PAINTING PRICING GUIDE
Painting pricing: how much to charge
The 2026 US rates per square foot for interiors and exteriors, prices per room and per home, what to add for ceilings, trim, repairs and cabinets — and a free calculator that turns them into a price you can put on your website.
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The short answer
Most painters charge $2 to $6 per square foot for interior work and $1.50 to $4 for exteriors (Housecall Pro, March 2026). Angi's 2026 averages: $2.75 per square foot for walls alone and $4.70 with trim and ceilings; Jobber puts walls at $1.50 to $3.50 and $3 to $4 with trim and ceilings.
By the room, a 10×12 bedroom runs $400 to $800, a kitchen $500 to $1,200 and a living room $600 to $1,500; a full 1,500–2,000 sq ft interior is $3,000 to $8,000 and a full exterior repaint $2,500 to $10,000 or more (Housecall Pro).
Ceilings add $1 to $3 per square foot and trim $1 to $3 per linear foot; drywall repair runs $50 to $300, cabinet painting $3,000 to $10,000, and specialty or repair work by the hour at $60 to $100 (Housecall Pro). The target margin is 20% to 40%.
Price from your labor hours, not from the square footage alone — then put “from” prices per room on your website, because a homeowner comparing three painters calls the one who already told them roughly what a bedroom costs.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge for this job?
Pick interior or exterior work by the square foot, a room or a whole home for a flat price, or hourly specialty work. Tick the extras. The range uses the published 2026 US rates in the table below.
Suggested price
$3,000–$9,000
interior painting (per sq ft), 1,500 sq ft
A starting range from published US rates, before paint — not a quote for a customer. Check it against your own labor hours (the formula below) and your local market before you put it on your price list.
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Put your painting prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your painting 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
Painting prices and rates (2026)
Typical US rates. Angi's 2026 figures: interior painting averages $2,022 a home, most jobs $965–$3,089, $2.75 per square foot for walls alone and $4.70 with trim and ceilings (October 2026). Jobber: $1.50–$3.50 per square foot for walls, $3–$4 with trim and ceilings, exteriors $2–$4.50.
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Interior painting (per sq ft) | $2–$6 per sq ft · about $3,000–$9,000 for 1,500 sq ft · Housecall Pro |
| Exterior painting (per sq ft) | $1.50–$4 per sq ft · about $3,000–$8,000 for 2,000 sq ft · Housecall Pro |
| Room or feature (flat price) | Bedroom, 10×12: $400–$800 · Kitchen: $500–$1,200 · Living room: $600–$1,500 · Accent wall: $100–$300 · Door: $100–$300 · Housecall Pro |
| Whole home or cabinets (flat price) | Full interior, 1,500–2,000 sq ft: $3,000–$8,000 · Full exterior repaint: $2,500–$10,000+ · Cabinet painting: $3,000–$10,000 · Housecall Pro |
| Hourly — specialty or repair work | $60–$100 per hour · about $240–$400 for 4 hours · Housecall Pro |
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 ceilings, trim and repairs
Prep and the extra surfaces take hours — price each as its own line, never inside the wall rate.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| When: after hours or weekend | 50%–100% more · Housecall Pro |
| Ceiling repaint | +$1–$3 per sq ft · Housecall Pro |
| Wallpaper removal | +$1–$3 per sq ft · Housecall Pro |
| Trim, about 150 linear ft | $1–$3 per linear ft × 150 ft = +$150–$450 · Housecall Pro rate |
| Drywall repair | +$50–$300 · 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 a paint job
Six steps from your labor hours to the number on your price list.
Measure and count the surfaces
Wall area, ceilings, trim in linear feet, doors — and the prep: patching, sanding, wallpaper. Price prep separately; never absorb it into the wall rate.
Price the paint and materials
Interior paint is $25–$65 a gallon and covers 300–400 sq ft a coat; primer $35–$75 covering 200–300; basic materials about $30–$50 for a 400 sq ft room (Jobber).
