How these estimates are calculated
Place, currency and tax. Prices are for Canada, in CAD (C$). They exclude GST, HST and any provincial tax. Which of them applies, and at what rate, depends on the province and, for provincial tax, on the kind of service. The range is a national average. When you pick your province, the calculator scales the labour share of the range by a local index from 0.85 to 1.24. The calculator does not quote below its minimum price, C$49 at the national average.
Where the range comes from. The market range for this job comes from prices published for Canada by businesses on their own price lists. We name these sources by type, not by company. We check the hourly rates against Job Bank wage data, and for lawn care the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association wage survey. A trade's rate should sit well above what its workers earn, because it also pays for overhead, travel and insurance.
When we checked. We last checked these rates against their sources on September 30, 2026.
Market price and your price. "What pros charge" is the market range for the job you describe. Your own cost figures do not change it. The table under it, "Your costs at this price", uses your figures: time on the job, labour cost, materials, equipment, travel, fees and overhead. Profit is the market price minus those costs.
Canadian detailing prices come from operator price pages rather than cost guides, and nine of them were read for
this page. The problem is that no two use the same package names: Bronze/Silver/Gold, Essential/Signature/Platinum,
Exterior/Interior/Full, Showroom Ready, Quick In/Out. The calculator above prices from tiers — entry, standard,
premium — because where a package sits on an operator’s own ladder is a reading, while calling it a “full detail”
is a guess.
How the calculator works
- Package and size pick the cell. Three tiers by three sizes.
- Mobile adds about 22%, and brings a travel cost. A shop that collects and returns the car charges for that
too — one Guelph operator prints from C$49.99 within the city.
- Condition moves the quote up the range. Every Canadian page says price may vary by condition and only pet
hair carries a number, C$30–C$150 depending on the shop.
- Your province. Prices are adjusted by a provincial labour-cost index.
- Your economics. “Your costs and margin” uses the hours printed beside the price and shows what the grid
leaves you before GST/HST.
Typical Canadian detailing prices in 2026
| Package | Sedan or coupe | SUV or crossover | Truck, van or 7-seater |
|---|
| Entry — wash and vacuum | C$49–C$169 | C$55–C$191 | C$62–C$213 |
| Standard — full detail | C$239–C$380 | C$271–C$430 | C$302–C$480 |
| Premium — paint correction | C$199–C$600 | C$225–C$679 | C$251–C$758 |
Detailers bill C$75–C$115 an hour, C$85 typical, measured as price over the hours operators print. The cheapest
printed package is C$49, and the calculator uses it as the minimum. All figures exclude GST/HST.
Why the bands are wide
Because they are the market, not one shop. The entry band spans a C$49 bronze wash in Calgary to a C$169 full
bronze package in Guelph — both real prices for what each shop calls its cheapest job. The premium band spans a
single-stage correction from C$199 to a platinum package at C$600.
Narrow that band with your own position rather than splitting the difference. The four operators anchoring the
standard tier sit at C$239, C$340, C$350 and C$380 for the same sedan.
Where the Canadian numbers are strong, for once
This is the best-documented market in this trade. Nine operator price pages, four of them printing hours beside
the price, one printing a frequency ladder, and three declaring tax treatment outright. The size multiplier is
measured here rather than borrowed — twenty-nine cells, seven operators — and it is the figure this site uses for
Canada instead of the higher Australian and American numbers.
Worked example
A truck, premium tier, mobile, heavily soiled with pet hair. The quote lands at C$675 (range C$490–C$865) against a cost near C$247, which leaves C$428, a 63% margin before GST/HST. The “Fill with sample data” button loads this exact job.
What this calculator does not price
Ceramic coating, because nobody publishes hours for it — Canadian prices run C$599–C$999 by size at one Toronto
shop. Two-stage and multi-stage correction, quoted separately at C$350+ and C$550+ by the same shop. Interior-only
and exterior-only packages, whose published hours contradict the measured full-detail hours. Quote those from your
own records.
The calculator gives you the number. For typical rates and how to build a quote, read our US car detailing pricing guide. Its rates are in US dollars.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for car detailing in Canada?
On a sedan, published Canadian grids run C$49–C$169 for an entry package, C$239–C$380 for a full detail and C$199–C$600 for paint correction. An SUV runs about 13% above a sedan and a truck or 7-seater about 26% above. Prices here exclude GST/HST, which every Canadian operator states separately.
How long does a full detail take?
About four to five hours on a sedan — one Vancouver operator prints exactly that beside its price, along with two hours for an exterior and three for an interior. A bigger vehicle takes proportionally longer, which is why it costs proportionally more.
How much more do I charge for an SUV or a truck?
About 13% for an SUV and 26% for a truck or 7-seater. That is measured: twenty-nine cells across seven Canadian operators, with a coefficient of variation of 0.064. Charge it as a multiplier rather than a flat surcharge — across the same cells a flat surcharge varies ten times as much, even though operators advertise it as money.
Do I charge GST or HST on detailing?
Yes, once you pass the C$30,000 small-supplier threshold, at your province's rate. Two of the Canadian operators read for this page say so outright: one quotes before 13% HST and confirms the total before booking, the other notes all prices are subject to HST. In Manitoba, cleaning a vehicle also carries 7% RST. Every figure here is before tax.
What does the market pay a detailer?
The Job Bank median for specialized cleaners in Canada is C$19.23 an hour, and that is what the calculator seeds your labour cost from. The grid implies C$75–C$115 an hour of revenue, C$85 typical, which is 4.4 times that wage. We expect a trade to bill two to three times what its workers earn and treat more than four as a warning; here the gap is real, because the wage is an employee's pay in a group full of car washes while the rate is a solo detailer's revenue, which also pays for equipment, travel and unpaid time.
Should I offer a frequency discount?
One Vancouver operator publishes the only frequency ladder found anywhere in this trade: 30% off monthly, 20% bimonthly, 15% quarterly, and the arithmetic reproduces exactly from its full-detail sedan price. Treat it as one operator's offer rather than a market rate.
