How much to charge for window cleaning: per window, per pane or by the hour.

This guide shows how to price window cleaning jobs so the number holds up on the day. Window cleaning is usually priced per pane or per window, by the hour on odd jobs, with a job minimum. A pane is one piece of glass. A standard slider or hung window has two. Whichever way you quote, check it against the real cost of the job.

Per window, per pane or by the hour: which one to quote

Each method fits a different kind of job.

• Per pane. You charge for each piece of glass, often per side. It fits houses with mixed window sizes, because a big slider and a small bathroom window each get their own price. It takes longer to count.
• Per window. One price for the whole window, usually inside and out. It is easy for the customer to follow and quick to quote on the phone. It works best when most homes in your area have similar windows.
• By the hour. You charge for crew time on site. It fits jobs that are hard to size up ahead of time: construction dirt, hard water stains, odd glass, or a first clean after many years.

A simple setup is to quote homes per pane or per window, and keep an hourly rate for the odd jobs. Our guide to flat rate vs hourly pricing explains when a fixed price helps you and when it hurts. Whichever you pick, add a job minimum or a trip charge so a five-window job still pays for the drive.

Build your per-pane prices from minutes

A price list only helps if you know where its numbers come from. Build your own from two numbers.

1. Price per crew minute. Take the full cost of one person-hour: the wage plus payroll taxes, insurance and workers comp. Divide it by one minus your margin, then divide by 60. With an illustrative $30 full cost and a 50% margin, that is $30 ÷ 0.50 = $60 an hour, or $1.00 a minute. Our labor burden calculator helps you find your real hourly cost.
2. Minutes per pane. Time your crew on ordinary jobs. Time each side and each floor on its own. Use the average over several houses, not your best day. Our guide on estimating labor hours for a job shows how to keep those timings honest.

Multiply the two and you get a per-pane price that pays the crew and keeps your margin. Here is what that looks like with illustrative minutes.

Illustrative numbers. The trip and setup line is 90 crew minutes of driving, setup and cleanup ($45 at $30 an hour), plus $12 of supplies and $20 of truck and fuel. That is $77 in costs, and $77 ÷ 0.50 = $154. Your minutes and costs will be different. Time your own.

The trip and setup line is what makes small jobs pay. Without it, a five-window job at $2 a pane would not even cover the drive. You can show it on the quote as its own line, as a trip charge, or fold it into a job minimum.

One warning about the math. A 50% margin means half the price is left after job costs. That is not the same as adding 50% to your costs. Adding 50% to $77 gives $115.50, which is only a 33% margin. Read profit margin vs markup if those two still blur together. And the margin is not all profit. Your office, ads, software and your own pay come out of it.

Per pane, per window or hourly: the same job, the same price

Take the two-storey home from the worked example further down. It has 30 two-pane windows, 16 on the ground floor and 14 upstairs, cleaned inside and out, with 16 screens. The crew is 2 people for 2.5 hours on site each, plus half an hour of driving each.

Illustrative numbers, from the same minutes and costs as the table above.

The methods agree because they all start from the same minutes and the same hourly cost. Here is what each one is good for.

• Per pane with a trip charge is the most accurate on mixed houses. Upstairs, inside and outside each get their own rate.
• Per window, all in, is fastest on the phone. It is only fair when the house is close to your average. Ask about storeys, screens and window count before you use it.
• The hourly rate has to be well above $60, because it also carries the drive, supplies and truck. If you quote $60 an hour on site with no trip charge, this job brings in $300 instead of $424, and the margin falls from 50% to about 29%.

Last, look at the market. HomeAdvisor's US cost guide lists a typical window cleaning job at $150 to $302, and $4 to $15 to clean a single pane (checked October 2026). Those ranges cover all house sizes, so treat them as a check, not a target. A two-storey house done inside and out with screens should land above a typical job. If your number is far above your local going rate, check your minutes and your hourly cost before you cut your margin.

Inside vs outside window cleaning: price each side on its own

Inside and outside are not the same job. Outside you deal with poles, ladders, water and weather. Inside you deal with furniture, blinds, pets and floors you must protect. Time them separately and price them separately. Then offer a bundle if you want to.

In the illustrative table above, an inside pane costs more than a ground-floor outside pane and less than an upstairs one. Your timings may run differently. For outside-only window cleaning, charge your outside pane rates plus the full trip and setup charge. For inside-only work, do the same with your inside rates. The drive costs the same whether you clean one side or two.

A bundle should still cover both sets of costs. If you discount it, make sure the discount comes from real savings, such as one drive and one setup instead of two.

If you quote the outside only, the customer may ask, "Can you do the inside while you are here?" Decide ahead what that costs so you are not making up a price on the doorstep.

Pane count is the start, not the whole price

Counting panes gives you a base. But panes are not equal.

• Size. A big picture window takes longer than a small bathroom pane, though both count as one.
• Dividers. French panes and grids turn one window into many small panes, with far more edge to dry.
• Dirt level. Paint overspray, hard water, sap and building dust need scraping or extra passes.
• Glass type. Coated, tinted or leaded glass needs gentler care and more time.

