Lawn and landscape
Lawn mowing cost
Mowing a 5,000 sq ft lawn costs about $40 a visit — the minimum most lawn services charge — and $70 for 10,000 sq ft, trimmed and edged. An acre is about $171. The grass sets the season: fescue grows about 32 weeks, so weekly mowing is $1,280 a year; with fertilizer, weed control and the fall leaves, $1,805.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-28 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Lawn mowing cost calculator
The lawn, the grass and how often
Mowing is priced by the visit and the season by the grass: the weeks it grows are the weeks it is cut.
0.11 acre — the grass only, not the house or drive.
Cool-season, about 32 weeks of growth.
The standard in the growing season.
Long straight passes.
Mulched back in.
Mowing only.
Not included.
A lawn service.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
5,000 sq ft, every week, a season
$1,280
$40 a mow × 32 · about $107 a month over the year
At the visit minimum
Getting a crew and mowers to the yard costs the same for a small lawn as for a big one.
From the other side
$40 is about $96 an hour.
A crew with a commercial mower cuts this lawn in about 25 minutes including unloading. That hour pays the crew, the truck, the trailer, the fuel and the insurance — the useful figure for anyone pricing mowing jobs.
By lawn size
Tall fescue, every week, open and flat, hired.
What the lawn service charges for
- 32 mows at $40
Mowed, trimmed along beds and fences, edged along paths and the drive, clippings blown off the hard surfaces. The standard in the growing season.$1,280
What it costs
National average. 32 visits mowing, trimming and edging 5,000 sq ft of tall fescue. Not included: aeration, overseeding, irrigation repairs.
Fertilizer by the bag at about $36; the grasses and their seasons are those of the sod page. Replacing the lawn instead: artificial turf.
Worth knowing
- Tall fescue grows about 32 weeks a year, so weekly mowing is 32 visits at $40 — $1,280 for the season. The season, not the visit, is the number to budget; warm-season grass in the far South runs longer.
- A lawn this size pays the visit minimum, about $40: getting the crew and the mowers there costs the same for a small yard as for a big one. Adding the edging, a bed or two, or the neighbour's lawn on the same day costs little extra.
On this page — 5 sections
By the visit, and by the season
The short version
- 5,000 sq ft: $40 a mow. The visit minimum.
- 10,000 sq ft: $70; an acre: $171.
- The grass sets the season: 32 weekly visits for fescue, $1,280 a year.
- Your own push mower: about $120 a year.
A lawn service prices each visit by the size of the lawn — about $7 per 1,000 sq ft with a walk-behind mower, falling to $3 past 10,000 sq ft once a riding mower takes over — and never less than the visit minimum, about $40. Trimming, edging and blowing the clippings off the paths are in the price. The number that matters is the season: every week the grass grows is a visit, and that depends on the species.
$40
A mow
5,000 sq ft
$70
A mow
10,000 sq ft
$171
A mow
One acre
$1,280
A season
5,000 sq ft, weekly
MaterialsEstimator, Lawn mowing and lawn care price survey · checked 2026-09-28
The grass sets the season
| Weeks | 5,000 sq ft, weekly | |
|---|---|---|
| Tall fescue | 32 | $1,280 |
| Kentucky bluegrass | 30 | $1,200 |
| Perennial ryegrass | 30 | $1,200 |
| Bermuda | 28 | $1,120 |
| Zoysia | 26 | $1,040 |
| St. Augustine | 34 | $1,360 |
Cool-season grasses grow hard in spring and fall and slow in the heat; warm-season grasses grow through the summer and go brown and dormant in winter. Either way the weeks of growth are the weeks of mowing — the same figures the sod page uses to work out watering. Weekly mowing keeps to the one-third rule: no more than a third of the blade off in one cut.
MaterialsEstimator, Turfgrass establishment, irrigation and maintenance survey · checked 2026-09-16
Every two weeks, slopes and extras
Every two weeks halves the visits, but each one costs about a quarter more because the grass is long and wet and the clippings clump — $700 a season instead of $1,280 on 5,000 sq ft. Slopes, beds, trees and gates add trimming time: 10,000 sq ft cut up by beds is $81 a mow instead of $70. A five-application fertilizer and weed-control program is about $55 an application on a small lawn, and a fall leaf cleanup starts at about $250.
Your own mower
| Hired, a season | Yourself, a year | |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 sq ft | $1,280 | $120 · 24 h |
| 10,000 sq ft | $2,240 | $120 · 48 h |
| Half an acre | $3,371 | $120 · 105 h |
| One acre (riding mower) | $5,462 | $320 · 70 h |
A push mower at about $400 lasts about 8 years; a riding mower at about $2,500, about 10. With fuel, oil and a sharpened blade a season, mowing your own lawn costs a fraction of hiring it out. What you pay instead is hours — and past about half an acre on a push mower, the hours are what make a rider worth it.
