How much should I charge to mow a lawn?

Enough to cover the crew time the lawn takes, including the drive to it, at a rate that covers your wages, equipment, insurance and profit over the hours you can actually bill in a season. That depends on your crew, your mowers and your route, so the calculator above works it out from your numbers instead of quoting someone else's price.

How do you price lawn care by square foot or by acre?

Time your crew on a lawn of known size to get the minutes per 10,000 square feet, add the fixed time every stop takes (trimming, edging, blowing, unloading) and the drive between stops, and price that time at your crew rate. The pricing chart above does this for common lot sizes, from 5,000 square feet to an acre.

How do I work out my lawn care hourly rate?

Add up a year of costs: crew wages with payroll taxes, plus everything you pay all year whether or not the grass grows: truck and trailer payments, mower and equipment payments, insurance, phone, software, marketing and your own pay. Divide by the crew-hours you can bill in your season, then divide by (1 minus your profit share).

Why is my season length in the calculation?

Your overhead runs twelve months but you can only bill while the grass is growing. A short season spreads the same truck, trailer and insurance bills over fewer billable hours, so each hour has to carry more of them.

Should every-two-weeks mowing cost more per visit?

Grass that has grown for two weeks takes longer to cut and bag, so many companies charge more per visit for it. Put the extra time your crew really needs into the calculator and it prices both schedules from the same rate.

Should I charge a monthly price for lawn care?

Some customers prefer a flat monthly bill. Multiply your per-visit price by the visits in the season and divide by the months you bill: by the mowing months, or by twelve if you spread it across the whole year. The calculator shows both.

Do I need a minimum charge?

Every stop costs you a drive, an unload and a load whatever the size of the lawn, so a very small lawn can price below what the stop really costs. A minimum charge per visit covers that.

How often should I update my lawn care prices?

Before each season, and whenever your costs move: fuel, a new mower or trailer payment, insurance, a raise for your crew. Re-run your rate and your chart from it.

Lawn care pricing

Lawn care pricing calculator: what to charge for mowing, by lawn size

Price a lawn by the crew time it takes, not by a number another company charges. Work out what a billable crew-hour costs you across your season, wages, equipment and insurance included, and add your profit: that is your crew rate. Then time your crew: minutes to mow 10,000 square feet, plus the fixed time every stop takes and the drive to it. The calculator below turns that into a price per visit, per month and a pricing chart for every lot size up to an acre. The numbers in it are examples; replace them with yours.

1. The crew rate you need

Your overhead runs all year; you bill only while the grass grows. Count the hours on properties and driving between them as billable, not loading, shop time or rain days.

Crews People per crew Pay per person per hourwith payroll taxes $ Paid hours per crew per week Weeks in your mowing season Share of paid hours you billon properties and driving between them % Overhead per month, all yeartruck, trailer, mowers, insurance, phone, your pay $ Profit you wantas a share of sales %

$101.96per crew-hour you need

$86.67break-even per crew-hour

2,160billable crew-hours a season

$220,235sales a year at that rate

$187,200 a year in wages and overhead over 2,160 billable crew-hours in a 32-week season.

2. Price a lawn

Time your own crew on a lawn of known size; mowing speed depends on your mowers, the terrain and the obstacles.

Your crew ratefilled in from step 1, rounded up $ Lawn size sq ft Crew minutes to mow 10,000 sq ftweekly cut min Fixed minutes per stoptrim, edge, blow, unload min Drive minutes to the stop min Extra mowing time, every-two-weeks cut % Minimum charge per visit $

$70per weekly visit

$80per every-two-weeks visit

$303.33a month in season, weekly

$186.67a month spread over 12 months, weekly

Weekly: $2,240 for a 32-week season. Every two weeks: $1,280. Prices rounded up to the nearest $5.

Round prices up to the nearest $5

3. Your mowing price chart

Built from your crew rate and your mowing times above, for common lot sizes.

Lawn size	Weekly, per visit	Every two weeks, per visit	Weekly, per month
5,000 sq ft	$55	$60	$238
10,000 sq ft	$70	$80	$303
¼ acre	$75	$85	$325
15,000 sq ft	$85	$100	$368
½ acre	$110	$130	$477
1 acre	$185	$220	$802

One acre is 43,560 sq ft. Large or open lawns often mow faster per square foot than small ones with beds and trees; adjust the mowing time for the kind of property.

