Price a janitorial or commercial cleaning contract the way professionals do — by square footage, production rate, and fully-loaded cost — so you stop underbidding and protect your margin. Works for recurring janitorial accounts and one-time commercial cleans. Adjust any number to match your business.
Your numbers
Benchmarks built in: production ~3,000–4,000 sq ft/hr for offices, labor ~50–60% of cost, supplies ~3–5%, overhead ~20–30%. All editable.
Your bid
How this is calculated
Labor hours = sq ft ÷ production rate. Labor cost = hours × loaded rate × cleanings/month (weekly × 4.33). Supplies and overhead are added to reach total cost, then price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). Price per sq ft (price/month ÷ sq ft) is checked against the $0.07–$0.20 per-sq-ft-per-month range for recurring office work.
Want to go deeper on pricing your bids?
The full guide walks through production rates, cost ratios, and how to sanity-check a bid before you send it.
Read the guideEstimates only — actual pricing depends on scope, local labor, and building condition. Production rates and cost ratios reflect general industry benchmarks and are fully editable.
Using this as a janitorial bidding calculator
Janitorial work is priced the same way as any recurring commercial cleaning account — hours first, then cost, then margin. The difference is that a janitorial bid usually has to hold up across a twelve-month contract instead of a single visit, and that changes what you check before you send it.
Three things to get right on a janitorial bid:
- Bid the scope, not the square footage. Two buildings of identical size can take very different hours depending on restroom count, floor surfaces, and how much of the work is nightly versus weekly. Set the production rate to match the actual scope of work rather than accepting the default for the building type.
- Cost it per visit, quote it per month. Most janitorial contracts are billed as a flat monthly rate. Build the number from cost per cleaning times cleanings per month, then quote the monthly figure — which is exactly what the price-per-cleaning and monthly bid fields above are separating for you.
- Leave room for the contract to age. Your loaded labor rate two years into an account will not be the rate you have today. If the agreement does not let you raise the price mid-term, the margin you set now has to absorb that increase.
How do you bid a janitorial contract?
Walk the building, put the scope in writing, estimate labor hours from that scope and a realistic production rate, apply your loaded labor rate, add supplies and overhead, then mark it up to your target margin. Enter those figures above and the calculator returns the monthly bid, the per-visit price, and the effective rate per labor hour so you can sanity-check the result before it goes out the door.
Is this a free janitorial bidding calculator?
Yes. It is free to use, there is no signup, and you can put it on your own site with the embed code at the bottom of this page.
Why the effective rate per labor hour is the number to check
It is the fastest way to catch a janitorial bid that looks fine and is not. A monthly price can appear healthy while the effective rate per labor hour sits close to your loaded labor cost — and an account like that will not survive a wage increase or a scope-creep request. Check that figure before you check the margin percentage.
Frequently asked questions
How do you price a commercial cleaning job?
Start from labor: estimate the hours the job takes based on square footage and cleaning frequency, apply your loaded labor rate, add supplies and overhead, then mark it up to your target margin. The calculator walks these steps.
How much should I charge per square foot to clean an office?
There is no single right number — it swings with frequency, building type, and your local labor rate. Price from your actual hours and costs rather than a per-square-foot rule of thumb, then sanity-check the per-square-foot figure the calculator gives you against your market.
What profit margin should a cleaning company target?
It varies by how lean you run and whether labor is in-house or subcontracted. Set a margin that covers overhead and leaves real profit, and price every bid to clear it — our Markup vs. Margin Calculator and Break-Even Calculator help you find that number.
Should I bill monthly or per visit?
Recurring janitorial contracts are usually billed monthly at a flat rate based on visits per month; one-time or deep cleans are billed per job. Price the monthly rate from the per-visit cost times how often you clean.
More on running the business side: the cleaning business hub covers startup costs, software, and how to price recurring accounts.