How much should I charge to clean a house? A rate formula for solo cleaners

By Maria Torres, The Back-Office Fixer · October 30, 2026 · 8 min read · Pricing and quoting

Short answer (checked October 30, 2026): most US house cleaners charge somewhere between $25 and $75 an hour per worker, and a typical visit runs $120 to $280, according to HomeGuide's house cleaning price guide. That range is too wide to price from. Your own rate should come from four numbers: the pay you want, the hours you can actually bill, your running costs, and the 15.3% self-employment tax. In the worked example below, a solo cleaner who wants $50,000 a year needs about $50 per billable hour, which turns into roughly $150 for a three-hour clean.

Below is the formula, a worked example, how to turn the hourly figure into flat quotes, and what changes in Canada, the UK and Australia.

Why "what everyone else charges" isn't enough

Copying a competitor's price is how many new cleaners end up busy and broke. A rate that works for a company with five staff and a booking team doesn't work for one person who also drives, buys supplies, answers messages and does the books. Two things the market averages hide:

1. You can't bill 40 hours a week. Driving between homes, quoting, restocking and admin all take time nobody pays for.
2. You pay both halves of payroll tax. The IRS sets self-employment tax at 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare), and it applies to 92.35% of your net earnings. That's about 14.1% of profit before income tax even starts.

Use the market range as a sanity check at the end, not the starting point.

The hourly rate formula

Here is the whole calculation in one line:

Hourly rate = (target pay ÷ 0.859 + yearly costs) ÷ (1 minus card fee share) ÷ billable hours per year

What each part means:

• Target pay: what you want to keep each year before income tax, as if it were a salary.
• ÷ 0.859: grosses it up for self-employment tax (1 minus 15.3% × 92.35% is about 0.859).
• Yearly costs: supplies, insurance, software, phone and vehicle.
• Card fee share: what your payment processor keeps. On Jobber's published card rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents, a $150 payment loses $4.65, or 3.1%.
• Billable hours per year: hours you are actually cleaning in clients' homes.

Worked example: a solo cleaner who wants $50,000

Example scenario with stated assumptions, not a real business. Swap in your own figures.

The IRS rate of 76 cents a mile applies to business miles driven from July 1 to December 31, 2026 (it was 72.5 cents for the first half of the year). It's a fair stand-in for what driving really costs you, because it's meant to cover fuel, wear, insurance and depreciation together.

Now the hours. The example cleaner works 40 hours a week for 48 weeks (four weeks off, unpaid), but only 28 of those hours are spent cleaning. The other 12 go on driving, quotes, messages, restocking and bookkeeping.

• Billable hours: 28 × 48 = 1,344 a year
• Revenue needed: ($58,227 + $7,296) ÷ (1 minus 0.031) = about $67,620
• Hourly rate: $67,620 ÷ 1,344 = about $50.31 an hour

Round it to $50 an hour. That sits inside HomeGuide's $25 to $75 range, so it's a price the market already pays.

How sensitive is the rate to billable hours?

The billable-hours guess moves the answer more than anything else. Same costs and target pay:

This is why tight routes and recurring clients in the same few neighborhoods matter so much. Every hour you stop driving is an hour you can bill, and it lowers the rate you need to charge to earn the same money.

Turning the hourly rate into flat quotes

Most clients would rather hear "$150 every two weeks" than "$50 an hour." Quote flat, but build the flat price from time:

1. Time the first clean. Walk through, estimate hours, and record what it actually took.
2. Multiply by your rate. At $50 an hour, a 3-hour clean is $150 and a 4-hour clean is $200.
3. Add a minimum. Short jobs still carry a full drive. A two-hour minimum ($100 here) protects you.
4. Price the first visit separately. HomeGuide notes that with recurring service the first clean takes longer and costs more. Quote it as a deep clean, then drop to the recurring price.
5. Recheck after three visits. If a home consistently takes 30 minutes less, keep the price; that's your reward for speed. If it takes longer, reprice before it becomes a habit.

How the example rate compares with market prices

HomeGuide's price tables for a standard clean, next to the example cleaner's price at an assumed time per home:

HomeGuide's page lists deep cleans for a 3 bed, 2 bath at $180 to $280 and move-outs at $180 to $300. If your quote lands well above the top of the local range, look at your hours first (are you slower than you think, or driving too far?) before cutting your rate.