How to price lawn mowing, step by step

Count your billable crew-hours for the season. Time on properties and driving between them, across the weeks the grass grows. Leave out loading, the shop and rain days.
Add up a year of costs. Crew wages for the season, plus everything you pay all year: truck and trailer, mowers and trimmers, insurance, phone, software, marketing and your own pay.
Divide, then add profit. Costs ÷ billable crew-hours is break-even. Divide again by (1 − your profit share) for your crew rate.
Time your crew. Minutes to mow 10,000 square feet, plus the fixed time every stop takes.
Price the stop, drive included. (Mowing + fixed + drive minutes) ÷ 60 × your crew rate, with a minimum charge for small lawns.
Re-run it before every season. Fuel, equipment payments, insurance and wages all move.

Route density is part of the price

A crew can only be on one lawn at a time, and the minutes between lawns are paid for like the minutes on them. Every stop you add close to the ones you already have lowers the drive time you need to charge for; a stop on the far side of town carries a long drive. Put the real drive time into each quote and the price reflects it.

Your prices come from your costs. Your customers hear from the lawn care companies around you.

MyIntelBrief watches the lawn care and landscaping companies near you — the services and specials they post, their new reviews, the crews they’re hiring, new companies starting up — and emails you a short brief on what changed. Type your company name and pick it from the dropdown for a free look at who you’re competing with. Here’s a sample brief for a lawn care company.

Step 1 of 2to get 4 weeks free: your business name

Your company’s name

Step 2 of 2 where should we send your 4 free briefs? Just email today’s demo, no weekly briefs

Just looking? Leave the email off to see your demo, no commitment. Add it for the 4 free weeks.

Free, no card. We’ll email you this brief, then a fresh one each week for 4 weeks, before you commit to anything. Unsubscribe anytime.

Works with the AI assistant you already use.

How?

Paste or forward a brief to any AI assistant you use and ask, for example, “what are my top 3 moves this week?” No setup. Briefs about your own business also attach a small data file made for it. Details for developers

Frequently asked questions

How much should I charge to mow a lawn?: Enough to cover the crew time the lawn takes, including the drive to it, at a rate that covers your wages, equipment, insurance and profit over the hours you can actually bill in a season. That depends on your crew, your mowers and your route, so the calculator above works it out from your numbers instead of quoting someone else's price.
How do you price lawn care by square foot or by acre?: Time your crew on a lawn of known size to get the minutes per 10,000 square feet, add the fixed time every stop takes (trimming, edging, blowing, unloading) and the drive between stops, and price that time at your crew rate. The pricing chart above does this for common lot sizes, from 5,000 square feet to an acre.
How do I work out my lawn care hourly rate?: Add up a year of costs: crew wages with payroll taxes, plus everything you pay all year whether or not the grass grows: truck and trailer payments, mower and equipment payments, insurance, phone, software, marketing and your own pay. Divide by the crew-hours you can bill in your season, then divide by (1 minus your profit share).
Why is my season length in the calculation?: Your overhead runs twelve months but you can only bill while the grass is growing. A short season spreads the same truck, trailer and insurance bills over fewer billable hours, so each hour has to carry more of them.
Should every-two-weeks mowing cost more per visit?: Grass that has grown for two weeks takes longer to cut and bag, so many companies charge more per visit for it. Put the extra time your crew really needs into the calculator and it prices both schedules from the same rate.
Should I charge a monthly price for lawn care?: Some customers prefer a flat monthly bill. Multiply your per-visit price by the visits in the season and divide by the months you bill: by the mowing months, or by twelve if you spread it across the whole year. The calculator shows both.
Do I need a minimum charge?: Every stop costs you a drive, an unload and a load whatever the size of the lawn, so a very small lawn can price below what the stop really costs. A minimum charge per visit covers that.
How often should I update my lawn care prices?: Before each season, and whenever your costs move: fuel, a new mower or trailer payment, insurance, a raise for your crew. Re-run your rate and your chart from it.

More pricing calculators for service businesses: plumbing, HVAC, auto repair and cleaning, pest control, roofing, electrical and landscaping. See how MyIntelBrief works for home services.