Cost
Lawn Care Cost Calculator
Build a service plan and see what it costs per visit, per month, and per year. Mowing usually accounts for most of the total, and lawn size matters less than people expect.
Updated
Lawn area
Turf only. Most services scale with mowed area rather than lot size.
Area = length × width
Your market
Mid-size metros and most suburban markets.
Services
Tick what you want quoted and adjust how many times a year.
Most crews have a minimum stop charge, so a tiny lawn rarely costs much less than a standard one.
Usually bundled into mowing rather than billed separately.
Priced per application. Four to six rounds a year is a typical program.
Often sold combined with fertilization as a single 'weed and feed' round.
Once a year for most lawns; twice for heavy clay or high-traffic turf.
Nearly always paired with aeration, seed needs soil contact to germinate.
Only needed when thatch exceeds about half an inch. Many lawns never need it.
Driven far more by tree cover than lawn size. Haul-away adds cost over mulching in place.
Debris removal, bed edging, first cut, and cutting back last year's perennials.
Usually the largest single visit of the year on a treed property.
Commonly quoted per cubic yard installed, material included.
Priced by hour or by shrub. Tall hedges needing ladders cost more.
Charging the system, checking every head, and setting the controller.
Essential anywhere the ground freezes. Skipping it risks cracked pipe and heads.
Enter your lawn size and pick at least one service.
Compare DIY vs hiring out
Describe your lawn and how much time you have, and the assistant will weigh doing it yourself against hiring a crew for your situation.
Written by AI from the figures above. The quantities themselves are calculated deterministically and are never generated by AI. Check anything consequential, permits, utility locates, and chemical labels especially, before acting on it.
How this is calculated
How lawn services are priced
Most services price off a baseline lawn, around 5,000 sq ft, and scale from there, but not proportionally. Every visit carries fixed costs: drive time, unloading, and setup. That is why crews have a minimum stop charge, and why a 2,000 sq ft lawn rarely costs much less than a 5,000 sq ft one.
Applications like fertilizer and weed control are the exception, since the product genuinely scales with area. Those are priced closer to true per-1,000-sq-ft rates, with a minimum.
annual = Σ (per-visit rate × visits) × regional multiplier
| Service | Per visit | Typical per year |
|---|---|---|
| Mowing with edging | $40–65 | 26–30 visits |
| Fertilizer application | $12–22 per 1,000 sq ft | 4–6 |
| Weed control | $11–20 per 1,000 sq ft | 4 |
| Core aeration | $95–180 | 1 |
| Overseeding | $90–200 | 1 |
| Dethatching | $120–250 | As needed |
| Leaf removal | $150–380 | 2 |
| Spring cleanup | $180–420 | 1 |
| Fall cleanup | $200–480 | 1 |
| Irrigation winterization | $75–165 | 1 |
Where the money actually goes
Mowing dominates. At 28 visits a year it typically accounts for 60 to 70% of a full-service annual bill, which means the biggest lever on your total is mowing frequency, not which extras you add.
Biweekly mowing roughly halves the visit count and saves real money, but it fights the one-third rule, never removing more than a third of the blade in one cut. During peak growth, a lawn cut every two weeks either gets scalped or needs the clippings collected. It works better in slow-growth periods and in warm, dry climates than during a spring flush.
Seasonal cleanups are the other big line, and they are driven by tree cover rather than lawn size. A small lawn under mature oaks can cost more to clean up than a large open one.
Bundles and contracts
Annual contracts typically price 10 to 20% below the same services bought individually, because the crew can route efficiently and forecast the season. The trade is committing before you know how the year goes.
Watch for two things in any contract: whether clipping and leaf disposal is included or billed separately, and whether the price is per visit or per month. Per-month pricing across a season with variable growth can work out either way.
Worked example
Full-service plan on a typical lawn
A 6,000 sq ft lawn in an average-cost market: weekly mowing, four fertilizer rounds, aeration, and two cleanups.
- Mowing
- 28 visits × $45–74 = $1,260–2,072
- Fertilization
- 4 × $79–132 = $316–528
- Core aeration
- 1 × $107–202 = $107–202
- Spring cleanup
- $180–420
- Fall cleanup
- $200–480
About $2,060–3,700 for the year, or $172–308 a month. Mowing alone is roughly 60% of it.
Frequently asked questions
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