Resources
Commercial cleaning prices per square foot: what public sources report
Commercial cleaning prices per square foot, drawn from public sources only: ISSA’s published rates, the large consumer price guides, California public contract awards, BOMA and IFMA operating benchmarks and federal wage data. Each figure keeps its source, its year and its unit exactly as published, because a price per visit, a monthly rate and a yearly operating cost are three different numbers.
Request a quoteCall (408) 668-0624
The short answer
For routine office cleaning, ISSA puts general office space at $0.09 to $0.17 a square foot in its December 2025 article, using a formula of total monthly cost divided by cleanable square feet. California public contract awards for buildings cleaned five to seven nights a week come out at a median of $0.18 a square foot a month, just above the top of ISSA’s office band. The consumer guides land nearby, at $0.10 to $0.20 on Angi and $0.08 to $0.20 on HomeGuide, though neither says whether its figure is per visit or per month.
Figures were gathered on October 22 and November 5, 2026, and every table row names its source. Every figure on this page comes from a public source.
Published price per square foot by building type
| Building type | ISSA (Dec. 4, 2025) | Angi (updated Oct. 12, 2026) | HomeGuide (dated Dec. 13, 2023) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office | $0.09-$0.17 | $0.10-$0.20 | $0.08-$0.20 (standard office, retail or church) |
| Medical | $0.14-$0.29 | $0.20-$0.50 | $0.10-$0.30 medical office; $0.15-$0.40 medical facility |
| Industrial | $0.08-$0.20 | $0.15-$0.35 | $0.15-$0.35 |
| Retail | $0.07-$0.15 | $0.05-$0.10 | $0.08-$0.20 |
| Schools | $0.07-$0.14 | $0.10-$0.30 | $0.10-$0.30 |
| Restaurant | Not listed | Not listed | $0.15-$0.30 |
| Post-construction | Not listed | $0.15-$0.60 | Not listed |
| Unit as published | Not stated for the ranges; ISSA’s formula is monthly cost divided by cleanable sq ft | Not stated; shown beside per-visit totals | Not stated |
HomeGuide adds that its overall figure can pass $0.30 with more bathrooms, kitchens or deep cleaning. Its article is dated December 13, 2023 although its title says 2026 prices, so treat it as the oldest of the three. ISSA also prices periodic work by the square foot for each service: carpet cleaning at $0.08 to $0.25, strip and refinish at $0.30 to $0.60, and scrub and recoat at $0.20 to $0.40. Our floor stripping and waxing and commercial carpet cleaning pages explain those jobs.
Per visit, per month or unit not stated
Price guides mix units, and the same dollar figure means something very different per visit than per month. Angi pairs its square-foot range with totals per visit. HomeGuide prints an average monthly cost by size, footnoted as three visits a week when we read it in October 2026.
| Building size | Angi, per visit |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 sq ft | $70-$250 |
| 1,000-5,000 sq ft | $150-$600 |
| 5,000-20,000 sq ft | $400-$2,000 |
| 20,000 sq ft and up | $1,000-$2,500+ |
| Building size | HomeGuide, average per month |
|---|---|
| Under 1,000 sq ft | $100-$250 |
| 1,000-2,000 sq ft | $200-$400 |
| 2,000-4,000 sq ft | $250-$800 |
| 4,000-6,000 sq ft | $350-$1,200 |
| 6,000-8,000 sq ft | $500-$1,600 |
| 8,000-10,000 sq ft | $650-$2,000+ |
Thumbtack, updated March 31, 2026, reports $161 to $402 per cleaning, with $253 typical. Its office chart is headed as rates per square foot but lists totals: $211 for up to 1,000 square feet, $376 for 1,000 to 2,000, $435 for 2,000 to 3,000, $577 for 3,000 to 4,000 and $834 for 4,000 to 5,000. Read every number with its unit before setting it beside a quote.
