How much does cleaning cost per square foot?

Commercial cleaning costs $0.05 to $0.25 per square foot per visit: warehouses $0.05 to $0.07, standard offices $0.09 to $0.11, schools $0.10 to $0.12, restaurants $0.12 to $0.15, and medical spaces $0.15 to $0.18. Published 2026 pricing data converges tightly on these bands across vendors.

Cleaning cost from square footage multiplies cleanable area by the per-foot rate for the building type, then by visit frequency: a 5,000 square foot office at $0.10 with 5 weekly visits runs about $5,000 a month before extras. Use cleanable footage, not gross — lobbies and corridors count differently than storage.

Per-square-foot rates drop for bigger buildings because setup, travel, and supervision spread across more area: mobilization costs the same whether the site is 2,000 or 20,000 feet. Expect $0.15 to $0.20 for small offices sliding toward $0.07 to $0.13 as footage climbs into five figures.

Per-square-foot pricing sometimes includes consumables and sometimes excludes them — the single most common quote ambiguity in the industry. Always ask whether paper, soap, liners, and specialty chemicals sit inside the rate; a $0.09 quote excluding supplies routinely totals more than a $0.11 all-in one.

Per-square-foot pricing fails on irregular, tiny, or highly variable work: sub-1,000 square foot sites, one-time projects, post-event resets, and anything unscoped. Area math assumes repeatable routines; where every visit differs, hourly billing prices honestly and per-foot pricing guesses expensively.

Medical per-square-foot rates run $0.15 to $0.18 per visit — roughly double standard offices — paying for terminal disinfection, dwell-time labor, compliance documentation, and trained crews. Quotes near office rates for medical scope are either mispriced or misdescribed; both end badly.