Put in the home's size and the type of clean, and get a price to quote plus what it pays you per hour once supplies and driving are paid for.
HomeGuide's cost guide, checked November 2026, puts house cleaning at $25 to $75 an hour per cleaner and $120 to $280 for a typical visit, with a national average of $200. By home size its table runs from $135 to $180 for a standard clean of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, $180 to $280 for a deep clean and $180 to $300 for a move-out clean.
HomeGuide's pricing guide for cleaners, written in December 2025, lists four ways to charge: $25 to $75 or more an hour, $120 to $600 or more as a flat rate, $25 to $150 or more per room, and $0.10 to $0.30 or more per square foot. It says a deep clean often costs up to double a standard clean, and move-in or move-out cleaning is usually priced like a deep clean.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the May 2025 median wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners at $17.07 an hour. That is what an employer pays a cleaner on payroll. Working for yourself, your price also has to pay for supplies, travel, insurance, the hours spent quoting and self-employment tax, which is why independent rates sit well above it.
Customers want a total before you start, so quote a flat price and work it out from square footage or your hours. HomeGuide's pricing guide calls hourly pricing the simplest way to start while you learn how long jobs take, and suggests giving the customer the expected time and total, with your hourly rate for anything past it.
Square footage scales with the job and suits deep and move-out cleans. Its weakness is condition: a lived-in house with pets takes longer than an empty one of the same size, and HomeGuide's guide recommends premiums for pet hair and heavy dirt. Walk through, or ask for photos, before you confirm the price of a first clean.
HomeGuide's cost guide puts independent cleaners at $20 to $50 an hour per worker, against $75 to $100 an hour for a two-person crew from a cleaning company with a two-hour minimum. A solo cleaner charging $45 an hour is still cheaper for the customer than a company crew.
They are what your customer compares you with. HomeGuide's cost guide lists Merry Maids at $100 an hour for two cleaners with a two-hour minimum, Molly Maid at $60 to $100 an hour for a crew of two or three, and The Cleaning Authority at $75 to $90 an hour for two workers. Molly Maid's standard recurring clean runs $120 to $300 and its deep clean $300 to $500.
A solo cleaner does not carry a franchise fee, an office or a sales team, so you can come in under those prices and still pay yourself well. HomeGuide's pricing guide suggests building in a 25% to 40% margin over your costs, and reviewing your rates at least once a year or whenever fuel and supply costs jump.
The first-clean price is square feet times your rate, plus extras, and never less than your minimum. For a recurring client, the price per clean takes off your recurring discount. The default 9% comes from HomeGuide's hourly table, where weekly visits cost about 9% less than one-time visits of the same length: $115 to $135 against $127 to $149 for four hours.
Pay per hour takes supplies and fuel off the price and divides by the hours the clean takes you. Monthly figures multiply by visits a month: 4.33 for weekly, 2.17 for every two weeks, 1 for monthly. The supplies default of $5 is the low end of the $5 to $10 HomeGuide says customers save when they provide their own.
Bill the first clean at the full price even for a recurring client. HomeGuide notes the first visit of a weekly service takes longer and costs more, because you are catching up on everything that was not done before you arrived.
HomeGuide's add-on prices: $10 a bed to change sheets, $5 to $20 a load of laundry, $4 to $7 a window for interior windows, $12 to $50 for the fridge, $15 to $35 for the oven, $25 to $45 or more for inside the cabinets and $35 or more for baseboards.
Its pricing guide also lists fees worth writing into your terms: a pet fee for homes with shedding animals, a travel fee outside your area, a late cancellation fee and a holiday rate. Late November and December bring one-off cleans before guests arrive, which is when a holiday rate gets paid without argument.
Skip it if you are taking your first three clients. Charge by the hour until you have timed three or four homes, then convert your real minutes per square foot into a flat rate. A per-square-foot quote set before you know your speed is a guess, and the customer will hold you to it.
Skip the recurring discount for clients who book monthly. HomeGuide's hourly table shows the discount on weekly visits, where the home stays clean between visits and each clean is quicker. A monthly home is closer to a fresh job each time.
Price insurance in from the start. Insureon's small-business customers pay a median of $45 a month for general liability, which covers damage you cause in a client's home. Our house cleaning business guide covers bonding, finding the first clients and when to hire.
HomeGuide's 2026 range is $25 to $75 an hour per cleaner, and $20 to $50 an hour per worker for independent cleaners. Customers prefer a flat total, so use your hourly rate to work out the price, then quote the total and say what you charge for time past the estimate.
HomeGuide prices regular cleaning at $0.10 to $0.17 a square foot, deep cleaning at $0.11 to $0.30 and move-out cleaning at $0.22 to $0.33. Its pricing guide for cleaners uses $0.10 to $0.20 for regular cleaning and $0.15 to $0.30 or more for deep cleaning. Set a minimum so small homes still pay for the trip.
HomeGuide's pricing guide says a deep clean is often up to double a standard clean. Its flat-rate table puts a deep clean at $150 to $450 for a three-bedroom home and $200 to $600 for four bedrooms, against $125 to $250 and $150 to $350 for a standard clean of the same homes.
HomeGuide puts move-in and move-out cleaning at $150 to $500 depending on size, or $0.22 to $0.33 a square foot. Its table runs from $150 to $250 for 1,000 square feet to $300 to $500 for 2,000. The home is usually empty, so inside cabinets, the oven and the fridge are part of the job.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the May 2025 median wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners at $17.07 an hour. Self-employed cleaners charge customers more than that because the price also covers supplies, travel, insurance and tax; HomeGuide lists independent cleaners at $20 to $50 an hour per worker.