What California public agencies paid
Public cleaning contracts are published in board and council documents, and their awarded prices convert cleanly to dollars per cleanable square foot per month. These awards skew toward large, multi-building sites, and California state agencies post their bids on Cal eProcure. Anyone pricing that work should check whether California prevailing wage applies before quoting, and cleaning companies preparing a public bid of their own can follow our guide on how to bid government cleaning contracts.
| Agency and date | What the award works out to, per cleanable sq ft per month |
|---|---|
| County of Monterey, Board, June 11, 2024 | 13 buildings cleaned 5 days a week, 8 bidders: pooled median $0.184, middle half $0.165-$0.214 |
| County of Monterey, same solicitation | Office with a warehouse annex, about 42,000 sq ft: median $0.09 per total sq ft |
| County of Fresno, Board, Nov. 4, 2025 | 162,000 sq ft cleaned daily: $0.088 |
| City of San Leandro, award Jan. 23, 2024 (year 2 prices) | Buildings cleaned 5-7 nights a week: $0.153-$0.357 |
| County of Napa, Board, April 22, 2025 | Small sites cleaned 2-6 times a week: $0.107-$0.432 |
| City of Encinitas, Oct. 22, 2025 | 4 facilities, 96,831 sq ft: $0.169 overall, $0.142-$0.624 by building |
| All 22 awards for buildings cleaned 5-7 nights a week | Median $0.18; range $0.09-$0.36 |
Annual operating benchmarks from BOMA and IFMA
Building-operations surveys report cleaning as a yearly cost per square foot of the whole building, which includes in-house staff, so the figures are not contract prices. The BOMA 2016 Office Experience Exchange Report, as reported by Facility Executive in July 2016, put cleaning at $1.52 a square foot against $8.07 in total operating expenses, across more than 5,200 buildings in 272 U.S. and Canadian markets. The article does not say per year, although the report tracks annual expenses.
The IFMA Operations and Maintenance Benchmarks survey, run in spring and summer 2000 and reported by FMLink, found a median janitorial cost of $1.08 a square foot, with healthcare highest at $1.94 and in-house cleaning costing more than contracted service. Divided by twelve, BOMA’s $1.52 comes to about $0.127 a month, inside ISSA’s office band; that is our arithmetic, not the survey’s. Both benchmarks are a decade or more old, and current BOMA and IFMA cleaning figures sit in paid reports.
Wages and hourly rates behind the price
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey for May 2025, released May 15, 2026, gives hourly wages paid to janitors and cleaners (occupation 37-2011). These are what workers earn, not what a contractor bills.
| Area | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $15.50 | $17.71 | $21.18 |
| California | $17.71 | $19.75 | $23.20 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont | $19.20 | $21.24 | $26.06 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | $19.27 | $21.09 | $23.63 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom | $17.53 | $19.93 | $23.51 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma | $17.80 | $18.85 | $23.19 |
| Vallejo | $18.38 | $21.00 | $24.28 |
| Napa | $18.38 | $21.51 | $25.49 |
| Stockton-Lodi | $17.26 | $19.30 | $23.77 |
| Salinas | $17.91 | $20.95 | $24.05 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville | $18.05 | $19.61 | $24.68 |
| Modesto | $17.44 | $19.82 | $24.04 |
| Fresno | $16.86 | $18.26 | $22.25 |
Napa, Vallejo and Santa Cruz rest on smaller samples, about 2,000 jobs or fewer each.
Billed rates per cleaner-hour run higher. Angi lists $20 to $90 an hour overall and $20 to $80 for offices; HomeGuide lists $25 to $100 per worker, with standard office, retail and church work at $25 to $50. On the federal schedule, GSA ceiling rates for janitor labor categories (178 rates, read October 27, 2026) have a median of $38.48, with a middle half of $31.90 to $47.59. Labor carries the price: it usually makes up 50% to 80% of a commercial cleaning bid, according to BSCAI as cited by CMM Online in September 2025.
Where the sources disagree
- Retail: $0.05-$0.10 on Angi, $0.07-$0.15 on ISSA and $0.08-$0.20 on HomeGuide.
