Car Detailing Pricing: A Complete Guide to Prices, Rates, and Profit

How to price your car detailing services

Before you set your price lists, you need to know how to calculate profitability. Here’s the formula you’ll use to calculate your service prices:

(Labor hours x Hourly labor rate) + Material costs + Overhead costs + Markup

Let’s imagine an easy scenario—a full interior car detail job that you’re doing yourself.

1. Three hours of work at $25 per hour equals $75.
2. Add $15 for materials and $10 for overhead, bringing the subtotal to $100.
3. Finally, apply a 20% markup, which is $20, for a total price of $120. 

In this example, you’d need to charge your customer $120 for a profitable full interior detail.

To break it down even further, follow these steps:

1. Choose how to price your services

There are three different ways you can charge customers for your auto detailing services: per hour, per car size, and per detailing service.

• Per hour – Charge your customers an hourly rate based on the number of hours you expect it will take to complete the service.
  
• Per car size – The bigger the car, the more time and materials it will take to detail it. Set prices based on whether you’ll be working on a small car (coupes or sedans), medium-sized car (crossovers or station wagons), or large vehicle (SUVs, trucks, or minivans). 
• Per detailing service – Charge customers based on the types of services they want, like interior or engine detailing, and the time or skill it will take to complete that service. This is based on a “flat rate” fee per service.

2. Determine your labor costs

If you’re planning to outsource any car detailing work, remember to factor in labor. Your labor costs include the amount you’ll pay your employees (or yourself) to complete the job. 

To calculate labor costs, know your hourly rate and the approximate number of hours each service will take.

Use this formula to determine your labor costs for a job:

Hourly rate x # of hours

If you plan on having more than one detailer working on the job, try this formula instead:

Hourly rate x # of workers x # of hours

Pro Tip: The average hourly rate for an auto detailer in the U.S. is $29. (This does not include any tips or gratuity a worker might earn for a job well done.)

3. Add your material costs

Material costs include any supplies you’ll need to complete the job, like all-purpose cleaner, leather conditioner, and waxes or sealants.

To make sure the materials you use aren’t cutting into the job’s profitability, factor in the exact cost for each item (including taxes) to your car detailing prices.

If you use ¼ of an $80 bottle of cleaner on a job, divide the price of the cleaner by 4 to get your material cost. In this example, you’d factor in $20 of cleaner for one completed job. Then, add your total material costs to your labor costs and continue to the next step.

4. Calculate your overhead rate

Your overhead refers to any indirect costs that are needed to run your business—like car detailing marketing costs, insurance payments, utilities, or property rent and taxes.

To calculate your overhead rate, add up your monthly overhead amount and divide it by your monthly sales. Then multiply it by 100 to get a percentage.

Here’s what that formula looks like:

(Total monthly overhead costs ÷ total monthly sales) x 100

Once you know your overhead rate, you can use it to set more accurate pricing or identify areas to cut costs and improve profitability.

For example, if your overhead rate is 30%, you’ll know that 30 cents of every dollar you earn goes toward covering indirect costs, helping you decide if your pricing leaves enough room for profit.

How much to charge for mobile detailing

The main difference between pricing for auto detailing and pricing for mobile detailing are the additional operating costs. That’s because, in a mobile business, you’re traveling to your clients—at their homes, workplaces, or public spaces.

Along with the fixed and variable overhead costs mentioned above, for mobile auto detailing you’ll have to consider:

• Cost of fuel for travel
• Routine maintenance on your work vehicle
• Commercial auto insurance 

You can use the same formula as above to calculate your mobile auto detailing prices. The only difference is that you need to factor in these additional costs.

Mobile detailing pricing list

Here’s a quick glance at typical price points for different car or mobile detailing services. Keep in mind that these change based on your service region and even the type of car you’re cleaning.

Building a car detailing package

There are two types of car detailing packages that you can use for your auto detailing business—price bundling and tiered pricing.

What is price bundling?

Price or service bundling lets you combine multiple related services for one packaged price. You can use this pricing model to increase value for your customers and boost sales.

Here’s an example of three different price bundling packages you can use for auto detailing:

Exterior detailing package pricing

Exterior car detailing can cost anywhere from $175 to $250+. This service package typically includes:

• Exterior hand wash
• Wheel clean and tire shine
• Window cleaning and treating
• Waxing
• Contaminant and tar removal

Interior detailing package pricing

Interior car detailing prices range from $175 to $250+. These service packages often include:

• Deep clean of carpet, floor mats and upholstery
• Steam cleaning headliner, leather, vinyl, and plastic surfaces
• Door jambs cleaning
• Interior and exterior glass cleaning
• Leather, vinyl, and plastic protectant

Full car detailing package pricing

A complete car detailing will likely cost between $200 and $350+ depending on the size of the vehicle. This package includes both interior and exterior detailing.

Pro Tip: Consider offering a small discount (10-15%) on your full car details. This might help persuade customers that a complete package is worth it.

What is tiered pricing?

Also known as “good, better, best pricing”, tiered pricing lets you offer clients three different service packages alongside each other. Each package is priced at a marginally higher price point and offers additional services or options for your customer.

Tiered pricing helps your auto detailing business better meet your customer’s needs and budgets, and win higher-priced jobs.

Here’s an example of how you can make tiered pricing work for your auto detailing company:

Bronze package 

Interior auto detailing includes:

• Carpets, mats, and upholstery vacuumed
• Dash, console, and all vinyl cleaned
• Interior glass cleaned

Silver package

Interior auto detailing includes bronze package plus:

• Carpet and upholstery stains are spot-treated
• Dash, console, and vinyl protected with a restoring UV protectant
• Leather is treated with special cleaner and conditioner
• Trunk is vacuumed

Gold package

Interior auto detailing includes silver package plus:

• All carpets, mats, and cloth upholstery are scrubbed and steamed
• Leather is gently scrubbed, steamed, and conditioned
• Steering wheel, dash armrest, center console, and door handles are steam-cleaned and sanitized

Car detail pricing best practices

Now that you know how to calculate pricing for auto detailing services, here are some tips to keep in mind along the way.

1. Don’t commit to pricing before seeing a car

Be prepared to increase your pricing based on the condition of the car. After all, a car with stains on the upholstery will be much harder and more time-consuming to detail than a car that’s been maintained well by the owner. 

Here are a few other factors that may affect your pricing:

• Car size 
• Vehicle condition
• Pet hair, mold growth, spills or stains
• Trim package of car

Whether you’re quoting a customer directly or posting prices on your website and social media pages, add “starting from” beside your prices. This gives you the flexibility to adjust your pricing as necessary. Be honest, and inform your customer right away if you expect a job to take longer or require more work.

2. Know your competition

Research your competition to see what they’re charging for auto detailing services. Look for what services they offer, what their packages include, and how much their auto detailing services cost.

Once you know what your competitors are offering you can fill in any service gaps and create a pricing strategy that aligns with the going market rate.

3. Consider your location 

Each city or state will have differing auto detailing prices based on the cost of resources and labor—and what people are willing to pay for the service.

For example, auto detailers in Florida typically charge less than the national average, or $120-$160 for basic car detailing service. On the other hand, detailers in New York charge anywhere from $65-325.

4. Factor in your professional experience

The more experience you have as an auto detailer, the more value you’re bringing to your customer. Factor in the amount of experience you have working on luxury vehicles, detailing cars, and removing stains when pricing jobs.

Here’s the good news—as your company grows, your monthly revenue is likely to rise. Take it from three motivated entrepreneurs we spoke with—they started small but have grown their car detailing businesses to bring in over $18,000 per month.