POOL CLEANING PRICING GUIDE
Pool cleaning rates
The 2026 US monthly plans, per-visit and hourly prices, what to charge for a first clean, an opening, a closing or an acid wash, what saltwater and chlorine do to the hour — and a free calculator that turns them into a price you can put on your website.
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The short answer
Pool maintenance costs $80 to $150 a month for a weekly or bi-weekly cleaning service, or $30 to $95 a month for basic care (HomeGuide, September 2025). HomeAdvisor puts a routine visit at $116–$357, average $236, and cleaning with water testing at $80–$150 a month (June 2026); Fixr puts weekly service at $20–$50 a week and monthly service at $30–$90 (January 2025).
The one-offs are priced flat: a first-time cleaning $150–$350, a one-time deep clean $200–$400, a chlorine wash $300–$450, an acid wash $400–$550 and a drain-and-clean $650 (HomeGuide). Opening a pool runs $350–$500 and closing it $300–$650 (HomeGuide); HomeAdvisor's range is $150–$300 for each.
Behind the flat prices is the hour: $60–$90 for cleaning (HomeGuide), $60–$95 (Fixr) or $75–$100 in labor (HomeAdvisor). Fixr's hourly rates by pool: saltwater $60–$75, in-ground and above-ground $75–$85, chlorine $80–$95 — a chlorine pool takes more chemistry and more time.
Most pool technicians charge $80 to $150 a month per pool (HomeGuide's start-up guide, December 2025), and a small to medium company grosses $50,000–$150,000 a year on it. Price the route by the month, the extras by the job, and put the monthly price on your website — the homeowner with a green pool wants a number before they call.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge for this pool?
Pick a monthly plan, a single visit, a one-off clean, an opening or a closing — or hourly work with the time it takes and the pool's chemistry. The range uses the published 2026 US figures in the table below.
Suggested price
$80–$150
monthly service plan, weekly or bi-weekly cleaning
A starting range from published US figures, before chemicals and parts — not a price for a customer's pool until you've seen it. Check it against your own costs (the formula below) and your local market before it goes on your price list.
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Put your pool cleaning prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your pool cleaning website from this one line. Then tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.
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RATES · OCTOBER 2026
Pool cleaning rates and job prices (2026)
Typical US residential figures. For context: Fixr's weekly service is $20–$50 a week ($1,040–$2,600 a year on contract), its monthly service $30–$90, its hourly rate $60–$95 and its one-time visit $90–$270 (January 2025); HomeAdvisor's monthly range is $30–$260, with labor at $75–$100 an hour (June 2026).
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Monthly service plan | Basic care (chemistry and a check): $30–$95 · Weekly or bi-weekly cleaning: $80–$150 · HomeGuide |
| Single routine visit | Routine maintenance visit: $116–$357 · HomeAdvisor |
| One-off cleaning (flat price) | First-time cleaning: $150–$350 · One-time deep clean: $200–$400 · Chlorine wash: $300–$450 · Acid wash: $400–$550 · HomeGuide |
| Opening or closing (flat price) | Pool opening: $350–$500 · Pool closing: $300–$650 · HomeGuide |
| Hourly cleaning | $60–$90 per hour · about $120–$180 for 2 hours · HomeGuide |
| Hourly, pool cleaning | $60–$90 an hour · HomeGuide |
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 the pool's chemistry and the extras add
Saltwater takes less time per visit, chlorine more; filters, inspections and tests are their own lines.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Pool type (hourly work): saltwater | $60–$75 an hour for a saltwater pool against $75–$85 for an in-ground pool · Fixr figures |
| Pool type (hourly work): chlorine | $80–$95 an hour for a chlorine pool against $75–$85 for an in-ground pool · Fixr figures |
| Filter cleaning | +$60–$65 · Fixr |
| Pool inspection | +$100–$200 · Fixr |
| Professional water test | +$20–$40 · Fixr |
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 pool cleaning
Six steps from the hour to the monthly price on your website.
Know your true hourly cost
Wages plus payroll costs, the truck, insurance, test kits and the unbillable drive between pools — then compare it with the $60–$90 an hour the market pays for cleaning (HomeGuide, September 2025).
Time the standard visit
A first-time cleaning takes two or three hours at $60–$90 an hour, $120–$270 (HomeGuide); a routine weekly visit far less. Your monthly price is four visits of that time plus the chemicals.
Price the route by the month
$80–$150 a month for weekly or bi-weekly cleaning, $30–$95 for basic care (HomeGuide); most technicians charge $80–$150 a month per pool (HomeGuide's start-up guide, December 2025). A monthly plan is predictable for both sides.
Count the chemicals
A year's chemicals run about $175 for a fiberglass pool, $400 for vinyl and $750 for concrete (HomeGuide) — the concrete pool's plan has to carry three times the chemistry.
