What Should I Charge for Painting? (2026 Contractor Pricing Guide)
Short answer
Interior repaints typically run about $1.05 to $1.65 per square foot of actual wall surface, two coats, with labor at roughly 80% of the cost. Measure wall and ceiling area, not floor area.
Painting unit prices by work item
Enter a ZIP code to adjust every row to local cost levels. Rates start from a national baseline of 1.00 and scale by the published city cost index for that area.
Showing national baseline rates.
| Work item | Unit | Material | Labor | What to charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Interior walls, two coats Priced on wall surface area, not floor area. | sq ft | $0.18 | $0.85 | $1.05 to $1.65 |
Ceilings, two coats Overhead work is slower, so labor runs above wall rates. | sq ft | $0.18 | $0.95 | $1.16 to $1.81 |
Trim and casing Prep and cut-in drive this, not paint volume. | linear ft | $0.35 | $2.10 | $2.41 to $4.02 |
Doors, both sides Panel doors take longer than flush slabs. | door | $9.00 | $65.00 | $68.03 to $126 |
Exterior siding, two coats Height, prep and substrate condition swing this hard. | sq ft | $0.30 | $1.35 | $1.56 to $2.77 |
Cabinet refinishing Sprayed finishes command a premium over brushed. | door/drawer | $14.00 | $85.00 | $90.94 to $169 |
Material and labor columns are bare cost per unit before markup. The charge column applies +15% materials, +20% labor, then +10% overhead and profit, and shows a realistic range rather than one false-precision number.
How this number is built
There is no proprietary data feed here and nothing is hidden. Every figure above comes from four visible steps, which is exactly how your own price book should work:
- 1Start from bare material and bare labor cost per unit, at a national baseline.
- 2Multiply both by your local cost factor, from the ZIP table below.
- 3Add markup: 15% on materials, 20% on labor. This covers waste, procurement and supervision.
- 4Add 10% overhead and profit on the marked-up subtotal, then show a range rather than one number.
Regional cost factors
A national average is close to useless on its own. The same painting job prices very differently across markets. These are the multipliers applied above, against a 1.00 national baseline.
| Metro | Factor | Interior walls, two coats (sq ft) |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 1.38x | $1.45 to $2.27 |
| New York, NY | 1.32x | $1.39 to $2.17 |
| Boston, MA | 1.24x | $1.31 to $2.04 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 1.22x | $1.28 to $2.01 |
| Seattle, WA | 1.20x | $1.26 to $1.98 |
| Chicago, IL | 1.18x | $1.24 to $1.94 |
| Washington, DC | 1.15x | $1.21 to $1.89 |
| Denver, CO | 1.08x | $1.14 to $1.78 |
| Austin, TX | 1.04x | $1.09 to $1.71 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 1.02x | $1.07 to $1.68 |
| Atlanta, GA | 1.00x | $1.05 to $1.65 |
| Houston, TX | 0.98x | $1.03 to $1.61 |
Before you send this number to a client
Worth doing
- Walk the actual site before committing to a fixed price.
- Itemize disposal, permits and prep as their own lines.
- Write down what is excluded, not only what is included.
- Compare these rates against your own last three invoices.
Where bids go wrong
- Using a national average as if it were a local quote.
- Forgetting that overhead is a real cost, not profit.
- Absorbing prep and access problems instead of pricing them.
- Quoting from memory when material prices moved.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge to paint a room?
For a standard 12x12 room with 8 foot ceilings that is 384 square feet of wall, walls only, two coats, the math lands between about $405 and $630 all in. Add roughly $165 to $260 for the ceiling, plus trim and doors priced per linear foot.
Do painters charge by the hour or by the job?
Nearly all residential painting is quoted as a fixed price by the job, because clients want certainty and because an hourly rate punishes you for getting faster. Price the job from square footage and prep condition, then keep your hourly target as an internal check.
How much should I add for heavy prep work?
Prep is where painting jobs lose money. Treat heavy scraping, patching, or a peeling exterior as its own line item rather than absorbing it, and expect it to add 20% to 60% to the labor side.
Other trades
Turn these rates into a sent proposal
A table is a starting point. Describe the job in plain words and Takeoff Convert prices it from your own price book, then produces an itemized proposal your client can e-sign.
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