Price the labor from your hours
Labor hours × your hourly labor cost. Jobber's example: 4 painters × 8 hours at $30 is $960 — $0.80 per square foot over 1,200 sq ft. Mark labor up 20%–30%.
Add overhead per billable hour
Monthly overhead ÷ billable hours. Jobber's example: $5,000 over 800 hours is $6.25 an hour, around 10% of total costs.
Set the margin
Housecall Pro suggests 20%–40%; Jobber calls 50% gross profit the painting industry's rule of thumb and prices a job as labor + materials + overhead + margin.
Check it against the market
$2–$6 per square foot inside, $1.50–$4 outside, $400–$800 for a bedroom (Housecall Pro); Angi's $2.75 and $4.70 averages. Far below and you're leaving room; far above and the portfolio has to carry it.
The formula, worked through
Say it's a bedroom repaint. Housecall Pro's market range for a 10×12 bedroom is $400–$800.
Jobber's worked example: materials $380, labor $170 and overhead $90 — $640 in cost. Charging $800 leaves $160, a 20% operating margin (a 25% markup on cost).
$800 sits at the top of the market range, so “bedrooms from $400” is a fair line for your price list, with the real number in the written price once you've measured. If your own costs land above the range, look at your hours per room before you cut the price.
The figures are Jobber's example; your crew's speed, your paint and your overhead are what make it yours.
What to charge in your area
The ranges on this page are US national figures. Prices follow local wages and rent: 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 $600 bedroom in an average market is about $665 in California and about $520 in Arkansas.
Angi's by-size table shows how fast the total climbs with the home: $2,000–$6,000 for 1,000 sq ft, $4,600–$13,800 for 2,300 sq ft and $6,000–$18,000 for 3,000 sq ft (October 2026) — the same per-square-foot rate, more square feet.
Outside the US, treat the ranges as a shape, not a price — a rate per square foot or square metre, flat prices for rooms and doors, prep and trim as their own lines — and check what local painters 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 painting costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: bedrooms from $400, accent walls from $100, exteriors from $1.50 per sq ft” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse painting website templates or see how Zarla builds painting websites.
Still setting up? Write your painting business plan, and when the prices are set, read painting contractor marketing.
Painting pricing: common questions
$2–$6 per square foot (Housecall Pro, March 2026). Angi's 2026 averages are $2.75 for walls alone and $4.70 with trim and ceilings; Jobber puts walls at $1.50–$3.50 and $3–$4 with trim and ceilings. The calculator above prices any area with the ceilings and trim ticked.
$1.50–$4 per square foot (Housecall Pro), or $2–$4.50 (Jobber). A full exterior repaint runs $2,500–$10,000 or more; weather exposure, prep and height make exteriors cost more per square foot of work.
$400–$800 for a 10×12 bedroom, $500–$1,200 for a kitchen and $600–$1,500 for a living room (Housecall Pro). An accent wall or a door is $100–$300.
$60–$100 an hour for specialty and repair work (Housecall Pro), 1.5–2 times that after hours. Most painting is still priced by the square foot or the room; the hourly rate is for the work you can't measure.
Price them as their own lines: ceilings at $1–$3 per square foot and trim at $1–$3 per linear foot (Housecall Pro). Angi's averages show why — $2.75 per square foot for walls alone becomes $4.70 once trim and ceilings are in.
Drywall repair $50–$300, major patching $200–$800 and wallpaper removal $1–$3 per square foot (Housecall Pro); Angi puts basic prep at $0.50–$0.75 per square foot. Never absorb prep into the wall rate.
Housecall Pro suggests 20%–40%. Jobber's rule of thumb is 50% gross profit, with a worked example at a 20% operating margin: $640 in cost priced at $800.
Yes — “from” prices per room and your rate per square foot. 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 — Painting Price Guide 2026 — dated March 2026, read October 2026
- Jobber — How to Estimate a Painting Job: 4 Steps to Guaranteed Profit — dated October 2024, read October 2026
- Angi — How Much Does It Cost to Paint the Interior of a House? — dated October 2026, read October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your painting 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.