How much a cleaning service costs is the question I get asked more than any other, and it’s also the question this industry seems strangely determined not to answer. Most cleaning companies in New York want your phone number before they’ll show you a price. I’ve never liked that, so our rates are published, and I’ll walk through all of them here, including the parts that change the number.
The short version first. A standard house cleaning in NYC costs between $149 and $699 flat depending on how many bedrooms you have, and hourly cleaning costs $70 per hour per cleaner with a two-hour minimum. Everything below is the detail behind those two numbers.
The average price for house cleaning in NYC depends almost entirely on bedroom count
The average price for house cleaning in NYC lands between $159 and $259, because most apartments here are one, two, or three bedrooms, and bedrooms are what set the price. Here’s the full card, along with roughly how long each clean takes.
| Home Size | Flat Price | Typical Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | $149 | 2 hours |
| 1 Bedroom | $159 | 2.5 hours |
| 2 Bedroom Most common | $199 | 3 hours |
| 3 Bedroom | $259 | 3.5 hours |
| 4 Bedroom | $389 | 4 hours |
| 5 Bedroom | $509 | 5 hours |
| 6 Bedroom | $699 | 6 hours |
| Hourly service | $70/hr | per cleaner, 2-hour minimum |
Prices are pre-tax (NYC sales tax is 8.875%) and include one bathroom. Additional bathrooms add to the total. This chart assumes most NYC homes: some zip codes outside Manhattan may have different pricing, and the booking form always shows the exact price for your address.
Most of the homes we clean across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx land in the first three tiers, your Midtown studios, Astoria one-bedrooms, and Park Slope two-bedrooms. A brownstone floor-through usually prices like a two or three, and a full townhouse climbs the card from there. One sizing note that saves confusion later. A home office or den counts as a bedroom, because it’s a full room that needs the same dusting, floors, and detail work a bedroom does.
I also want to be clear about what a standard clean is, because people tend to assume the base tier of anything is stripped down. Ours isn’t. The standard clean is a full clean of the whole home, kitchen, bathrooms, dusting, floors, all of it. The complete breakdown of what’s included is on our services page.
Cleaning service prices per hour in NYC run $70 per cleaner with a two-hour minimum
Cleaning service prices per hour work differently from flat rates, and ours is $70 per hour per cleaner with a two-hour minimum. Hourly is the right tool when you don’t want the whole home done. Maybe you want the kitchen handled and nothing else, or one room that got away from you, or a few hours of organizing help, or you just want someone to make a dent before family visits. You set the priorities, and the cleaner works the clock.
The other thing I like about hourly is that add-ons stop being add-ons. On a flat-rate clean, things like laundry or dishes are separate line items. On an hourly booking they’re simply part of the time. If folding towels matters more to you than dusting shelves, say so and that’s what happens.
A deep clean or move-in/out clean adds $140 per bedroom and $50 per bathroom
A deep clean or a move-in/out clean is priced on top of the standard rates, adding $140 per bedroom and $50 per bathroom. So a two-bedroom with one bathroom, which is $199 as a standard clean, comes to $529 as a deep clean. Both deep and move-in/out include the inside of the fridge and the inside of the oven at no extra charge, which are $40 each on a standard clean.
The word deep trips people up, so the frame I use is simple. A deep clean is everything the standard clean covers, plus baseboards, the inside of the fridge and oven, and a deeper scrub throughout. It’s additive. You’re not choosing between a real clean and a lesser one, you’re choosing how far down the layers you want to go. If your place hasn’t had professional attention in a long time, or you’re moving in or out, that’s when deep cleaning earns its price.
What changes the price of a house cleaning in NYC
What changes the price of a house cleaning in NYC is a shorter list than most people expect. Bedrooms and bathrooms set the base. The service type sets the next step up, standard versus deep versus move-in/out. Then there are the add-ons.
| Add-On | Price | Worth Knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Inside the fridge | $40 | Included free with deep or move-in/out |
| Inside the oven | $40 | Included free with deep or move-in/out |
| Laundry | $40 | Linens and towels, not personal wardrobes |
| Wash dishes | $40 | |
| Interior windows, cabinets, walls, balcony, organizing | Varies | Scales with the size of the home |
On an hourly booking, none of these are add-ons at all. They are simply part of the time.