Give each window type its own time, then multiply by the count. To set those units, time yourself on a small, a medium, a large and a divided window. Use the minutes, not a guess.

Screens, tracks and sills are their own tasks

This is where quotes quietly go wrong. Each of these is small, but together they can double the time on a house.

• Removing, washing and refitting screens, with the risk of bending a frame
• Scrubbing and vacuuming tracks, which can take as long as the glass
• Wiping sills and frames
• Awkward windows, such as those above stairs or behind a deck rail

List them as add-ons, or build them into the base price. Either way, decide before you arrive. If tracks are included by default, say so on the quote so the customer sees what they are paying for.

Storey height changes your speed and your risk

Ground-floor windows can often be done from the ground with a pole. A second storey may need a ladder or a longer water-fed pole. A third storey may need a lift or rope access. That is a different trade with different insurance.

Each step up slows you down. Also count the things around the glass:

• Flowerbeds and gardens you must walk through with care
• Gates, fences, hedges and decks
• Distance from the truck to the far side of the house
• Where you get water, and how long hoses take to run

Add a clear upper-floor factor rather than burying it in an average. It keeps your price honest on tall homes and fair on bungalows.

How much to charge for commercial window cleaning

Storefronts and small offices work differently from houses. The glass is big, flat and usually at ground level. You often clean the outside only, on a set schedule, before the store opens. Each stop is fast, so the drive and parking between stops is a big share of the cost.

• Price per visit, not per pane. A shop owner wants one number each month. Work it out from minutes, then quote a flat fee per visit.
• Plan routes. A storefront a few minutes from your other stops is worth far more to you than one across town. Price the far one higher, or pass on it.
• Set a minimum per stop. Parking, unloading and checking in with the manager take time at even the smallest shop.
• Price the first clean on its own. Glass on a regular schedule stays clean, so each visit is quick. A first clean with months of grime is not.
• Quote the extras separately. Inside glass, door frames, signs, high panes above an awning and after-hours work all add minutes.
• Know when it is a different trade. Work from a lift, a swing stage or ropes needs training, gear and insurance that a ground crew may not have. Refer it out unless you are set up for it.

Here is one storefront visit, worked out the same way as a house. Illustrative numbers: 1 person, 10 large panes outside only, 20 minutes on site, and 10 minutes of driving from the last stop on the route.

Of the $40 price, $20 covers the 20 minutes on site. The 10-minute drive from the last stop takes $10, and supplies and truck take another $10. That is why the route matters more than the rate per pane. Five shops on one block can pay well at this price. The same shop alone across town will not, because the drive there and back could take longer than the cleaning.

Mistakes that quietly cost you money

• Quoting by window count alone. If you do not ask about dividers, screens and floors, you price the easy version of a hard house.
• Pricing a first clean like a maintenance clean. Glass that has not been done in years takes much longer.
• Forgetting setup and drive. Small jobs lose the most because the fixed time is a bigger share.
• No job minimum. A three-window job can cost you half a day of travel and setup.
• Using the wage as your hourly cost. Taxes, insurance and equipment wear all belong in the number.
• Giving free re-dos without tracking them. A few streak fixes a week add up to real hours.

When to say no or raise the price

• Heights beyond your gear or insurance. Decline or refer it out.
• Construction dirt, paint or stucco on the glass. Price it as a separate cleaning job, by the hour, and warn about scratch risk.
• Etched glass or failed seals. Cleaning cannot fix these. Say so in writing before you start.
• Tight access. Dense hedges, fenced decks or steep ground slow you down. Raise the price to match.
• Bad-weather rebooks. If rain pushes jobs, build that lost time into your rates.

Raise prices when you are booked out. If every quote is accepted, the quote is too low.

Check the price against your hours

Before you send a quote, run one check. Estimate total hours, including drive and setup. Multiply by crew size and hourly cost per person. Add materials and fuel. Divide by one minus your target margin. If your pane-based price is lower than that number, change the price, not your hopes.

Do it again after the job with the real hours. CrewBrain tracks the real cost of each job so you can see which jobs earn their price.

A worked example: a two-storey home with about 30 windows, cleaned inside and out

Hourly cost per person is the full cost of an hour, with payroll taxes and insurance included, and the drive time is counted as paid crew time. These numbers are an illustrative example of the method. They are not a price list, and not a promise of what your jobs will earn.

Try it with your own numbers

Built for window cleaning: the window cleaning price calculator works from windows cleaned outside, windows cleaned inside, screens, with example speeds you can change to your crew’s.

Keep going

• CrewBrain for window cleaning companies: how the software handles quoting, scheduling and crew time for this trade.
• How to price a service job: the five-step method behind every page in this series.
• Job price calculator: the same calculator as above, on its own page.
• Price increase calculator: see how many customers you can lose before a raise stops paying.
• How to price gutter cleaning jobs
• How to price house cleaning jobs
• How to price carpet cleaning jobs
• What is a good profit margin for a service business?
• How to estimate labor hours for a job
• How to quote a job professionally
• All pricing guides by trade

Questions owners ask