Lawn Care Pricing Chart

Price by property size, with the mowing time behind every row. The chart below is built from a stated basis you can read and change — put your own equipment and charge-out rate in and it becomes your chart, ready to print.

Reviewed for 2026. The arithmetic is fixed, but the charge-out rate behind it moves with wages, fuel and insurance, so the basis is worth re-checking every season.

Pricing chart

Lawn size	Mow time	Total time	Price
2,000 sq ft	3 min	16 min	$40.00 (min)
4,000 sq ft	5 min	19 min	$40.00 (min)
6,000 sq ft	8 min	23 min	$40.00 (min)
8,000 sq ft	10 min	26 min	$40.00 (min)
10,000 sq ft	13 min	30 min	$40.00 (min)
12,500 sq ft	16 min	34 min	$40.00 (min)
15,000 sq ft	19 min	39 min	$40.15
20,000 sq ft	25 min	47 min	$49.36
30,000 sq ft	38 min	1 hr 5 min	$67.78
1 acre	55 min	1 hr 29 min	$92.77

Basis: 36in deck at 4 mph, 75% efficiency (1.09 acres/hour), plus 40% for trimming and 12 min drive per job, charged at $62.54/hr, minimum $40.00.

Every figure above is arithmetic, not a survey. Nobody publishes an authoritative price for mowing a quarter acre, so this chart does not pretend to. Size becomes time via deck width and ground speed, and time becomes money at the rate in the basis line — nothing else is in it. Change the fields below and every row changes with them.

These are your numbers, not market rates. This calculator works from the costs you enter. It does not tell you what your area pays — that varies by region, season and year, and any site quoting you a single national figure is guessing. Use this to find the price that covers your costs and target profit, then sanity-check it against what you can actually win locally.

How each row is built Show the arithmetic

acres/hour  = (mph x deck width) / 99 x efficiency
mow time    = (sq ft / 43,560) / acres per hour
total time  = mow time x (1 + trim share) + drive time
price       = total time x your charge-out rate
              (or the minimum charge, whichever is higher)

The charge-out rate already contains your wage, payroll burden, fuel, maintenance, overhead and margin — that is what the hourly rate calculator produces. So this page only has to convert size into time and time into money.

The mowing time calculator derives the acres-per-hour figure in full, including where the constant 99 comes from, and the mowing time chart lists it for every common deck width and lawn size.

Worked example, one row

8,000 sq ft, 36in deck, 4 mph, 75% efficiency,
40% trim share, 12 min drive, $62.54/hr

acres/hour = (4 x 36) / 99 x 0.75 = 1.0909 ac/hr
area       = 8,000 / 43,560       = 0.18365 acres
mow time   = 0.18365 / 1.0909     = 0.16835 hr  (10.1 min)
total time = 0.16835 x 1.40 + 0.20 = 0.43569 hr (26.1 min)
price      = 0.43569 x 62.54       = $27.25

Below a $40 minimum, so this lawn is charged $40.

That last line is the point of a minimum. A small lawn still costs you a stop, a ramp-down and a drive, and pricing it purely on time makes the smallest jobs the least profitable hours of your week.

Common questions

Is this a chart of average lawn care prices?

No, and deliberately not. No authoritative source publishes what mowing a quarter acre costs, and the figures that circulate are either marketplace self-reporting or copied from each other. Two operators in the same town with different equipment, route density and insurance have genuinely different break-even prices, and an average would be wrong for both.

What this chart does instead is show the arithmetic. Every row is mowing time derived from deck width and ground speed, then converted to money at a charge-out rate that is stated in full above the table. Change the basis and every row changes with it.

How do I use the chart once I have it?

Put your own numbers in the fields, then print it and keep it in the truck. When you look at a property, estimate the square footage, find the nearest row, and you have a defensible starting price in seconds.

It also makes you consistent, which matters more than it sounds — inconsistent pricing across similar properties is how customers end up comparing notes and how you end up discounting the wrong jobs.

How do I estimate square footage on site?

Pace the two main dimensions and multiply — a normal adult stride is close enough to three feet for this purpose. For irregular lots, break the area into rectangles and add them.

Satellite measuring tools are more precise, but they measure the whole parcel rather than the turf you actually cut, so they usually overstate. Pacing the mowable area beats measuring the property line.

Why is the smallest lawn the same price as a slightly larger one?

Because of the minimum charge. A small lawn still costs you a stop, a ramp-down and a drive, so below a certain size the time-based price stops covering what the job actually costs to attend.

That is the point of a minimum. Pricing the smallest jobs purely on mowing time makes them the least profitable hours of your week.

Should every lawn get the chart price?

It is a starting point, not a rule. Add for steep slopes, heavy obstacles, gates too narrow for the mower, dog waste, or long carries from the truck — all of them cut your effective acres per hour and none of them show up in square footage.

The chart prices an average property of that size. Your judgement prices this one.

Related tools

Sources

Exmark mower productivity charts - acres/hour = mph x deck width / 99; 80% efficiency treated as representative
NIST - US customary conversions - 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft, exact by definition
Lawn Care Hourly Rate Calculator - where the charge-out rate comes from