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Lawn Mowing Pricing Calculator

Get a starting price for a mowing job in seconds. No spreadsheets required.

Quick price estimate

About how long will this job take?

Include mowing, trimming, edging, and cleanup. Allow for slopes and obstacles. Estimate how long the whole crew will be on-site, not the sum of everyone’s hours.

Will you be working on-site?
How many people will be working in total?

Include yourself if you’re on-site. Everyone else is a paid employee.

Is the property near your regular route?
How we estimated this

Illustrative assumptions—not industry averages, local market rates, or guaranteed profit. Adjust them here, or use Advanced to build a target from your own budget.

Example: $72,000/year spread over 1,200 service hours gives $60/hour allocated to one active crew, whether you mow or manage. Excludes employee payroll. This example has no separate retained-profit goal; use Advanced for your own pay, costs, and money to keep. Split company needs across crews in Advanced.

A floor for dispatch, setup, and small visits. The upper end includes the range buffer on this floor too.

Total extra time beyond normal route travel, including any extra return driving. Near-route visits add zero.

Adds uncertainty above the cost-based starting amount, including the minimum. This is an example buffer, not market data or a confidence interval.

Routine driving is already covered. Extra driving charges only the additional time; don’t also add it to normal paid hours or subtract it from productive hours. Include trimming, slopes, obstacles and cleanup in your service duration; no property multiplier is applied.

Both endpoints round upward to $5. The upper end adds the chosen buffer to the starting amount, including any minimum. It is not a statistically measured range. Overtime, off-season payroll, special disposal fees, and sales tax aren’t calculated here; check your costs in Advanced.

Want a more precise estimate? Use your own numbers.Advanced

Build a price from your costs or enter an hourly target. Advanced has its own inputs and reset; quick-estimate selections aren’t copied here.

Your time. Your costs. Your price.

Choose your experience level

All prefilled values are illustrative, not industry averages. USD. Reset restores these Advanced defaults.

See your price below
1 What does your year need to earn?

Enter monthly amounts averaged over all 12 months, including months you don’t mow. We multiply them by 12 for your yearly goal.

Who does the mowing?

Your pay before personal taxes. For example, $4,000/month means $48,000 for the full year, even with a shorter mowing season. This pays you for doing the work. Business costs exclude your pay; don’t enter employee payroll in solo mode.

Add a full year’s fuel, insurance, maintenance, vehicle costs, software, equipment replacement savings, and other business costs, then divide by 12. Include costs during months off. Exclude your pay.

Lawn-work hours on a normal route day. Exclude normal driving, admin, breaks, and downtime. Price an unusual detour in Step 2 instead of subtracting it here too.

Add money to keep in the business (optional)

Money left after your pay and business costs, averaged over all 12 months. We multiply it by 12 too. Don’t include equipment replacement savings a second time if they are already in your costs.

Your hourly price already covers normal driving and business costs. Count only the hours left for lawn work after driving and admin.

Optional: keep 52 for year-round work. For a shorter season or time off, enter the weeks you expect to mow. Your pay and costs above still cover all 12 months.

2 Price a mowing job

Include setup, mowing, trimming, and cleanup. For a crew, enter elapsed time for everyone working together: two employees taking 45 minutes means 45, not 90.

Only extra driving beyond your usual stop allowance, including extra return travel. Enter 0 for a normal stop. Don’t also subtract these extra minutes from your daily lawn-work hours or add them to your normal paid-hours allowance. A recurring detour belongs in your normal daily schedule instead.

Only costs absent from your yearly business budget, such as an extra disposal fee or unusual toll. Don’t repeat fuel or maintenance already in your business costs, or employee payroll already in your hourly target. Extra travel minutes pay for time; a new toll is a separate cost.

The lowest you want to charge for a visit; 0 turns it off. The final quote rounds up to $5, so a $42 minimum gives at least $45.

A starting point you can explain

Price the work.
Then check your costs.

A quick range helps you start a conversation. Before you promise a price, walk the property and check that the job covers your own costs.

How the quick estimate works

We multiply elapsed service time by an illustrative revenue allowance, add only extra driving time, and apply an example minimum. The upper end adds a 25% planning buffer before rounding to $5. These are editable examples, not verified industry averages, local rates, or a guarantee of profit.

Time matters more than size alone

The same-size lawns can take different amounts of work. Gates, slopes, edging, trimming, and obstacles all matter. Include them in your time estimate, along with cleanup. There is no hidden property multiplier. For 90 minutes or longer, enter the full elapsed time.

