Car Detailing Price Calculator

Getting a price takes five quick entries. The calculator prices the job from the time it really takes you, so it works for a detailer setting prices and for a car owner checking a quote.

1. Pick the vehicle size. A sedan is the base, and bigger vehicles scale up from it.
2. Type how many hours the job takes you on a sedan.
3. Type your hourly rate and what supplies cost you on one job.
4. Type your round-trip drive time in minutes if you are mobile. Enter 0 for a shop job.
5. Press Calculate, or press Enter. The price appears first and large, with the labor, supplies and drive time below. Press Reset to clear the form and start over.

Price = (Hours times size multiplier times hourly rate) + Supplies + (Drive minutes divided by 60 times hourly rate times one half). The result is rounded to the nearest $5. The size multipliers are 1.00 for a sedan or coupe, 1.25 for an SUV or crossover, 1.40 for a truck or large SUV, and 1.55 for a van or minivan, because a van has roughly half as much surface and seating again as a sedan.

Labor is the hours the job takes, scaled by vehicle size, times your hourly rate. Supplies are added at cost. Drive time is billed at half rate, because you are driving, not detailing, and the customer should not pay full detailing rates for windshield time. This is the same cost-plus method Jobber recommends, which is labor hours times hourly rate plus material costs plus overhead plus markup, with overhead and markup folded into the hourly rate you enter.

The formula needs your numbers to work. Time your own jobs, price your own supplies, and set your own rate. Two detailers doing the same job can charge different prices and both be right, because their speed and their costs differ. Our break-even calculator can help you check how many jobs a month you need at your price.

You detail a sedan. The full detail takes you 3 hours, your rate is $65 an hour, supplies cost $15, and the round trip drive is 30 minutes. Here is exactly what the calculator does.

1. Labor = 3 hours times 1.00 times $65 = $195.00.
2. Supplies = $15.00.
3. Drive time = 30 minutes divided by 60, times $65, times one half = $16.25.
4. Unrounded total = $195.00 + $15.00 + $16.25 = $226.25.
5. Price = $226.25 rounded to the nearest $5 = $225.00.

The effective rate is $225.00 divided by 3 hours, which is $75.00 an hour. That is higher than the $65 rate because supplies and drive time sit on top of the labor, and the price still pays you fairly for the trip.

The same 3 hour sedan job, at $65 an hour with $15 of supplies and a 30 minute drive, prices very differently by vehicle. The table below shows why a sedan price should never be quoted for a van.

The van costs $110 more than the sedan for the same package, and that gap is honest. It takes nearly half as long again, uses more product, and has more seats to clean. Quoting the sedan price for a van means working the extra hour for free.

Most mobile detailers set a minimum of $100 to $150, and the reason is in the formula. A quick wash that takes an hour at $65 with $8 of supplies and a 30 minute drive prices at $90, and a shop job with no drive time prices lower still. Below a minimum, the trip and the setup eat the margin.

A minimum also protects your schedule. A small job still takes a slot, a drive and a setup, so it should pay like a job, not like an errand. If the calculator gives you a price below your minimum, quote the minimum and say so plainly. Customers understand a minimum far better than a price that creeps up after the work starts.

Revisit your rate once you have timed ten jobs. If you keep finishing faster than the hours you entered, your price should not fall with your speed. You got faster, so the same price now pays you more per hour, and that gain is yours to keep. Price by package and vehicle size, not by the hour, and let speed raise your earnings instead of cutting your price.

Charging the sedan price for every vehicle is the most expensive mistake. The table above shows a $110 gap between a sedan and a van on the same job, and that gap comes straight out of your pay if you ignore it.

Forgetting supplies is next. Chemicals, towels, pads and water cost real money on every job, and leaving them out means the customer never pays for them. Even $15 a job is $1,500 over a hundred jobs.

The last mistake is billing drive time at the full rate, or not billing it at all. Full rate overcharges the customer for time you spend driving, and zero undercharges you for time you cannot spend detailing. Half rate is the fair middle, and it is what the calculator uses. Check the margin on the result with our markup calculator if you want to see how your price relates to your cost.

This calculator gives an estimate for planning and is for informational purposes only, not financial advice. Actual prices depend on your market, condition of the vehicle, products used and local competition. See our disclaimer.