Charge the one-offs flat
First clean $150–$350, deep clean $200–$400, chlorine wash $300–$450, acid wash $400–$550, drain and clean $650, opening $350–$500, closing $300–$650 (HomeGuide). These are the jobs that fill the shoulder months.
Adjust for the pool
Fixr's hourly rates: saltwater $60–$75, in-ground $75–$85, chlorine $80–$95 (January 2025); a large 20-by-40 pool runs $120–$380 a visit against $60–$285 for a small one. Say the size and type on your price list.
The formula, worked through
Say a 15-by-30 in-ground chlorine pool on weekly service, in an average-cost market.
Weekly or bi-weekly cleaning is $80–$150 a month (HomeGuide). If each visit takes 45 minutes at a $60–$90 hourly rate, four visits are $180–$270 of time a month before chemicals — so a route priced at $120–$150 a month only works when the drive between pools is short and the visit is quick. That is why most companies sell the month, not the hour: the published $80–$150 assumes a dense route.
Add the extras the year brings — an opening at $350–$500, a closing at $300–$650, perhaps an acid wash every few years at $400–$550 — and “weekly pool service from $120 a month, openings from $350” is a fair line for your website. The arithmetic is ours; the figures are the publishers'.
What to charge in your part of the country
The ranges on this page are US national figures. HomeAdvisor's annual maintenance by pool size: $400–$900 for a 10-by-20 pool, $600–$1,100 for 14-by-28, $700–$1,200 for 16-by-32 and $1,000 or more for 20-by-40 (June 2026). Across all prices, the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts California at 110.7 against a US average of 100 and Arkansas at 86.9 (2024 regional price parities, released February 2026).
The season shapes the price more than the state does. In the Sun Belt, pools run all year and the monthly plan is twelve months of revenue; in the North, the plan runs May to September and the opening and closing — $300–$650 each (HomeGuide) — carry the shoulder months. Price the plan for your season, not the national average.
Outside the US, treat the ranges as a shape, not a price — a monthly plan for the route, flat prices for the one-offs and the season's opening and closing — and check what local pool 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 pool cleaning costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: weekly pool service from $120 a month, first-time cleans from $150, pool openings from $350” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse pool cleaning website templates or see how Zarla builds pool cleaning websites.
Still setting up? Write your pool cleaning business plan, browse pool cleaning business name ideas, and when the prices are set, read how to get your business on Google. Raising prices you set a year ago? The price increase letter tells customers a month ahead.
Starting the company? How to start a pool cleaning business covers the equipment, the first route and the paperwork.
Pool cleaning rates: common questions
$80–$150 a month for weekly or bi-weekly cleaning, $30–$95 for basic care (HomeGuide, September 2025). Fixr puts weekly service at $20–$50 a week (January 2025) and HomeAdvisor cleaning with water testing at $80–$150 a month (June 2026). The calculator above starts from those plans.
A routine visit runs $116–$357, average $236 (HomeAdvisor, June 2026). A one-time visit outside a plan is $90–$270 at Fixr (January 2025) and a first-time cleaning $150–$350 at HomeGuide — two or three hours at $60–$90 an hour.
$60–$90 an hour (HomeGuide, September 2025); Fixr's range is $60–$95 and HomeAdvisor's labor $75–$100 (June 2026). By pool type, Fixr puts saltwater at $60–$75, in-ground at $75–$85 and chlorine at $80–$95 an hour.
Opening runs $350–$500 and closing $300–$650 (HomeGuide, September 2025), with vacuuming at about $85 an hour and $125 more to clean a solid cover. HomeAdvisor's range is $150–$300 for each (June 2026). Fixr prices an opening-and-closing-only contract at $450–$650 a year.
An acid wash is $400–$550 and a chlorine wash $300–$450; a full drain and clean is $650 (HomeGuide, September 2025). Fixr's ranges are $350–$550 for the acid wash and $500–$700 for the drain and clean (January 2025).
Yes, by the hour: $80–$95 for chlorine against $60–$75 for saltwater (Fixr, January 2025), because the chemistry needs more testing and more shocking. HomeGuide puts a year's chemicals at about $175 for fiberglass, $400 for vinyl and $750 for concrete.
A small to medium company grosses $50,000–$150,000 a year and nets $24,000–$120,000, depending on route density, staff and overhead; technicians earn $25,000–$40,000 (HomeGuide's start-up guide, December 2025). Start-up costs run $3,000 to $50,000 or more, most of it the vehicle.
Yes — the monthly plan, the first-clean price and “from” prices for openings and closings. 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 each season.
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.
- HomeGuide — How Much Does It Cost to Own and Maintain a Swimming Pool? — dated September 2025, read October 2026
- HomeAdvisor — How Much Does Pool Maintenance Cost in 2026? — dated June 2026, read October 2026
- Fixr — Pool Maintenance Cost — dated January 2025, read October 2026
- HomeGuide — How to Start a Pool Cleaning Business: A Complete Guide — dated December 2025, read October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your pool cleaning 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.