Air duct cleaning is the one trade on this site that prices by counting things. Vents, returns, systems, appliances — and every market that publishes numbers publishes them the same way. The calculator above counts, applies a minimum for small jobs, and then shows you what the total implies per crew hour so you can check it against your own day.
How the calculator works
- Count every vent. Supply registers and return grilles both. A condo runs 6–10, a bungalow 10–15, a two-storey house 15–22, a large house 22–35 and up.
- Each extra system is a second setup. The negative-pressure machine has to be moved, re-sealed and re-run, which is $200–$400 and close to an hour.
- Add-ons are their own lines. A dryer vent is a separate job with different equipment. Furnace, blower and coil units are priced per unit.
- Your state. Prices are adjusted by a state labor-cost index, with a $250 minimum under it.
- Your economics. “Your costs and margin” works in crew hours, because the rates in this trade are crew rates, and it charges machine wear by the hour — the equipment is the capital here.
Typical US air duct prices in 2026
| Item | Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Vent or return, labor included | $25–$50 | each |
| Additional HVAC system | $200–$400 | each |
| Dryer vent | $100–$200 | job |
| Furnace, blower or coil | $75–$200 | unit |
| Antimicrobial fogging | $100–$300 | system |
| Whole house, one system | $300–$700 | job |
Minimum charge $250. Prices exclude sales tax — no source in this trade mentions it, which by this project’s method makes it the market convention rather than an assumption.
Two things an earlier version of this guide got wrong
The association does not recommend a three-to-five-year interval. That was attributed to it and it does not say it. What it does say is that antimicrobial treatment is not part of a typical job.
Frequency is not harmless here. An earlier reading called this service inherently one-off and concluded the interval could not move the price. The measured effect is 2.17 times between a maintained system and a neglected one. That is the same size of error as pricing commercial cleaning per month against per visit.
Where the numbers are thin, said plainly
No country has an occupation code for this trade. A search of the American occupation database on “duct cleaner” returns 366 occupations and none with that name. Every wage denominator here is a proxy — the federal code used for this page covers building cleaning workers not elsewhere classified, at a median of $21.17 an hour.
The crew of two is now confirmed three ways — a national guide plus two independent contractors, one in Virginia certified since 1995 and one in Michigan. The association names technician count as a price factor without giving a number. That matters more than it sounds: read the hourly band as one person and everything downstream doubles.
Inspection is not priced here at all. Five sources give five incompatible levels: free, $35–$75, $70–$130, $80–$180 and $140–$380. One source offers to resolve it by scope — visual $75–$150, camera $150–$300, duct blaster test $250–$450 — but it cites the others rather than measuring, so it is not an arbiter.
Worked example
A two-storey house with 22 vents, two HVAC systems, two appliance units, a dryer vent and a system that is long overdue. Counting gets there: 22 vents at $25–$50, a second system, the appliances and the dryer vent, then 35% for the neglect. The typical quote lands at $1,945 (range $1,500–$2,390) for about 11.7 crew hours. At a $42 crew hour plus machine wear your cost is near $877, leaving $1,068, a 55% margin. Two systems and a heavy build-up is the top of this trade’s range, not a normal job — the twelve-vent default is the normal one. The “Fill with sample data” button loads this exact job.
What this calculator does not price
Mould remediation in the building, which is a different trade with different certification. Commercial ventilation to a duct-hygiene standard, priced by the metre of duct or the contract. Inspection, for the reason above.
The calculator gives you the number. For typical rates and how to build a quote, read our air duct cleaning pricing guide.