Paint job cost calculator
Estimate paint, materials, labor, and a profitable price in seconds. Adjust the rates to match your business.
Estimates only — actual paint use and labor vary by surface, prep, and conditions.
Questions
How does the paint job cost calculator work?
Enter the paintable area in square feet, the number of coats, and your rates. The calculator divides area × coats by the paint's coverage to get gallons, applies your paint price for materials, uses a production rate to estimate labor hours and cost, adds sundries, then back-solves a price at your target profit margin.
How many square feet does a gallon of paint cover?
A gallon of interior paint typically covers 350–400 square feet in one coat. The default here is 350 sq ft/gallon; adjust it to match your product's stated coverage.
What's a good production rate for painting?
Rolling walls often runs 150–200 square feet per hour; brushing trim is slower. The calculator defaults to 175 sq ft/hour — set it to your crew's real pace for accurate labor.
Should I use markup or margin to price a job?
Use margin. Markup applied to cost understates the price you actually need. This calculator back-solves price = cost ÷ (1 − margin), so a 40% target margin on $1,000 of cost prices at about $1,667, not $1,400.
Turn this estimate into a signed job.
PaintOps saves your rates and templates, calculates paint automatically, and sends a signable estimate to your client. Free for 30 days.