Price a Mowing Account
The lawn
Your business numbers
Turn this price into a recurring route
Once the price is set, field service software can send the quote, schedule weekly cuts and bill the customer automatically.
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How this price is built
- Mowing time = acres ÷ your mower's acres per hour × 60 × the difficulty factor.
- Time on site = mowing time + trim, edge and blow minutes.
- Billed time = time on site + drive time (if you charge for it).
- Price = billed hours × your target hourly rate + fuel and wear, never less than your minimum.
- Monthly totals use 52 ÷ 12 = 4.33 cuts a month for weekly service and 26 ÷ 12 = 2.17 for every other week.
The mower speeds are rough starting points. Real output depends on deck size, ground speed, overlap and how many times you stop to empty or turn. Time your own lawns for a few weeks and use those numbers.
How Much Should You Charge to Mow a Lawn?
Charge enough that every hour on the property, and the drive to get there, pays for your labor, your equipment, your insurance and a profit. The fastest way to get there is to price from time, not from what the company down the road charges. Two lawns with the same square footage can take very different amounts of time once you count trees, beds, slopes and gates.
Three Ways Lawn Care Businesses Price Mowing
- Per cut (flat rate). The most common for residential accounts. Customers like a fixed price, and you get paid for being efficient. This calculator gives you a per-cut number.
- By square foot or acre. Useful for quoting fast from a satellite view, but it misses obstacles and trimming. Treat the per-1,000-sq-ft result above as a check, not the whole price.
- Hourly. Simple, but it penalizes you for getting faster and customers dislike open-ended bills. Most operators keep hourly pricing for cleanups and one-off jobs.
Set a Minimum Charge
Small lawns are where most new operators lose money. Unloading, trimming, blowing and driving take nearly the same time on a tiny yard as a medium one. A minimum charge per stop protects you. If the calculator keeps landing on your minimum, those small yards are only worth it when they sit on a route next to other customers.
Don't Forget Drive Time
Ten minutes between stops on a ten-stop day is well over an hour and a half you aren't mowing. Either build it into each price (the default above) or keep your route tight enough that it doesn't matter. Clustering customers in one area is the cheapest raise you'll ever give yourself.
What Changes the Price
- Obstacles: trees, beds, play sets and tight corners slow the mower and add trim time.
- Slopes and wet ground: slower passes and sometimes a smaller mower.
- Frequency: weekly cuts go faster than every-other-week cuts, which grow longer and thicker between visits.
- Bagging or extra cleanup: charge for it separately or raise the trim minutes.
Monthly Billing for Recurring Accounts
Many lawn companies bill a flat monthly amount instead of per visit. Weekly service averages 4.33 cuts a month, so a $50 cut becomes about $217 a month. Flat monthly billing smooths your cash flow through short and long months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Price from the time the job takes. Add up mowing time, trim and blow time and the drive, multiply by the hourly rate your business needs, then add fuel. Use a minimum charge so small yards still pay. This calculator does that math for you.
Per cut is the norm for recurring residential mowing. Customers prefer a fixed price, and you keep the benefit when you get faster. Hourly pricing works better for cleanups and jobs you can't estimate well.
Divide the lawn's acreage by how many acres your mower cuts per hour to get mowing time, then add trimming and drive time and multiply by your hourly rate. A flat price per acre without that time check tends to underprice lawns with lots of obstacles.
Multiply the price per cut by 52 and divide by 12. That gives the average of 4.33 cuts per month. For every-other-week service, multiply by 26 and divide by 12.
Set it at what one stop costs you in time and fuel, including the drive, at your target hourly rate. The right number depends on your market and your costs, so use the calculator with a very small lawn and see what the time-based price comes to.