Recurring discounts: what they really cost you

HomeGuide's hourly table shows one cleaner for 2.5 hours at $75 to $90 on a weekly plan against $80 to $100 for a one-time visit. A recurring discount is worth giving because it saves you selling time and fills your route. But price it as a deliberate trade, not a reflex:

• A 10% discount on a $150 biweekly clean costs you $15 a visit, or $390 over 26 visits a year.
• That only pays off if the client keeps you for months and sits on a route you already drive.

Offer the lower recurring price only for weekly or biweekly service, and say in writing that it reverts to the one-time price if visits are skipped or spaced out.

Checklist before you send any quote

• Does the price cover at least your hourly rate times realistic hours, plus the drive?
• Did you set a minimum charge per visit?
• Is the first clean priced as a deep clean?
• Did you list what's included (and what isn't, such as inside the oven or fridge) in writing?
• Do you have a late-cancellation fee and a lockout fee written into the quote?
• Is there a price review date, such as every January, so increases don't feel like a surprise?

Outside the US: Canada, the UK and Australia

The formula works the same anywhere: replace the IRS self-employment figure with your own country's tax and contributions, and use your local currency. Three local points change the price you quote:

• Plan your price for the day you register. Once you're registered, the tax goes on top of your price or comes out of it. A UK cleaner charging £30 an hour who registers for VAT either raises the price to £36 or keeps £25 after VAT, using the GOV.UK standard rate of 20%. Show prices to homeowners including tax, and tell clients early if registration is coming.
• UK: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. According to GOV.UK, sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 had to start from April 6, 2026, those over £30,000 from April 2027, and those over £20,000 from April 2028. Budget for compatible bookkeeping software in your running costs.
• Australia: BAS. Once registered for GST you lodge a business activity statement, according to the ATO, so allow admin time for it in your unbilled hours.
• Canada: provinces differ. The CRA says the rate you charge depends on the place of supply, so a cleaner in Ontario charges 13% HST while one in Manitoba charges 5% GST, with provincial sales tax handled separately. Your invoices must show whether GST/HST is included or added. Check your province's rate before you print a price list.

The HomeGuide market prices above are US figures. Check local listings in your own area before settling on a rate in CAD, GBP or AUD.

When this formula doesn't fit

• You're employing cleaners. Add wages, payroll taxes and workers' compensation per hour of their time, and price on crew-hours. That's a different calculation.
• Commercial contracts. Offices are usually priced per visit or per month on a scope of work, and bids are often lower per hour in exchange for steady volume.
• Very low-cost areas. If your result is far above every local competitor, the fix is usually more billable hours (tighter routes, fewer one-offs), not a lower rate.

Next step

Do the sum with your real numbers tonight, then time your next three cleans to check your hours. When you're ready to send quotes and recurring invoices from one place, our Jobber vs Housecall Pro comparison for solo cleaners shows what each costs, including card fees. More pricing guides are on our pricing and quoting page.

Sources

Checked on October 30, 2026.

• HomeGuide: House cleaning prices (hourly rates, average visit cost, prices by home size, per-square-foot ranges, weekly vs one-time rates; page credited April 29, 2024)
• IRS: Self-employment tax (15.3% rate) and Topic 554 (applies to 92.35% of net earnings)
• IRS: Standard mileage rates (76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026; 72.5 cents January to June 2026)
• Jobber: Pricing page (Core at $29 a month billed annually; card fee 2.9% plus 30 cents)
• Canada Revenue Agency: When to register for and start charging the GST/HST and Charge and collect the GST/HST (rate depends on place of supply; invoice rules)
• GOV.UK: Register for VAT, VAT rates and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax eligibility
• Australian Taxation Office: Registering for GST

Maria Torres is the pen name of The Back-Office Fixer's editorial team. Prices and features come from the vendors' own pages and the sources linked above, checked on the date shown. Software pricing changes often, so confirm on the vendor's site before you subscribe. Example scenarios are illustrations with stated assumptions, not real businesses. Some links may be affiliate links that pay us a commission at no extra cost to you.