Window cleaning pricing guide (2026)
What window cleaners charge in 2026, how the published ranges compare, and how to build a price from your own costs so every job pays you. Written for owners setting or checking their rates, with every range tied to a named source.
What window cleaning costs in 2026.
These are national ranges from four published guides. They don't agree to the dollar, and the gaps are useful: they show how much room there is between a budget price and a premium one.
Whole house, inside and out
Housecall Pro's price book (middle 50% of jobs, 12 months to September 2026) puts a typical interior-and-exterior job here, with a median of $228. Exterior only runs $96–$285, median $180.
Average job range
Thumbtack's March 2026 figures put the typical job here, at about $266. HomeAdvisor's 2025 guide is lower, with a normal range of $150–$302 and a $220 average.
Per pane, standard windows
Jobber and Housecall Pro both list $4–$8 per pane, or $8–$16 per standard window inside and out. HomeAdvisor's range is wider, at $4–$15 per pane.
Per hour, residential
Jobber lists $40–$75 an hour for residential work. HomeAdvisor says $45–$75. Thumbtack's national average is $50, with a $25–$100 spread.
Size moves the price more than anything else. Jobber's 2026 table runs from $160–$350 for a small home with 10–20 windows cleaned inside and out, to $500–$900 for a large home with 30–50 windows, and $1,000–$2,500 or more for luxury and multi-story homes. Jobber also prices inside-and-out at 1.5 to 2 times the exterior-only price.
Add-ons are where the sources disagree most. Screens are $2–$5 each in Jobber's and Housecall Pro's guides, and a flat $5 in HomeAdvisor's. Track work ranges from about $1 a window (HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack) to $3–$6 for full track detailing (Jobber). Hard-water stain removal is $10–$30 per window in Jobber and Housecall Pro, and $15 per pane in HomeAdvisor. The difference is mostly scope: a quick wipe versus a real detail. Say which one you're selling.
For minimums, Housecall Pro cites $75–$250 per visit from third-party data and says to set yours from your own break-even number, not the market. For recurring work, Jobber and Housecall Pro both describe 10–20% off the one-time rate as typical.
Start from your costs, not a competitor's flyer.
Published ranges tell you where the market sits. They can't tell you whether a price covers your truck, your insurance and your time. Build the number up from six parts.
Labor
Hours on site plus drive time, times a loaded hourly rate. Loaded means wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp and paid time off, not just the number on the paycheck. If you clean alone, still pay yourself an hourly rate here.
Materials
Soap, scrubber sleeves, squeegee rubber, towels, razor blades, water-fed pole resin. Small per job, but it adds up across a season. Track it per job or as a flat per-visit figure.
Vehicle
Fuel, maintenance, insurance and payments for the truck or van, spread per mile or per job. Drive time between jobs is a real cost; tight routes are a pricing advantage.
Overhead
Liability insurance, software, phone, website, marketing, ladders and pole systems, and the hours you spend quoting and invoicing. Divide a month of overhead by the hours you bill in a month to get an overhead rate per job hour.
Card fees
If customers pay by card, processing takes a percentage of every ticket. Price it in rather than absorbing it, so your margin is the same whether they pay by card or check.
Target margin
Profit after every cost above. Use margin, not markup: price = total cost ÷ (1 − margin). That's the formula Housecall Pro's guide uses. A 20% margin on $180 of cost is $225, not $216.
Pricing one house from scratch.
Every number below is an example, chosen to show the math. Swap in your own.
The job (example)
Two-story house, 20 windows inside and out, screens included. Estimated 3 hours on site plus 30 minutes of drive time: 3.5 labor hours.
Labor (example)
3.5 hours × $28 loaded rate = $98.
Materials (example)
Soap, towels, blades and wear on tools: $8.
Vehicle (example)
20 round-trip miles × $0.70 per mile = $14.
Overhead (example)
$20 overhead per job hour × 3.5 hours = $70.
Total cost (example)
$98 + $8 + $14 + $70 = $190.
Add margin (example)
20% target margin: $190 ÷ 0.80 = $237.50.
