Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For house cleaners

House cleaner hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance house cleaner should charge, starting from the income you need — then converts it into the per-visit prices clients actually pay. Visits are the unit, priced per home — the hourly rate exists to check that those prices, across a week split between cleaning, driving and rebooking, add up to a living. With the honest presets below it lands near $49 an hour, $392 for a full day: a standard two-and-a-half-hour regular clean prices near $122.50, and a five-hour deep clean near $245.

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The pricing reality for freelance house cleaners

A cleaner's week splits between the homes themselves and the road between them, and only the homes bill. The drive across town, the supplies run, the message thread about keys and alarm codes — none of it appears in the price of a clean, which is exactly how cleaning gets underpriced: a two-and-a-half-hour clean arrives with unpaid driving either side of it, and the driving is silently free.

The work is physical in a way desk trades are not. Thirty-six hours a week is a full week when every hour is on your feet, up stairs and under sinks; pricing that assumes a forty-hour desk week quietly plans an injury. The preset week below is 36 hours, and the rate has to work at 36 — not at a heroic fifty that nobody sustains past the first season.

The preset below starts billable time at 72%: the homes bill, but travel between them, first-visit quotes and the admin of a recurring book bill only partly, when they bill at all. The numbers are starting presets, not a survey: a $40,000 target income, $5,300 a year of expenses — supplies and consumables lead, alongside equipment, the vehicle, bonding insurance and marketing — and 72% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $49 an hour.

Your numbers — house cleaner presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs house cleaners forget to put in the rate

  • Travel time between homes. The leak in every cleaning week. Two cleans on opposite sides of town can hold an unpaid hour of driving between them; a clustered route, where one neighbourhood fills one day, is worth more than a small rate rise.
  • Supplies and consumables. The products in the caddy are yours: sprays, cloths, descalers, vacuum bags. Each clean uses pennies of them — and a year of cleans uses a shelf of money that belongs in the expenses line, not absorbed.
  • Laundry and kit wear. Cloths and mop heads go through the wash after every day, and a vacuum worked daily wears like a daily-worked machine: filters, belts, repairs and eventual replacement are costs of the trade, priced in advance or paid in surprise.
  • Bonding and insurance. Being bonded is precisely why clients hand over their keys and leave you alone in their homes. The premium is the cost of being trusted — a selling point that pays for itself only if the rate carries it.
  • The rebooking admin. Schedule shuffles, holiday cover, the client who texts at 9pm about tomorrow — the recurring book runs on unpaid minutes. Small per client, real per week, and invisible in a per-visit price unless you put it there.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the house cleaner presets — three weeks off, 36 hours a week, 72% billable — that is 1,270 billable hours a year: the hours inside clients' homes, once the driving between them has taken its share.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $45,300 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 20% estimate, divide by 0.80 to get $56,625 — then add your profit margin to reach $62,288 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $49, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now convert it into the units clients buy. A standard regular clean — about two and a half hours in the home — prices at $122.50. A deep clean or a move-out clean, around five hours, is $245. And the recurring shape matters more than either single visit: a fortnightly regular at $122.50 is $3,185 a year from one household, booked in advance and needing no fresh selling. Quote the per-visit price as the per-visit price — but build it from these hours, travel counted, so the price respects the whole job and not just the time with a cloth in your hand.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

House cleaner rate questions

Per visit, priced from the hour. Clients compare cleaners on the price of a clean, not on a timer — but every visit has a time, travel included, and the price should follow it: on these presets, a two-and-a-half-hour regular clean is $122.50 and a five-hour deep clean is $245. A simple price list by home size is fine, as long as every price on it was built from the time the clean really takes, in that home, with your products and your driving counted.
Because the homes are only part of the week. Travel between clients, first-visit quotes, supply runs and the messages that keep a recurring book running take the rest, and none of it is billed. Seventy-two percent is a realistic start for a cleaner with a reasonably clustered route; if your clients are scattered across town, test a lower share against a real week's diary — and treat route clustering, not a rate rise, as the first fix.
They can — if the discount is bought with something real. A recurring booking gives you a known house, a kept slot and no fresh quoting, key-collecting or selling, so a slightly lower per-visit price for a committed regular can be honest arithmetic rather than a giveaway. What does not work is discounting below the rate the year needs: a full book of underpriced regulars is just a reliable way to be busy and short at the same time.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.