HVAC PRICING GUIDE
HVAC pricing: how much to charge
The 2026 US hourly rates, service call fees, flat prices for repairs, tune-ups and installations, parts markup and margins — and a free calculator that turns them into a price you can put on your website.
Free calculator · No sign-up · Nothing you type is saved
The short answer
Most HVAC contractors charge $75 to $150 an hour for labor, plus a service call or diagnostic fee of $70 to $200 (Housecall Pro, October 2026). After hours and in an emergency, the hourly rate runs $140 to $250.
Common jobs are priced flat: $70 to $150 for a tune-up, $150 to $600 for a minor repair, $1,300 to $2,500 for a major one such as a compressor, and $150 to $300 a year for a residential maintenance plan (Housecall Pro).
Installations are the big tickets: $2,800 to $7,500 for a furnace, $4,000 to $11,000 for a heat pump, $5,000 to $12,000 for central air and $2,000 to $14,500 for a ductless mini-split (Housecall Pro). Equipment is usually marked up 25% to 50%, small parts 100% or more (Jobber).
Charge a flat price for the work you do every week and hourly plus a service call for diagnosis — then put the service call fee and your “from” prices on your website, because the homeowner with a dead furnace calls the first company that tells them what the visit costs.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge for this job?
Pick a repair, a tune-up or an installation for a flat price, or hourly work with the time it takes and when. Tick the service call. The range uses the published 2026 US rates in the table below.
Suggested price
$150–$300
hourly labor (residential), 2 hours
A starting range from published US rates, before equipment and parts — not a quote for a customer. Check it against your own costs (the formula below) and your local market before you put it on your price list.
Show this price on your website ↓Show this price on your website
Put your HVAC prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your HVAC website from this one line. Then tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
RATES · OCTOBER 2026
HVAC rates and job prices (2026)
Typical US residential rates and flat prices. Jobber's bands are wider on installs: a furnace at $1,700–$10,000, central air at $3,900–$7,900, a heat pump at $4,200–$7,600 and a boiler at $1,800–$9,000 (December 2025).
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Hourly labor (residential) | $75–$150 per hour · about $150–$300 for 2 hours · Housecall Pro |
| Repair or tune-up (flat price) | Tune-up: $70–$150 · Minor repair: $150–$600 · Major repair, such as a compressor: $1,300–$2,500 · Duct cleaning: $300–$700 · Housecall Pro |
| Installation or replacement (flat price) | Furnace: $2,800–$7,500 · Heat pump: $4,000–$11,000 · Central air conditioning: $5,000–$12,000 · Ductless mini-split: $2,000–$14,500 · Full duct replacement: $1,400–$5,600 · Housecall Pro |
| Residential maintenance plan (per year) | Annual plan, two visits: $150–$300 · Housecall Pro |
| Hourly, basic maintenance to emergency and commercial work | $65–$200 an hour · Jobber |
Rates read off each publisher's page in October 2026. The calculator above uses exactly these numbers. Full source list below.
ADD-ONS AND ADJUSTMENTS
What to charge for the visit and the hour
The drive and the diagnosis are work — charge the service call on every visit, and more after hours.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| When: nights, weekends or emergency | $140–$250 an hour after hours against $75–$150 in regular hours · Housecall Pro figures |
| Service call or diagnostic fee | +$70–$200 · Housecall Pro |
Where a row shows a sum (a rate × a quantity, or a percentage worked out from published dollar ranges), the arithmetic is ours and the inputs are the publisher's.
THE PRICING FORMULA
How to price an HVAC job
Six steps from your costs to the number on your price list.
Know your true labor cost
Wages plus payroll taxes, benefits and non-billable time. Jobber's example: a $28 an hour technician is $33.60 with 20% for benefits.
Add overhead per billable hour
Rent, trucks, software, insurance and the office ÷ the hours you actually bill. It belongs in every job, not just the big ones.
Mark up equipment and parts
25%–50% on equipment and 100% or more on small parts (Jobber): a $2,500 unit at 25% is $3,125; a $20 capacitor at 100% is $40.
