How much to charge for commercial cleaning has no market answer, because the two figures that decide it, your wage market and your production rates, are local to you. What there is instead is a method that produces a number you can defend, and defending the number is most of the job when a facilities manager comes back and asks for ten per cent off. Below is the method with an example worked through, which is the same arithmetic the free sheet on this site performs.
Area to hours, hours to cost
Take cleanable area by space type, apply your production rate for each, add the fixed time per visit that does not scale, and multiply by visits per month. That gives monthly hours. Multiply by a loaded hourly cost: the wage plus the employer's payroll tax and insurance, not the wage alone. Federal employer FICA is 7.65% of wages before any state unemployment or workers' compensation, so a $19 wage is already over $20 before your state is considered.
Add what is not labour
Supplies and consumables, at cost per visit or as a stated monthly allowance. Equipment cost per visit, being the replacement cost of machines spread over the jobs they will do. Travel, priced defensibly rather than guessed: the IRS business standard mileage rate is 76 cents a mile for the second half of 2026, and 72.5 cents for the first half. And overhead per paid hour, which is your fixed monthly costs divided by the hours you actually bill.
Then divide, and sanity-check per square foot
Monthly price is monthly cost divided by one minus your target margin, with any processing fee taken off the same side. Then divide the price by the cleanable area to get your figure per square foot, and compare that against what you know of the market. If it sits well above, look at your production rates before you cut the margin, because the rate is usually where the difference actually lives.
Questions people ask about how to price commercial cleaning jobs
How much do commercial cleaners charge per hour?
The hourly figure is an output, not an input. Two contractors charging the same hour can be wildly apart on profitability depending on their production rates.
Should I charge less for a bigger building?
Per square foot, usually yes, because fixed time is spread further. Per hour, no. Let the arithmetic produce the discount rather than offering one.
What margin should commercial cleaning carry?
Enough to cover your drawings, tax, equipment replacement and the accounts that go bad. Pick it deliberately and apply it by division.