How much do cleaning services charge per hour? Rates by city, and when hourly works

What do cleaning companies charge per hour in 2026?

Cleaning companies typically charge $30 to $60 per cleaner per hour for residential work. Independent cleaners booked through apps sit near the bottom of that range, small local companies in the middle, and national franchise brands at the top; when a brand sends a team, its hourly figure may cover the whole team rather than one cleaner, so ask which it is.

Here is what the public price data says, from the platforms’ and publishers’ own pages:

Two things make hourly numbers hard to compare. First, “per hour” can mean per cleaner or per team: a $90 team rate for two cleaners is $45 per cleaner-hour. Second, most companies quote flat prices and only fall back to hourly for unusual jobs, so published hourly rates often describe the hardest work (deep cleans, move-outs) rather than a routine visit. Thumbtack’s main house cleaning price guide now lists prices per visit instead, with a standard clean at $146 to $202 nationally.

For your own business, the question is not what others charge per hour but what you need per cleaner-hour to pay a good cleaner, cover overhead and keep a profit. That is the next section.

How does the hourly rate change by city?

It follows local wages. A cleaner paid the local median needs a price of about $27 per hour in Houston or San Antonio and $44 in Las Vegas before the business makes the same 15% profit, because the wage is the biggest cost in every hour. The table below works that floor out for 25 metro areas.

The method, with hypothetical overhead and profit figures you should replace with your own: take the median hourly wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners in the metro area (May 2025, from the BLS public data API, OEWS occupation 37-2012), multiply by 1.25 for payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and paid drive time, then divide by 0.65 so that 20% of the price covers overhead and 15% is profit. The last column prices a 3.5 cleaner-hour standard clean with $10 of supplies.

Nationally, the median wage for the occupation was $17.07 an hour in May 2025, which gives a floor of about $33 per cleaner-hour. The occupation includes hotel and hospital housekeepers, so the median is a floor for what a residential company pays, not a target: owners who want to keep good cleaners usually pay above it, and every $1 of wage adds about $1.92 to the hourly price in this model.

These are floors, not market rates. A company that pays $22 an hour in Houston needs about $42 per cleaner-hour there, and clients in expensive neighborhoods often pay more than the floor in any city. For the same calculation by state, see house cleaning prices by state.

What changes what a cleaning company charges per hour?

Five things move the hourly rate: who is on the team, the type of clean, whether supplies and equipment are included, the minimum visit, and travel. Two companies in the same city can both be fair at $35 and $55 per hour once you account for them.

• Per cleaner or per team. A solo cleaner at $40 an hour and a two-person team at $80 an hour cost the client the same per hour of work, but the team finishes in half the time. Quote per cleaner-hour internally and translate for the client.
• Type of clean. Deep cleans, move-outs and post-construction cleans use more product, more equipment and more care, and the hourly rate is often $5 to $15 higher per cleaner than for a routine visit. Fixr’s tables show deep cleaning at $60 to $100 per hour for one cleaner against $25 to $45 for a basic clean.
• Supplies and equipment. If you bring everything, including a commercial vacuum and specialty products, the rate carries that cost. Some independent cleaners charge less and use the client’s supplies.
• Minimums. A 2 hour or 3 hour minimum protects you on tiny jobs. A client with a studio may pay the minimum even if the work takes 90 minutes.
• Travel. Paid drive time between homes is a real cost. Tight routes keep it low; spread-out rural service areas push the rate up or add a travel fee.

Insurance, bonding and background checks also sit inside the rate. A bonded and insured company that pays workers’ compensation cannot match an uninsured cleaner’s price, and should not try. Our cleaning business insurance guide shows what those policies cost so you can see what they add per hour.

Hourly vs flat rate cleaning: which should you use?

Use flat rates for routine, repeatable cleans and hourly rates for work you cannot estimate. Flat rates are easier to sell, easier to book online, and reward an efficient crew. Hourly rates protect you on the jobs where the time is a mystery.

The hidden cost of hourly pricing is that it caps your income. As your crew gets faster, each visit earns less, and the client who hires you for your efficiency gets the whole benefit. With a flat rate, a crew that cuts a 3.5 hour job to 3 hours earns the business half an hour of margin on every visit. That is why most residential companies move to flat prices by home size once they have timed enough jobs, and why our house cleaning pricing guide builds its tables that way.

A mixed approach is common and sensible: flat prices on your website and booking page, hourly with a cap for the exceptions, and a line in your terms that says which jobs are which.

When does charging by the hour make sense?

