly or seasonal plan, multiply the per-visit quote by the number of visits in that period.
Is this tax advice?
No. It is a planning estimate. Ask your tax preparer for your real income tax rate.