Just as useful is the list of things that don’t change the price. The question we get more than any other is whether the cleaners bring supplies, and they do, all products and equipment included in the rate. Every cleaner is a W-2 employee, bonded and insured, which is built into the price rather than tacked on later. And nothing is charged until after the clean is done. After 150,000+ cleans, I can tell you the most common pricing worry isn’t about any of the numbers above, it’s whether there’s a catch behind them. There isn’t. The price you see when you book house cleaning in NYC is the price you’re charged.
A biweekly cleaning service costs less per visit because recurring rates are discounted
A biweekly cleaning service in NYC costs less per visit than the one-time flat rates above, because weekly, biweekly, and monthly schedules all get discounted recurring rates. The rates I listed earlier are one-time prices, which makes them the ceiling. If you’re comparing the cost of a biweekly cleaning service against booking one-off cleans whenever things get bad, the recurring number wins on price per visit alone, before you even count the fact that a maintained home takes less work each time.
I’m not printing the exact recurring numbers here because they’re shown instantly on the booking form when you pick a frequency, and the form is always current while a blog post ages. Pick your home size, pick weekly or biweekly or monthly, and the discounted price appears before you’ve given anyone your phone number.
Tipping your house cleaner is appreciated but never required
Tipping your house cleaner is appreciated but never required, and no tip is ever built into the prices above. If you want a rule of thumb, clients who tip in NYC most often land somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the cleaning price, or a flat amount like $20 on a standard clean. There’s no wrong number, and there’s no judgment on a visit with no tip at all.
When you do tip, it goes to your cleaner. You can hand cash directly at the end of the visit or add it when you pay, and either way the person who cleaned your home is the one who receives it. For recurring clients, some tip every visit and some tip occasionally or around the holidays. Both are normal, and your cleaner isn’t keeping score.
The fastest way to get your exact house cleaning cost is an instant online quote
The fastest way to get your exact house cleaning cost is an instant online quote, and I’d argue it’s also the most honest way this industry can price. The traditional model is a phone estimate. You call, someone takes your details, gives you a rough number, and the real price firms up later, sometimes after a walk-through, sometimes on the invoice. Every step of that process is a chance for the number to drift upward, and you can’t compare companies without spending an afternoon on the phone.
An instant quote flips the incentives. When the price is published and calculated upfront, it has to survive being compared against everyone else’s, which keeps it honest. Ours asks the same things this guide walks through, bedrooms, bathrooms, service type, frequency, add-ons, and the total updates as you answer. If you want your number, you can Book Now and see the exact price for your home in about a minute, with nothing charged until after the clean.
So that’s the whole answer. In NYC, house cleaning costs $149 to $699 flat by bedroom count, $70 per hour per cleaner if you’d rather buy time, and less per visit on a recurring schedule. Any company should be able to tell you that much before asking who you are.
Common Questions
- How much do you tip a maid or house cleaner?
- Tipping is appreciated but never required, and it's not built into the price. Clients in NYC who tip most often give ten to twenty percent of the cleaning price or a flat amount like $20 per visit. The tip goes to your cleaner, whether you hand cash directly or add it when you pay.
- How much does a cleaning service cost in NYC?
- A standard cleaning costs $149 to $699 flat depending on bedroom count, with one bathroom included, plus NYC's 8.875% sales tax. Hourly service is $70 per hour per cleaner with a two-hour minimum, and deep or move-in/out cleans add $140 per bedroom and $50 per bathroom to the standard rate.
- What is the rate for house cleaning?
- In NYC the rate for house cleaning is either a flat rate set by bedroom count, $149 for a studio up to $699 for a six-bedroom, or an hourly rate of $70 per cleaner per hour with a two-hour minimum. Flat rate makes sense when you want the whole home done, and hourly makes sense when you want specific rooms or tasks prioritized.
- How much are maid services?
- Maid services in NYC cost the same as house cleaning services because they're the same work under an older name, $149 to $699 flat by bedroom count or $70 per hour per cleaner. Any company quoting a meaningfully different price for a 'maid service' versus a 'cleaning service' is pricing the word, not the work.
- What are 2 bedroom apartment cleaning prices in NYC?
- A two-bedroom apartment with one bathroom costs $199 for a standard clean and $529 for a deep clean, both before the 8.875% sales tax. A second bathroom adds to the total, and add-ons like the inside of the fridge or oven are $40 each on a standard clean and included free on a deep clean.
- Is a cleaning service worth it?
- I think it's worth it when the mental load of an overdue apartment costs you more than the clean does, and for most working New Yorkers it does. The cheap way to test that is one standard clean at the flat rates above, backed by our 200% guarantee, meaning if you're not happy we re-clean free, and if you're still not happy you get a full refund.
