Commercial Cleaning Calculator
Build a defensible bid in under a minute. Enter the facility, square footage, frequency, and your rates, and see price per visit, monthly contract value, and price per square foot — with a full cost breakdown so you know your margin before you send a number.
Commercial cleaning bid estimate
Adjust the inputs — the estimate updates as you type.
Total area serviced per visit.
5 = weekday service. Use 1–7.
Wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, and workers' comp.
Hours / visit
2.9
One cleaner-equivalent
Price / visit
$131
Estimated monthly price
$2,828
$0.28 per sq ft / month
Annual contract value
$33,933
Per-visit breakdown
- Labor
- $71
- Supplies & equipment
- $6
- Overhead
- $14
- Profit
- $39
Estimates are a starting point for your bid, not a quote. Walk the building, confirm the scope, and adjust for floor type, restroom count, and detail work before you send a number.
How the estimate is calculated
Profitable commercial bids start with time, not a gut-feel number. The calculator works the way an experienced estimator does — it figures out how long the building takes to clean, what that labor costs you, and what you need to charge to hit your margin.
Hours per visit
Square footage divided by a production rate (how much area one cleaner covers per hour). Each facility type starts with a realistic rate you can adjust after a walkthrough.
Cost per visit
Hours times your fully-burdened labor rate, plus supplies and overhead. Burdened labor includes payroll taxes, insurance, and workers comp — not just the wage.
Price and contract value
Your margin is applied on top of cost to get the price per visit. Multiply by visits per month and you have the recurring contract value, plus price per square foot to sanity-check against the market.
Win the bid, then keep the contract profitable
Pricing the job right is step one. Holding that margin over months of recurring visits is the harder part — it depends on consistent scheduling, time tracking, and a standard your crews actually follow. See how Pillar runs cleaning operations.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you price a commercial cleaning job?
- Start with how long the building takes to clean: divide the square footage by a production rate (square feet one cleaner covers per hour). Multiply those hours by your fully-burdened labor rate, add supplies and overhead, then add your profit margin. Multiply by how many visits you do per month to get the contract value.
- What is a normal price per square foot for commercial cleaning?
- Routine janitorial work commonly runs from about $0.05 to $0.20 per square foot per visit, depending on the facility type, frequency, and detail level. Medical and food-service spaces sit at the higher end; open warehouse and retail floors sit lower. This calculator shows your price per square foot per month so you can sanity-check a bid.
- What production rate should I use?
- Production rate is how many square feet one cleaner covers per hour. General office space is often around 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft per hour, medical closer to 2,500, and open warehouse much higher. The calculator sets a starting rate by facility type, which you can refine after you walk the building.
- Should my labor rate be just the wage?
- No. Use a fully-burdened rate — the wage plus payroll taxes, workers compensation, and insurance. A $15 wage often costs $19 to $22 once those are included. Bidding off the raw wage is one of the most common ways cleaning companies underprice contracts.
- Does this calculator account for supplies and equipment?
- Yes. Supplies and equipment are entered as a percentage of labor (8% by default) and overhead as a separate percentage. Both are added to your labor cost before margin, so the final number reflects what the job actually costs to deliver.
- Is this estimate a quote I can send a client?
- Treat it as a starting point, not a finished quote. It gets you a defensible number quickly, but you should always walk the building and confirm floor types, restroom counts, and any detail work before you send a price.
From bid to recurring revenue
Pillar turns a won bid into a recurring schedule, service checklists, and automated billing — so the margin you priced is the margin you keep. See it with your own service types.