Everyday & industry

Contractor Pricing Calculator

Estimate job cost, quote price, profit and margin. Compare markup, target-margin pricing and a contingency allowance using your own contractor cost assumptions.

Use this calculator to estimate a contractor job price from labor, materials, subcontractors, equipment, travel, overhead and your desired profit.

Use your own cost and pricing assumptions. Actual job costs can vary because of scope changes, productivity, material prices, site conditions and local market factors.

The dollar sign is generic: use one currency throughout. Blank optional costs and subcontractor markup count as zero. Job type is descriptive only; no local contractor rates or trade-specific material quantities are preset.

Calculations run locally in your browser. Your inputs are not saved.

Enter your job costs and choose a quote mode.

Calculation Mode

Job details

Job Type

Descriptive only. Job type does not change costs or pricing.

Labor

Number of Workers

Hours per Worker

Labor Cost per Worker per Hour

Use your loaded labor cost or internal labor-value assumption.

Materials

Materials Cost

Material Waste / Allowance %

Subcontractors

Subcontractor Cost

Enter any outside labor or trade cost you expect to pay.

Subcontractor Markup %

Added to the quote after normal cost-based pricing. This is extra quote revenue, not an increase in actual subcontractor cost.

Direct job costs

Equipment / Rental Cost

Travel / Vehicle Cost

Permits / Direct Fees

Other Direct Job Costs

Overhead

Overhead Allocation Method

Overhead %

Pricing approach

Pricing Method

Markup %

Optional adjustments

Sales Tax Rate %

Optional customer-total estimate only. Verify the tax treatment that applies to your business and jurisdiction.

Example: Small Contractor Job

Example only: 2 workers × 16 hours = 32 labor hours. At $35 per hour, labor is $1,120. Materials of $500 plus a 10% material allowance of $50 give $550 in adjusted materials. Add $50 for travel and no other direct costs for $1,720 direct cost. A 15% overhead allocation adds $258, giving $1,978 total job cost. A 30% markup produces a $2,571.40 quote, $593.40 estimated profit and approximately 23.08% margin.

About this calculator

How contractor pricing works

Contractor pricing should account for more than labor and materials. Vehicle costs, equipment, subcontractors, waste, overhead and non-billable operating costs can materially affect profitability.

Markup and profit margin are different. A 30% markup on cost does not produce a 30% profit margin.
Contingency allowances can help model uncertainty, but they should reflect the nature of the specific job.
This calculator provides a planning estimate and does not determine local market pricing or contract terms.

Subcontractor markup and contingency

Actual subcontractor cost is included once in direct job costs. Optional subcontractor markup is added after the normal cost-based quote, increasing quote revenue and profit without increasing actual job cost. A target margin applies before that extra markup; the final profit margin reflects the additional quote revenue.

Contingency is applied to direct cost before overhead. Percentage overhead is recalculated; fixed overhead stays unchanged.
The same pricing method and subcontractor markup apply to both comparison scenarios.
This is a pricing-planning contingency, not an accounting reserve or customer contract term.

Optional sales tax

Tax uses only the entered rate on the final quote, including optional subcontractor markup. It changes the customer total, not quote revenue or profit. Verify the tax treatment that applies to your business and jurisdiction.

Planning estimates only, not local market prices, contract terms, payroll-tax calculations or tax/accounting advice. This Tool does not save inputs, create customer records, generate invoices, schedule crews or connect to external services.