Add card fees (example)
3% processing: $237.50 ÷ 0.97 = $244.85. Quote $245.
Check it against the market. $245 sits inside Housecall Pro's $115–$395 interior-and-exterior range, slightly above its $228 median, and below Jobber's $300–$550 for a medium 20–30 window home. If your cost-built price lands well under the published ranges, you have room to raise it. If it lands well over, look at drive time and overhead before you cut margin.
Convert the result to the unit you quote in. $245 for 20 windows is about $12.25 per window inside and out, inside Jobber's and Housecall Pro's $8–$16 per window. Keep the per-window or per-pane rate on your price sheet so the next quote takes two minutes.
Where window cleaning prices leak.
Confusing markup with margin
Adding 30% to cost gives a 23% margin, not 30%. Jobber's guide uses the markup method (cost + 30% of cost); Housecall Pro's uses the margin method. Know which one you're doing.
Pricing every window the same
A per-window rate underprices French panes, divided lights and storm windows. Housecall Pro recommends per-pane pricing for those homes; Jobber counts any pane over 3–5 feet as two.
No minimum
A three-window job still has drive time, setup and invoicing. Without a minimum, small jobs lose money even at a good per-pane rate.
Discounting recurring work below cost
A 10–20% recurring discount only works if your base price can absorb it. Housecall Pro's advice: raise the base first if it can't.
Winning every bid
Housecall Pro cites a 50–60% close rate as healthy and says above 80% may mean you're underpriced. Jobber says the same thing more bluntly: if you win every bid, your prices may be too low.
Leaving condition out of the quote
Heavy buildup, hard water and paint overspray take longer. Jobber lists a $2–$4 per pane condition surcharge. Put it on the quote before you start, not on the invoice after.
The price only matters if the quote goes out.
Speed matters, because a homeowner asking you for a quote may be asking other companies too. Keep a price sheet with your per-pane rate, add-ons and minimum so you can quote from a photo or a street view without a site visit for most houses. Ask for window count, stories, and whether they want inside, outside or both. Those three answers set most of the price.
Offer a recurring option on every quote: a one-time price and a quarterly or twice-a-year price side by side. It turns a single clean into a route and makes the per-visit discount the reason to say yes.
Then follow up. A quote with no reply isn't a no; it's often a homeowner who got busy. Send a short text the next day, another a few days later, and a last one about a week out. If you don't have time to do that by hand, it's the kind of thing a quote follow-up system handles for you.
Window cleaning pricing questions.
Should I charge per pane, per window or by the hour?
Per pane or per window for most residential work, because customers can compare it and you can quote it fast. Housecall Pro suggests hourly for unknown scope: heavy buildup, post-construction or unclear commercial access. You can also mix them: per-window for standard homes, per-pane for divided-light windows.
How much more should inside-and-out cost than exterior only?
Jobber puts inside-and-out at 1.5 to 2 times the exterior-only price. Housecall Pro's median data fits that: $228 for interior and exterior against $180 for exterior only.
What should my minimum charge be?
Set it from your own break-even for a short stop: drive time, setup, a small amount of cleaning, and invoicing. Housecall Pro cites $75–$250 as a market range, but your minimum should come from your own costs.
How much should I discount recurring service?
Jobber and Housecall Pro both describe 10–20% off the one-time price as typical. Price the first visit at full rate, since it's usually the dirtiest, and the recurring visits at the discounted rate.
Do I charge extra for second and third stories?
Yes, through time if you price hourly, or a per-window or percentage surcharge if you don't. Housecall Pro's commercial pricing adds 15–30% for skylight, high-rise or post-storm work; HomeAdvisor notes costs rise for homes over three or four stories without giving a fixed figure.
Get the quotes, then keep the customers.
Pricing is half of it. The other half is getting quote requests in and turning one-time cleans into a route.
Where these numbers come from.
Prices checked October 2026. Ranges are national figures from the sources above; your local market, access and job mix will move them. Example numbers in the worked example are illustrations, not benchmarks.
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