- Medical: ISSA’s $0.14-$0.29 against Angi’s $0.20-$0.50; ISSA ties its higher medical rate to infection prevention.
- Industrial and schools: ISSA sits lower ($0.08-$0.20 and $0.07-$0.14) than Angi and HomeGuide ($0.15-$0.35 and $0.10-$0.30).
- Hourly top end: Angi stops at $90 an hour and HomeGuide at $100.
- California against the nation: the public-award median of $0.18 a month sits just above the top of ISSA’s national office band.
- Age and labels: HomeGuide’s 2023 article carries a 2026 title, and Thumbtack’s per-square-foot chart lists totals.
None of these gaps should be averaged away. Each one points to a different unit, building mix or year.
Using the figures to check a budget or a bid
- Measure cleanable square feet: the floor a crew works through on a visit, not the gross area on the lease.
- Put every quote on a monthly basis: multiply a per-visit price by visits a week and by 4.33, the weeks in an average month.
- Divide by cleanable square feet to get a rate per square foot per month.
- Compare like with like: set that rate beside ISSA’s band for your building type, and in California beside the public-award median of $0.18.
- Check the labor: estimate crew hours with our cleaning time estimator and ask how the bid staffs them.
A hypothetical bid of $150 a visit, five nights a week, across 20,000 square feet works out to $150 x 5 x 4.33, about $3,250 a month, or roughly $0.16 a square foot: inside ISSA’s office band. A figure far outside the bands is a prompt for questions, and our guide to comparing janitorial bids lists the ones to ask.
For Continental’s own regional bands, read the facility services cost guide and cleaning cost by building size, or run the facility cleaning price calculator. Buildings in several states are priced to one written plan through our nationwide coverage, and a free walkthrough turns any estimate into a written quote with each service on its own line.
Sources
- ISSA, Commercial cleaning rates per square foot (December 4, 2025)
- Angi, Commercial cleaning cost (updated October 12, 2026)
- HomeGuide, Commercial cleaning prices (dated December 13, 2023)
- Thumbtack, Commercial cleaning prices (updated March 31, 2026)
- Public awards: County of Monterey (2024), County of Fresno (2025), City of San Leandro and price sheet (2024), County of Napa (2025), City of Encinitas (2025), read October 22, 2026
- Facility Executive, BOMA 2016 Experience Exchange Reports (July 22, 2016)
- FMLink, IFMA survey of operations costs (2000 survey)
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates, SOC 37-2011
- GSA CALC ceiling rates, janitor categories (read October 27, 2026)
- CMM Online, Commercial cleaning bidding 101 (September 19, 2025), citing BSCAI
A few useful answers
Common questions
What is the average commercial cleaning price per square foot?
ISSA puts general office cleaning at $0.09 to $0.17 a square foot, figured from monthly cost, in its December 2025 article. Angi lists $0.10 to $0.20 and HomeGuide $0.08 to $0.20, without saying whether that is per visit or per month.
Why does medical office cleaning cost more per square foot?
ISSA lists medical and healthcare space at $0.14 to $0.29, above its office band, and ties the difference to infection prevention. Angi’s medical range runs higher still, at $0.20 to $0.50.
Are BOMA cleaning costs per square foot current?
The BOMA figure in public reporting, $1.52 a square foot for office cleaning, comes from the 2016 Office Experience Exchange Report; our guide to facility management associations explains what BOMA and its peers publish. It is a yearly building-operating cost rather than a contract price, and newer BOMA benchmarks sit in paid reports.
How much of a cleaning price is labor?
Labor usually makes up 50% to 80% of a commercial cleaning bid, according to BSCAI as cited by CMM Online in 2025. For the people doing the work, BLS reports a May 2025 U.S. median janitor wage of $17.71 an hour. Federal service contracts set their own wage floor, explained in our guide to the Service Contract Act.
How do I compare a per-visit quote with a price per square foot?
Multiply the visit price by visits per week and by 4.33 weeks, then divide by cleanable square feet. A hypothetical $150 visit, five nights a week across 20,000 square feet, comes to about $0.16 a square foot a month.