Lawn Care Prices 2026: Mowing, Fertilizing and Service Costs

• Tahir Abbas
• October 29, 2026

Last updated: October 2026

Key takeaways

• Five 2026 sources agree on the shape of lawn care pricing but not the exact numbers, so this page shows each source’s range instead of one “average.”
• Mowing is usually $42 to $70 per visit for an average yard, or about $29 to $68 per hour.
• Monthly plans run $100 to $500 depending on the source and what is bundled in.
• TruGreen does not publish fixed prices. One 2026 review shows sample annual quotes of $779 to $1,033 for a 5,906 sq ft yard.
• Lawn businesses: add labor, travel, equipment and overhead, then divide by (1 – margin). A worked example with the arithmetic re-checked is below.

People search “lawn care prices” for two reasons: a homeowner wants to know if a quote is fair, and a new lawn business wants to know what to charge. This guide covers both. First comes a sourced price list by service and lot size, then a cost-based method for pricing jobs. If you quote landscaping work, our free landscaping estimate calculator handles the arithmetic.

How much does lawn care cost in 2026?

We compared four U.S. cost guides updated in 2026. None is an official benchmark, and several come from lawn-service marketplaces and software vendors, so read across each row and treat the sources as separate opinions. Prices are as of October 2026.

Two notes on the table. First, neither LawnStarter nor Lawn Love lists a separate overseeding price, so the seeding row is the closest figure; overseeding an existing lawn is normally cheaper than seeding bare ground, but we found no sourced number for it, so ask for a quote. Second, Tofu’s figures come from invoices rather than estimates: its 2026 analysis of 353,000 invoices from 4,371 lawn and landscape accounts shows a median mowing invoice of $120 (middle range $60 to $300) and a median fertilization invoice of $117 (Tofu). Invoices often cover several visits or add-ons, which is why they sit above per-visit quotes.

Plain-English summary (our synthesis, not a quote): mowing about $40 to $70 a visit, fertilizing about $70 to $400 depending on size, weed control about $50 to $210, aeration about $80 to $250.

How much does lawn service cost by lot size?

Lot size is the biggest driver of a mowing quote, but the ranges overlap because size is only one part of the price. Housecall Pro publishes per-visit mowing prices from its customer data, updated October 21, 2026, and a separate third-party per-acre table for recurring weekly mowing (Housecall Pro):

Housecall Pro says the per-acre ranges “won’t line up exactly” with its own lawn-size ranges, and that there is no reliable per-square-foot benchmark. For reference, LawnStarter notes the average U.S. lawn is 8,712 sq ft, or one-fifth of an acre, which is why most homeowner prices fall in the $42 to $70 band. Aeration, dethatching and seeding also scale with area. Lawn Love lists dethatching at $218 to $327 for 1/8 acre and $871 to $1,307 for 1/2 acre.

What do monthly plans and fertilizing programs cost?

A monthly plan bundles mowing with some mix of trimming, edging, fertilizing and weed control. The sources put the range at $100 to $500 a month, with the low end usually mowing only on a small lot and the high end covering a larger lot with treatments. Check what is included before comparing quotes; a $150 plan with four mows and no fertilizer is not the same product as a $150 plan with two mows and two treatments.

Fertilizing and weed control are normally sold either per application or as a yearly program of several visits. The per-application figures in the table above ($67 to $405 for fertilizing, $50 to $210 for weed control) vary mainly with lot size. A typical program has several applications a year, so multiply the per-visit price by the number of visits in the contract and compare that total, not the first-visit price. For example, four fertilizer visits at the Lawn Love national average of $289 would total $1,156 (4 x 289), but the average is for a mid-size lawn, so a small yard will cost much less. Lawn Love also lists winterization at an average of $393.

What do TruGreen-type programs cost?

National chemical-program companies sell a bundled yearly plan with scheduled visits. TruGreen does not post fixed prices and requires a personalized quote. This Old House, in a review updated June 12, 2026, shows sample annual prices for a 5,906 sq ft yard in Orlando, Florida (This Old House):

The last column is our arithmetic ($779 / 12 = $64.92; $1,014 / 12 = $84.50; $1,033 / 12 = $86.08), not a TruGreen price. This is one yard in one city. Your price will differ, and we did not find a reliable published source for TruGreen per-application pricing. These plans cover fertilizer and weed control, not mowing. To compare, ask a local company to quote the same number of visits with the same products.

What changes the price?

• Lot size and shape. More area means more time. Slopes, fences, tight gates and many obstacles slow the crew.
• Condition. Overgrown grass or a first cut usually costs more. Housecall Pro lists overgrowth, steep terrain and first visits as higher-risk jobs that should carry more profit.
• Frequency. Weekly recurring service is cheaper per visit than one-off cuts.
• Region and season. Labor, fuel, insurance and growing season length differ by market. Tofu notes that invoice volume in late summer is roughly three times the winter level.
• Add-ons. Edging, bagging, leaf cleanup, aeration and treatments are priced on top.

