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How much to charge for lawn mowing: per cut, per acre and by lot size
Mowing looks simple to price until you have twenty lawns of different sizes and a customer who wants a cut every other week. Here's how mowing is usually charged, what published guides and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show, prices by lot size, and a worked example that turns your hourly rate into a price per cut.
Four ways to charge for mowing
HomeGuide's guide on how much to charge for lawn mowing, updated December 2025, lists the common fee structures. Most mowing businesses quote per cut for regular customers and keep an hourly rate for odd jobs.
- Per hour: $40 to $80 for residential work, best for one-off or awkward yards
- Per acre: $60 to $150, so you don't have to track hours on bigger ground
- Flat rate per cut: $30 to $100 for a 1/8- to 1/4-acre lawn
- Yearly plan: $900 to $2,000 for an average yard, covering 25 to 35 visits a season
Prices by lot size
Lot size sets the price for most residential lawns. HomeGuide's table also shows what most mowing businesses do with frequency: a lower rate for weekly cuts, because the grass is shorter and the lawn is quicker, and a higher rate every other week.
| Weekly | Every two weeks | |
|---|---|---|
| 1/8 acre | $30 to $40 | $40 to $50 |
| 1/4 acre | $45 to $65 | $60 to $85 |
| 1/2 acre | $50 to $75 | $65 to $100 |
| 3/4 acre | $55 to $80 | $70 to $120 |
| 1 acre | $60 to $100 | $80 to $150 |
| 2 acres | $100 to $200 | $130 to $260 |
HomeGuide, how much to charge for lawn mowing, updated December 17, 2025. What homeowners are charged, not a recommendation.
What BLS and other guides show
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers at $18.82 an hour in May 2025, and for grounds maintenance workers as a whole at $19.27. The lowest 10% of grounds maintenance workers earned less than $15.01 an hour and the highest 10% more than $28.10. Those are employees; BLS pay figures don't include the self-employed.
Your rate has to cover the mower, trailer, fuel, insurance, the drive between lawns and the rainy days, so build it from your own numbers as in how to price a job.
HomeAdvisor's lawn care guide, updated June 2026, puts routine mowing and watering labor at $35 to $70 an hour and a mowing visit at $50 to $205. It also lists $0.01 to $0.06 a square foot and $50 to $200 an acre.
A worked example: a quarter-acre lawn
Example numbers, not a quote: an effective rate of $60 an hour, $4 a cut for fuel and blade wear, and a $45 minimum. The lawn is a quarter acre, 10,890 square feet (43,560 ÷ 4), cut weekly: 45 minutes to mow, trim and blow, plus 15 minutes of driving.
The minimum is what makes the small lawn on your route worth stopping for.
- Time: 45 minutes on site + 15 minutes driving = 1 hour
- Labor: 1 hour × $60 = $60
- Fuel and blade wear: $4
- Price per cut: $60 + $4 = $64
- Check: HomeGuide's weekly range for a quarter acre is $45 to $65, so $64 sits at the top
- A season of 30 weekly cuts: 30 × $64 = $1,920
- A 1/8-acre lawn, 20 minutes on site + 15 driving: 35 ÷ 60 × $60 = $35, + $4 fuel and blade wear = $39, under the $45 minimum, so $45
Overgrown lawns, extras and travel
Grass that's been left to grow takes two passes and fills the bagger. HomeGuide (2025) says many pros charge $70 to $150 a visit for grass over 6 inches, and that bagging clippings or yards outside your normal area can justify charging more. Say on the estimate which price is the first cut and which is the regular one.
Extras raise the value of each stop. HomeGuide lists fertilizing at $65 to $100 a treatment, aeration at $75 to $250 a visit, leaf removal at $150 to $350 a visit, yard clean-up at $125 to $400 a visit and edging at $1 to $5 a linear foot.
Clean-ups and planting are priced more like landscaping; see how much to charge for landscaping. Check your state's rules before you apply fertilizer or weed killer for pay, and on whether lawn services carry sales tax.
Putting the price on paper
In Workeey you set your rates once: hourly, travel, call-out, first hour, evenings and weekends, parts markup and a deposit percent. Save the jobs you price often, a weekly cut for each lot size, edging or a leaf clean-up, as lines with a name and a price. A quick estimate prices from those, and you share it from your phone as a quote PDF with the deposit percent printed on it. The customer says yes to you directly.
When the work is done, one tap turns the estimate into the invoice, emailed with a pay link for card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or US bank transfer through your own Stripe account; a small processing fee applies. The free plan includes 23 quick estimates a month and unlimited invoicing; Pro is $5 a month and Premium $19 (pricing). Start from the lawn care estimate template, or see Workeey for lawn care.
More for lawn care pros: pages and free templates
- Lawn care software — mowing routes and a month of visits on one invoice
- Invoicing for lawn care — how to bill a month of mowing
- How to start a lawn care business — a step-by-step guide to going out on your own
- Best apps for a lawn care business — the apps for this trade compared
- Lawn care invoice template — free, with a filled-in sample
- Lawn care estimate template — a free quote sample
- Lawn care receipt template — a free paid-in-full sample
- Landscaping and lawn care price list template — free, with sample prices
- Landscaping and lawn care work order template — free, with a filled-in sample
- Free invoice template — every field a trade invoice needs
- Free estimate template — copy it, price it, send it
- Free receipt template — a paid-in-full receipt to copy
- Work order template — the job written down before you bill it
- Late payment reminder templates — texts, emails and a letter to copy and send
- All free templates and tools
How much should I charge to mow a lawn?
HomeGuide (December 2025) lists $30 to $100 a cut for a 1/8- to 1/4-acre lawn, $40 to $80 an hour and $60 to $150 an acre. Work out yours from your hourly rate and how long the lawn takes, travel included.
How much to charge per acre for mowing?
HomeGuide (2025) lists $60 to $150 an acre for residential mowing; HomeAdvisor (June 2026) lists $50 to $200. Small lots usually cost more per acre because the setup and drive don't shrink.
Should weekly mowing cost less than every two weeks?
Most mowing businesses charge less per cut for weekly service, because shorter grass is quicker to cut. HomeGuide's 2025 table shows a quarter acre at $45 to $65 weekly and $60 to $85 every two weeks.
Should I charge more for an overgrown lawn?
Yes, it takes longer and fills the bagger. HomeGuide (2025) says many pros charge $70 to $150 a visit for grass over 6 inches.
Should I sell a season plan?
It evens out your income. HomeGuide (2025) puts yearly plans at $900 to $2,000 for an average yard, covering 25 to 35 visits. Price it from your per-cut price × the visits you expect.