"How much should I charge per square metre?" is one of the first questions most people ask when they start quoting commercial cleaning. The honest answer is that there isn't a single reliable rate — and quoting one anyway is how jobs end up underpriced.
This isn't the same question as How to Price a Commercial Cleaning Contract, which covers the full labour-and-cost framework. This article is specifically about why a flat rate per square metre doesn't hold up, and how to calculate an accurate one for your own site instead.
Why a single rate per square metre doesn't work
Two sites of the same floor area can need completely different amounts of labour. A 400m² warehouse floor and a 400m² office with twelve private rooms and three bathrooms are not the same job, even though they're the same size. Floor type, layout complexity, staff density, and how often the site is serviced all change the labour hours behind the price — and labour is most of the cost.
What actually determines your price per square metre
Price per square metre isn't an input — it's an output. It falls out of the same numbers behind any commercial cleaning quote: labour hours, labour cost, supplies, overhead and your target margin, divided by the site's area. Work out the price first, the way you'd work out any quote, then divide by area if you want the rate for comparison.
Frequency changes the rate too
Even for the exact same building, the price per square metre per visit isn't fixed — it moves with how often the site is serviced, because less frequent visits usually mean more buildup and more labour time per visit:
What to do with a rate you've seen quoted elsewhere
If you've come across a rate per square metre somewhere — a forum post, a competitor's advertised price, an old quote — treat it as a data point about that specific site, not a benchmark for yours. The site's own labour hours, your own cost structure and your own target margin are what should set your price, not someone else's number for a building you've never walked through.
Working out your own number
Enter your labour hours, cost and margin for the actual site you're quoting, and the calculator gives you a defensible price — divide that by the site's area afterwards if you want a per-m² figure to compare against other jobs.
Use the Free Quote & Profit Calculator to price your own site, rather than relying on a flat rate that wasn't calculated for it.