Window cleaning prices: per pane, inside and out, from your labor and pace
Price a residential window job, an exterior-only clean, screens or a storefront route from your labor cost, your pane-per-hour pace, drive time and margin — then see where you sit against typical window cleaning prices.
Every other window cleaning pricing calculator gives you a national average and calls it a price. This one works from your numbers: what your labor actually costs you per hour, how fast you really work, your drive time, your materials and the margin you need. The typical range is shown for context, not as the answer.
What it prices
- Standard panes, inside and out — priced per pane; typical customer price $5–$12 per pane
- Exterior only — priced per pane; typical customer price $3–$7 per pane
- Screens — priced per screen; typical customer price $2–$5 each
- Storefront route work — priced per pane; typical customer price $2–$5 per pane
How to use it
1. Pick the job type and enter the quantity. Square feet, linear feet, panes, loads — whatever that job is sold by.
2. Put in your loaded labor cost. This is what one person costs you per hour including payroll taxes, workers' comp and any benefits — or what you need to pay yourself. It is not the rate you charge. If you have never worked this out, start with the wage and add 25%.
3. Check the production rate. The default is a typical figure per person per hour. Your real number, from your last few jobs, is better.
4. Drive time, setup and minimum charge. Small jobs die on the trip. The calculator pays every crew member for drive time and setup, and applies your minimum if the job comes in under it.
5. Materials, overhead and margin. Materials at cost plus your markup; overhead per billable hour (monthly overhead ÷ hours you actually bill); the net margin you want on the job.
Window cleaning pricing: what actually moves the number
Count panes, not windows. A double-hung window is two panes; a French door is fifteen. Pricing per window is how you lose money on a house full of divided lights. Count from the outside before you quote.
Inside doubles the time. Moving furniture, blinds and the customer's schedule make interior work slower than exterior. A water-fed pole does exterior ground-floor panes at two or three times the speed of a squeegee, which is why exterior-only is priced at half.
Storefront is a route business. Five dollars a pane sounds low until you do 200 panes in a morning with no ladder and no interior. Price it on density and frequency, and hold a small minimum per stop.
Screens, tracks and sills are add-ons. Charge for them. They take real time and customers notice when they are skipped.
Worked example
A two-story home with 40 panes inside and out at 20 panes per hour: two hours of cleaning, plus 30 minutes of setup and a 30-minute round trip. At $24 loaded labor, $15 per billable hour of overhead, $2 of solution and a 20% margin, the calculator prices it at about $155, or $3.90 per pane — below the typical range, which says a solo operator should either hold a higher minimum or add the 20 screens at $3 each to get the stop to $215.
How the math works
- Hours = quantity ÷ production rate, plus setup and drive time for every person on the crew.
- Labor = person-hours × your loaded cost. Overhead = clock hours the job occupies × your overhead per billable hour.
- Price = (labor + materials + fees + overhead) ÷ (1 − margin), plus the material markup. Dividing by (1 − margin) gives a true margin on the sale; multiplying by (1 + margin) does not, and it is the most common pricing mistake in the trades.
- If the result is under your minimum charge, the minimum applies.
Turn it into an estimate
Hit Turn this into an estimate and the price lands in the estimate generator as line items, ready to send. When the customer says yes, the same numbers become the invoice in BIG INVOICE, which works offline with no account. Send it on the estimate generator, and pair it with the gutter cleaning pricing calculator.
FAQ
How much should I charge for window cleaning?
$5 to $12 per pane for residential work inside and out, $3 to $7 exterior only, and $2 to $5 per pane on commercial routes, with a $100 to $150 residential minimum. Count panes, not windows.
How much do window cleaners charge per hour?
Effective rates of $50 to $90 per hour for residential and higher on dense storefront routes, but quote per pane or per house. Use the hourly figure to decide whether a stop is worth the drive.
How much to charge for cleaning screens?
$2 to $5 per screen, or bundle them at a flat $30 to $60 per house. They are quick with a brush and hose but slow if you have to remove and re-hang each one — price accordingly.
How much for storefront window cleaning?
$2 to $5 per pane, typically $25 to $60 per visit for a small shop, on a weekly or biweekly schedule. The money is in route density: ten shops on one block beats twenty across town.
Does this pricing calculator use my numbers or averages?
Yours. The typical range is shown as context, but the price comes entirely from the labor cost, production rate, materials, overhead and margin you enter. Change any of them and the price changes.
Is this calculator free?
Yes, completely. No account, no email, no download. It runs in your browser and we never see your numbers.