Who works changes payroll costs

Quick counts 1–4 people. Include yourself only if you work on-site; everyone else receives employee payroll. Each employee adds an illustrative $40 per service hour, including normal paid downtime. The separate $60 business/owner allowance stays even when you manage from elsewhere. It is allocated to one active crew, not an on-site wage. A 30-minute visit means 30 elapsed minutes for everyone together.

Nearby stops leave more time for lawns

Normal route driving is already covered by the example service-hour allowances. An off-route visit adds 15 extra minutes by default, including extra return travel; change that assumption if needed. Don’t charge the same normal driving twice. Dense routes can leave more time available for service.

Check your expenses before quoting

Fuel, maintenance, insurance, vehicle costs, equipment replacement, employee pay, and your own pay all need covering. A minimum can make a short stop worthwhile. The quick estimate doesn’t know these costs or your customers’ willingness to pay. Compare the scope, your budget, and local competition before committing.

When to use Advanced

Use your own numbers for a seasonal budget, different employee wages, actual business allocations, extra job expenses, or a known hourly target. Advanced separates owner pay, payroll, overhead, and retained profit. Monthly goals cover all 12 months; fewer working weeks reduce the hours available to earn them.

Illustrative quick example

A 30-minute solo visit:
$40–$50.

Near your route, with the default example assumptions. This is not a local market quote.

  1. An example $4,000/month owner-pay goal plus $2,000/month running costs needs $72,000/year. Over 5 days × 6 service hours × 40 weeks = 1,200 hours, that is $60 per service hour.
  2. 30 minutes × $60/hour = $30. Apply the illustrative $40 minimum. The upper end adds 25%: $40 × 1.25 = $50. Both ends already fall on $5 increments.
  3. With one helper at $25/hour plus 20% employer costs, 8 paid hours over 6 crew service hours adds $40 per service hour. Combined allowance: $100/hour. A 30-minute crew visit starts at $50; the buffered $62.50 rounds upward to $65.
See an Advanced seasonal crew example

Two employees at $25/hour plus 20% employer costs, each paid 8 hours/day, working 5 days/week for 30 weeks: $72,000 annual payroll. Owner pay $2,000 + non-labor overhead $1,000 + retained money $500 per calendar month adds $42,000/year. Total $114,000 ÷ (6 productive crew hours × 5 days × 30 weeks = 900 hours) = $126.666666… per crew hour. A 30-minute visit with no extra travel, expenses, or binding minimum is $63.333333… before upward $5 rounding: $65. This is an employee crew example; the owner’s compensation is separately allocated, not counted in employee wages.

A few useful answers

Lawn mowing pricing FAQs

How much should I charge to mow a lawn?

Start with how long the complete visit will take and whether it needs extra driving. The quick range uses illustrative economics to give you a starting point. It doesn’t measure the property or use local market prices. Check the actual scope, your costs, and customer demand before finalizing a quote.

Why can a 15-minute and 30-minute job have the same range?

The example minimum covers the economics of making a stop, not just mowing minutes. When both visits fall below that floor, their ranges can match. Longer work continues to scale with elapsed time. You can edit the minimum and planning buffer under “How we estimated this.”

Does a tricky lawn automatically cost more?

Only if it needs more time or other costs. Include trimming, slopes, and obstacles in your duration estimate. We don’t add a difficulty surcharge on top of time already allowed for that work. If you haven’t seen the property, revisit the time before quoting.

What if my employees mow without me?

Choose “No” for working on-site and count all employees in the total (1–4). Two employees add $80/hour payroll to the illustrative $60 business/owner allowance: $140/hour, or $70–$90 for a nearby 30-minute visit. The $60 covers owner compensation and non-labor business needs for one crew even when you manage elsewhere. It excludes employee wages and promises no retained profit. Use Advanced for actual pay, costs and retained goals. With multiple crews, allocate company needs across them; Quick does not split company totals.

What if I only mow part of the year or know my hourly rate?

Use Advanced to enter your working weeks and full-year pay and cost goals, averaged over all 12 calendar months. Employee payroll follows the entered paid schedule. Experienced mode uses your entered service-hour rate as-is; that rate must already recover your needs within the season. Paid leave, overtime, and off-season employee pay need your own allowance.

Do I need an account, and are my numbers saved?

No account or email is needed. Calculations stay in your browser; numbers are not saved, sent to analytics, or transferred to Yardline. Quick and Advanced keep separate inputs, and each reset restores its own example defaults. Reloading starts over. See our privacy policy for limited anonymous engagement analytics.