Set your margin
ACCA recommends a 10% net profit and the average contractor nets about 6% (Housecall Pro). Jobber's target is 10%–20% net, with 50% gross as the trades' rule of thumb.
Set the service call and the after-hours rate
$70–$200 for the visit and diagnosis; $140–$250 an hour for nights, weekends and emergencies against $75–$150 in regular hours (Housecall Pro).
Sell the maintenance plan
$150–$300 a year for a residential plan (Housecall Pro) — predictable revenue in the shoulder months, and first call when the system fails.
The formula, worked through
Say it's a heat pump installation. Housecall Pro's market range is $4,000–$11,000.
Housecall Pro's worked example: 20 hours of labor at $90 is $1,800, the equipment and materials are $6,700 and overhead is $500 — $9,000 in cost. At a 10% margin, the price is $10,000.
$10,000 sits inside the market range, so “heat pump installations from $4,000” is a fair line for your price list, with the real number in the written price for the job. Jobber's version of the same step: a $3,600 job at a 25% margin is priced at $4,800.
The figures are the publishers' examples; your hours, equipment cost and overhead are what make it yours.
What to charge in your area
The ranges on this page are US national figures. Prices follow local costs: the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts overall prices in California at 110.7 against a US average of 100, and Arkansas at 86.9 (2024 regional price parities, released February 2026). So a $120 an hour rate in an average market is about $130 in California and about $105 in Arkansas.
Housecall Pro notes that nights, weekends, emergency response and long-distance travel all command higher service call fees (October 2026) — a rural company with an hour's drive to each job prices the visit, not just the hour.
Outside the US, treat the ranges as a shape, not a price — a service call for the visit, flat prices for tune-ups and common repairs, equipment marked up and a plan for the year hold everywhere — and check what local HVAC companies list on their own websites.
Put your prices on your website
A price list — even “from” prices — answers a customer's first question before they pick up the phone, and it's the line an AI assistant can quote when someone asks what HVAC work costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: tune-ups from $70, service calls from $70, heat pump installations from $4,000” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse HVAC website templates or see how Zarla builds HVAC websites.
Still setting up? Write your HVAC business plan, and when the prices are set, read HVAC marketing.
HVAC pricing: common questions
$75–$150 an hour for standard residential labor, and $140–$250 after hours or in an emergency (Housecall Pro, October 2026). Jobber puts basic maintenance at $65–$100 an hour and emergency or commercial work at up to $200 and more. The calculator above works out any number of hours with the service call.
$70–$200 for the visit and the diagnosis (Housecall Pro). Many companies credit it toward the repair when the customer goes ahead.
$70–$150 per visit, or $150–$300 a year for a residential maintenance plan that includes two of them (Housecall Pro).
$150–$600 for a minor repair and $1,300–$2,500 for a major one such as a compressor (Housecall Pro). Jobber puts an AC repair at $200–$1,000 and a heat pump repair at $200–$2,000.
25%–50% on equipment and 100% or more on small parts (Jobber, December 2025) — the markup pays for sourcing, stocking, the warranty and the trip to the supply house.
Jobber suggests 10%–20% net, with about 12% typical and 50% gross as the trades' rule of thumb (June 2026). Housecall Pro cites ACCA's 10% net recommendation against an industry average of about 6%.
Most use both (Housecall Pro): a flat price for tune-ups, common repairs and installations, and a service call plus hourly labor for diagnosis and anything you can't size until you open the unit.
Yes — your service call fee, your tune-up price and “from” prices for repairs and installations. It answers the first question before the call and gives an AI assistant a real number to quote. On a Zarla site, tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US figures for residential work — typical, not a rule; your costs and your market come first.
- Housecall Pro — How to Price HVAC Services (2026) — dated October 2026, read October 2026
- Jobber — How to Price HVAC Jobs: 7 Steps to Turning a Profit — dated December 2025, read October 2026
- Jobber — Your Guide to HVAC Business Profit Margins — dated June 2026, read October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your HVAC prices on your website
Add your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. Your prices go in a pricing section you edit by chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.