How do lawn businesses price a job?

Three methods are common (Angi): hourly, flat fee and per square foot. Hourly is the most reliable when conditions are unpredictable. A flat fee suits recurring jobs and helps customers budget; build it from your target hourly rate times the job’s total time. Per square foot suits uniform lawns, but terrain can erode profit.

Whichever you use, check it against a cost build-up. Housecall Pro’s formula is (labor time x hourly rate) + overhead + equipment cost + profit. Break it into five lines:

1. Labor = job hours x number of workers x hourly wage x employee overhead multiplier. Jobber’s example is an $18 wage with 20 percent employee overhead, or $21.60 per worker-hour (Jobber).
2. Travel = round-trip miles x a per-mile cost. The IRS business standard mileage rate is 76 cents per mile for July 1 to December 31, 2026 (IRS). It is a tax rate, but a reasonable proxy for fuel and vehicle wear.
3. Equipment and supplies: fuel, string, blades and wear, allocated to the job.
4. Overhead = total monthly overhead / billable hours per month, times job hours. Jobber’s example: $3,600 / 800 hours = $4.50 per hour.
5. Price = break-even cost / (1 – target margin).

On margin targets, Jobber suggests 15 to 20 percent operating profit for a small lawn business and Tofu says about 20 percent on top of fully loaded cost, while Housecall Pro recommends setting a margin floor. Divide by (1 – margin); do not multiply by (1 + margin). The difference between the two is explained in our gross margin calculator page, and the small business pricing calculator applies the same logic to any service.

Worked example: a quarter-acre weekly mow

These inputs are illustrative estimates, not market data. The wage and overhead figures follow Jobber’s published example; the rest are assumptions. Swap in your own costs.

Price at a 20 percent margin: $50.75 / (1 – 0.20) = $50.75 / 0.80 = $63.44, rounded to $64.

Re-check: at $64, profit is $64 – $50.75 = $13.25, and $13.25 / $64 = 20.7 percent, so the target is met. A 20 percent markup instead would price the job at $50.75 x 1.20 = $60.90, which is a margin of only 16.7 percent ($10.15 / $60.90).

Market cross-check: $64 is inside the $42 to $69 per-visit range from LawnStarter and Lawn Love and inside Housecall Pro’s $45 to $85 for a quarter acre, so it is competitive. Four weekly visits is $256 a month (4 x 64), inside the $100 to $410 monthly range LawnStarter gives. If local competitors charge $45 for the same lot, your hours, crew size or overhead need a second look.

Next step

Homeowners: get two or three quotes with the same scope and compare price per visit and what each visit includes. Lawn businesses: run your own numbers through the free landscaping estimate calculator. More estimating tools are in our free tools collection. Prices here come from the sources linked above as of October 2026 and will drift, so check current local quotes before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

How much does lawn care cost per month?

As of October 2026, LawnStarter puts monthly lawn maintenance at $100 to $410 and Lawn Love puts a monthly plan at $125 to $500. Angi lists mowing plus maintenance services at $125 to $450. The spread depends on lot size, how often you are mowed and which treatments are included.

How much does it cost to mow a lawn per visit?

Published guides give about $42 to $69 per visit for an average lawn (LawnStarter $42 to $68, Lawn Love $43 to $69). Housecall Pro customer data shows $45 to $70 for yards under 1,000 sq ft and $65 to $150 for 3,000 to 10,000 sq ft. Larger acreage costs more.

How much does lawn fertilizing cost?

LawnStarter lists fertilization at $67 to $405 and Lawn Love at $103 to $343, with a $289 national average. Tofu, using invoice data, shows a $117 median with a middle range of $60 to $240. Lot size and the number of applications explain most of the gap.

Is TruGreen worth the money compared with hiring a local company?

TruGreen does not publish fixed prices. A sample quote for a 5,906 sq ft Orlando yard in This Old House’s review was $779 a year for TruCore and $1,033 for TruPro. Compare that with local quotes for the same number of visits and the same products, because yard size and region change the price.

How much should I charge to mow a lawn?

Build the price from your costs: labor hours x loaded hourly rate, plus travel, equipment, overhead and a target profit. Published hourly rates run about $29 to $68 per hour, but your own costs matter more than the market range. Divide your break-even cost by one minus your margin, then check the result against local quotes.

What profit margin should a lawn care business aim for?

Jobber suggests a 15 to 20 percent operating profit margin for a small lawn care business, and Tofu says a margin around 20 percent is common on top of fully loaded cost. Housecall Pro gives no fixed number and recommends setting a margin floor you will not go below on any job. Riskier jobs should carry more.