House Cleaning Service Cost: 2026 Pricing Guide

The three ways cleaners price a job

Understanding the pricing model up front saves you from surprise bills. Hourly is the most common for smaller or one-off jobs: $25 to $90 per cleaner, per hour, with the spread driven by your market and whether supplies are included. Flat per-visit pricing is what most recurring clients get, since the cleaner knows the home and can quote a reliable number. Per square foot ($0.10 to $0.50) shows up mostly with larger companies and bigger homes.

For a typical household these methods point to a similar place. The differences show up at the edges. Hourly favors you if your home is small and already tidy; a flat rate protects you if the place is large or the work is unpredictable.

What recurring service really saves

The single biggest way to cut your cost per visit is to go recurring. A one-time clean might run $200, but the same home on a biweekly plan could be $140 a visit, because the cleaner isn't fighting two weeks of buildup every time.

The major franchises show this clearly. Merry Maids, for example, runs roughly $133 a visit weekly, $159 biweekly, and $189 monthly. The pattern holds across the industry: the more often you clean, the less each visit costs, since less dirt accumulates between appointments. Biweekly is the sweet spot for most households, frequent enough to keep the per-visit price down without paying for weekly service you may not need.

Many companies also sweeten the deal for new recurring clients, knocking $50 to $100 off your first several visits to get you in the door.

Independent cleaner vs. agency

Hiring a solo cleaner often costs less, sometimes 20% to 30% below an agency, and you build a personal relationship with the same person each time. The tradeoff is reliability. If your cleaner gets sick or takes a vacation, there's no backup, and you'll want to confirm they carry their own liability insurance.

Agencies and franchises charge more but smooth out those risks. You get vetted, insured, and bonded staff, a guaranteed crew even when someone's out, and a company to call if something goes wrong. For a one-time deep clean, a great independent is often the better value. For ongoing service in a home you care about keeping consistent, the agency premium often buys peace of mind that's worth it.

Standard, deep, and move-out at a glance

It helps to know which service you're actually buying. A standard clean ($120–$240) is routine upkeep: surfaces, floors, bathrooms, kitchen, dusting and vacuuming. It assumes the home is already in decent shape. A deep clean ($200–$400) goes after built-up grime, baseboards, inside appliances, and the spots a standard visit skips. A move-out clean ($150–$500) is a deep clean built for an empty unit, with extra attention to cabinets and appliances.

New clients almost always start with a deep clean before moving to standard recurring visits. That first appointment costs more, but it resets the home so every visit after it can be quicker and cheaper.

Getting an accurate quote

The fastest way to a quote you can trust is to be specific. Tell the cleaner your square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the honest condition of the home. Mention pets, since fur and dander add time. Spell out any add-ons you want, like inside the oven or interior windows, so they're in the estimate instead of tacked on later.

Get two or three quotes for the same scope and compare apples to apples. A cheaper hourly rate isn't a deal if it takes that cleaner twice as long. And ask what's included: do they bring supplies, are they insured, what's their policy if you're not happy with the work. The answers tell you as much about value as the price does.