What goes wrong
Before signing up
- The lawn measured, not the lot.
- Trimming and edging in the price.
- Clippings mulched unless there is a reason.
- Weekly in spring, even if every two weeks in summer.
- What happens on rain days.
01Scalping to mow less often
It stresses the grass and lets weeds in.
Instead — The one-third rule, and a higher deck.
02A dull blade
It tears the tips, which brown.
Instead — Sharpen once a season.
03Mowing wet grass
It clumps and ruts.
Instead — Wait for the dew to dry.
04Paying for the lot, not the lawn
The house and drive are not grass.
Instead — Measure the lawn itself.
- 01Measure the grassOnly the lawn, not the lot: take out the house, drive, beds and patio.
- 02Know the grassIts growing season sets how many visits there are in a year.
- 03Pick weekly or every two weeksWeekly keeps to the one-third rule; every two weeks costs more a visit and less a season.
- 04Be honest about the yardSlopes, beds, trees and gates add trimming time.
- 05Decide on the extrasBagging, fertilizer and weed control, fall leaves.
- 06Compare with your own mowerThe machine over its life, its fuel and your hours.
Seed, sod or artificial turf, and what each costs to keep over twenty years.
A new lawn instead- Visit minimum
- The least a lawn service charges to come at all, whatever the lawn size. Most small lawns pay it.
- Trimming
- Cutting the grass the mower cannot reach — along beds, fences, trees and the house — with a string trimmer.
- Edging
- A clean vertical cut along paths and the driveway, done with a blade edger.
- Mulching
- Cutting the clippings fine and leaving them on the lawn, where they break down in days.
- One-third rule
- Never take more than a third of the grass blade off in one mowing; it is what sets how often a lawn must be cut.
- Cool-season grass
- Fescue, bluegrass and ryegrass: growing in spring and fall, slowing in summer heat.
- Warm-season grass
- Bermuda, zoysia and St. Augustine: growing through the hot months, dormant and brown in winter.
- Treatment program
- A season of fertilizer and weed-control applications, usually five, spread by a licensed applicator.
Common questions
- How much does lawn mowing cost?
- About $40 a visit for a lawn up to about 5,000 sq ft — the visit minimum — $70 for 10,000 sq ft, $105 for half an acre and $171 for an acre, mowed, trimmed, edged and blown off. The range for the small lawn is $30–$55.
- How much does lawn care cost a year?
- About $1,280 for weekly mowing of a 5,000 sq ft fescue lawn through its 32-week season — about $107 a month spread over the year. With a five-step fertilizer and weed-control program and a fall leaf cleanup it is $1,805.
- How much does it cost to mow an acre?
- About $171 a visit with a riding mower, and $5,462 for a weekly season. Past a quarter of an acre the rate per square foot falls to about $3 per 1,000 sq ft, against $7 for the first 10,000.
- How much does it cost to mow a quarter-acre or half-acre lawn?
- About $73 a visit for a quarter acre of grass (10,890 sq ft) and $105 for half an acre — $2,325 and $3,371 for a weekly season.
- Is mowing every two weeks cheaper?
- Per season, yes: $700 instead of $1,280 for 5,000 sq ft. Per visit, no — about a quarter more ($88 against $70 on 10,000 sq ft), because the grass is longer. It also breaks the one-third rule in a growing spring.
- How much should I charge to mow a lawn?
- Going rates are about $40 a visit for a small lawn, $7 per 1,000 sq ft up to 10,000 and $3 per 1,000 beyond with a rider. A crew with a commercial mower cuts 5,000 sq ft in about 25 minutes with unloading, so $40 is about $96 an hour — before the truck, fuel, insurance and the drive to the next yard.
- Does warm-season grass cost more to mow?
- It depends on the season length. St. Augustine grows about 34 weeks a year — $1,360 for 5,000 sq ft weekly — and bermuda about 28, $1,120. Tall fescue at 32 weeks is $1,280. In the far South the season runs longer still.
- How much does lawn fertilization and weed control cost?
- About $275 a year for five applications on 5,000 sq ft — about $55 each, the minimum. Doing it yourself is 2 bags of fertilizer, about $72, but the weed control and its timing are what the applicator is paid for.
- Is it cheaper to mow your own lawn?
- In money, by far: a push mower at about $400 lasts 8 years, and with fuel and blades the year costs about $120 against $1,280 hired, for about 24 hours of mowing. On an acre with a riding mower it is $320 a year and 70 hours, against $5,462 hired.
- How much does bagging grass clippings cost?
- About $10 a visit extra. Most lawns are better without it: clippings mowed back in break down in days, feed the lawn some of its nitrogen and do not cause thatch.
Send this to whoever is paying
The link carries your measurements, so whoever opens it sees the same numbers you are looking at — and you can come back to it yourself tomorrow with the delivery note in front of you.
Plain links, no tracking scripts. Nothing here reports back that you shared it.
About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
More about how this site is edited