Charge by the hour when the condition of the home, not its size, decides how long the work takes. That is the first clean of a neglected home, anything after builders or a flood, hoarding and heavy clutter, organizing, and homes you have not seen and cannot judge from photos.

Jobs that belong on an hourly rate

• First cleans of homes that have not been professionally cleaned in a year or more. Two 3 bedroom homes can take 4 hours and 9 hours. Quote hourly for the first visit, then switch to a flat recurring price once you know the home.
• Post-renovation and post-construction. Fine dust gets everywhere and comes back after the first pass. Hourly, with a higher rate for the equipment and masks. Our post construction cleaning guide covers the rates and safety.
• Hoarding, heavy clutter and biohazard-adjacent jobs. Time is unpredictable, and some of it is sorting rather than cleaning.
• Organizing, packing help and odd jobs. There is no standard scope to price flat.
• Large homes with no walkthrough. If a client wants a firm price on a 6,000 square foot home from a text message, offer hourly with a cap or a walkthrough first.

Set the rate higher than your routine floor

These jobs use more supplies, wear out equipment faster and are harder on cleaners. In the worked model, a routine floor of $38.50 per cleaner-hour (a $20 wage) becomes $45 to $50 for heavy work. That extra covers the degreaser, the dust masks, and the fact that nobody wants to do a hoarding clean for the same pay as a tidy condo.

How do you convert an hourly rate into flat prices?

Time ten jobs for each home size and type of clean, average the cleaner-hours, multiply by your hourly rate, and round up to the next $5. That is your flat price. Add a short condition clause so homes that are far dirtier than normal go back to hourly. Before your own log fills in, the time tables for how long a professional house clean takes give a starting estimate.

Step by step (hypothetical numbers)

1. Pick your rate per cleaner-hour. Say $42, a little above the $38.50 floor in the worked model.
2. Log the time on every job for a month. Clock in and out at each home. Record bedrooms, bathrooms, approximate square feet, type of clean and frequency.
3. Average by bracket. Your 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom recurring cleans averaged 3.4 cleaner-hours over 11 jobs; your 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom cleans averaged 4.6 hours over 8 jobs.
4. Multiply and round up. 3.4 × $42 = $142.80, so $145. 4.6 × $42 = $193.20, so $195.
5. Add a buffer where the spread is wide. If 3 bedroom jobs ranged from 2.8 to 4.5 hours, price nearer 3.6 hours ($155) or tighten the scope until the spread shrinks.
6. Write the condition clause. “Price assumes a home in normal condition. Heavy build-up, pet damage or post-renovation dust is charged at $45 per cleaner-hour, and we will call before going over.”

Then watch the numbers for three months. A flat price is only as good as the hours behind it, so re-time jobs twice a year and whenever you change your checklist. If a bracket keeps running long, raise that price rather than asking cleaners to rush.

Scheduling software makes this painless because the clock-ins are already there. Broombook records each visit’s start and finish from the crew app, so you can compare planned and actual hours by home without a spreadsheet; the details are on the cleaning scheduling software page. The house cleaning price calculator runs the hours-to-price math for seven home sizes.

How do you quote an hourly cleaning job so the client says yes?

Give the rate per cleaner-hour, an estimated range, a cap you will not pass without a call, and the minimum. Clients accept hourly pricing when they know the worst case; they refuse it when the total is open-ended.

A quote you can adapt

Hi Jordan, thanks for the photos. For a first deep clean of a 3 bedroom home in this condition, we charge $45 per cleaner-hour with a 3 hour minimum. I expect it to take two cleaners about 4 hours each, so roughly $360, and we will not go above $405 (9 cleaner-hours) without checking with you first. That includes all supplies and equipment. After this visit, a regular clean every two weeks would be a flat $150. Would Tuesday or Thursday morning work?

It works because it names the rate, the estimate, the cap, the minimum, what is included, and the flat price that follows. Four more habits help:

• Ask for photos or a video walkthrough before quoting. Five photos tell you more about time than any description.
• Take a deposit or a card on file for hourly jobs. They are usually one-time, and a cancelled 8 hour job is a lost day for two cleaners.
• Send a running update when you reach about 75% of the cap: “We are at 6.5 hours and the kitchen is done; the bathrooms will take about 2 more.”
• Invoice with the clock times. Start and finish per cleaner, in writing. It ends most “did it really take that long?” conversations before they begin.

Put the hourly terms in your cleaning service agreement and use the cleaning estimate template for the written quote. If you are still deciding what to charge overall, our pricing guide builds a full price list from your costs.