Mobile detailing price calculator
What a job actually costs you once drive time is counted — and what to charge to keep the margin you want. Free, nothing saved, no sign-in.
The job
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What it costs you
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The number you're solving for
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How the number is worked out
This is the same formula as the pricing guide, so the two can't disagree:
Price = (labour + product + water/fuel + overhead) ÷ (1 − target margin)
The part most quotes get wrong: labour runs on total time
Drive, setup and pack-down cost exactly as much to staff as the work does. A three-hour detail with thirty minutes of driving is a three-and-a-half hour job, and if you only charge labour on the three, every quote you write is short by the travel. On a loose route that gap gets large quickly — the calculator shows what share of the job is unbilled and what a tighter round would be worth per hour.
It's the same arithmetic behind the stop minimum. Travel and setup cost the same for a $35 wash as for a $300 detail, which is why most mobile operators set a floor per stop or bundle neighbours into one trip.
Two numbers, not one, when you do the work yourself
If you're the one holding the polisher, you earn twice: the wage the job pays for your hours, and the profit the business keeps on top. Those are different numbers and mixing them is how an owner-operator convinces themselves a job was profitable when it only paid them a wage. Tick the box and the calculator shows both — profit per hour of capacity, and your actual take per hour with the wage included.
Overhead is not optional
Insurance, phone, software, marketing, admin, the truck payment. Take your fixed monthly costs and divide by the jobs you do in a month — that's the overhead each job has to carry. Leaving it at zero is the most common way a price that looks profitable isn't.
Vehicle size is really time, not a surcharge. The multipliers (+20–25% for a mid SUV, +40–50% for a full-size SUV, van or lifted truck) exist because bigger vehicles take longer — more panels, more glass, more carpet. The by-size table is a starting point; for a real quote on a big vehicle, re-estimate the hours.
Stop pricing from memory
ShinePilot Pro keeps your packages, add-ons and per-vehicle pricing in one place, quotes from them, and shows what each job and each route actually returned. Free for 7 days, no demo call.
Start free trialFrequently asked questions
How do you price a mobile detailing job?
Start from what the job actually costs you, then add the margin you want to keep: price = (labour + product + water and fuel + overhead) ÷ (1 − your target margin). A full detail at 3 hours on-site plus 30 minutes of drive and setup is 3.5 hours; at $28 an hour fully loaded that's $98 of labour, plus $18 of product, $6 of water and fuel and $15 of overhead, so $137 of true cost. At a 35% margin that's about $210 for a sedan.
Should drive time be included when pricing a detail?
Yes. Drive, setup and pack-down cost exactly as much to staff as the work does, and on a mobile round they're often a fifth or more of the job. Labour has to be charged across the total time, not just the on-site hours, or every quote is short by the travel. It's also why a stop minimum matters: the travel costs the same for a $35 wash as for a $300 detail.
What margin should a mobile detailing business aim for?
A common target is around 35%. Below roughly 15% there's nothing left to absorb a re-do, a cancellation, or a vehicle that turns out to be in far worse condition than the photos showed. If the market won't bear your priced-from-cost number, the fix is usually a faster process, cheaper product per job or a denser route rather than a lower price.
How much more should you charge for an SUV or truck?
More panels, more glass and more carpet mean more time. Typical multipliers over the sedan base are +20–25% for mid-size SUVs and small trucks, and +40–50% for full-size SUVs, vans and lifted trucks. Because the extra is really time rather than a surcharge, the honest way to quote a big vehicle is to re-estimate the hours rather than only applying a multiplier.