How much to charge for lawn mowing in the UK (2026)

UK price guides put a regular lawn cut at about £20-45 a visit outside London and £30-60 in London and the South East. A small, well-kept lawn sits at the bottom of that range; a large or overgrown one goes well above it. The right price for you is the one that covers your own costs, so use the guides as a check, not a starting point.

What UK price guides say

The three guides below publish their figures and were checked on 22 September 2026. They define lawn sizes differently, so compare like with like.

These are what customers are quoted by firms that list on those sites, and some are two-person teams. A sole trader with low overheads can sit below them and still make money; a firm with vans and staff usually cannot.

Start from your own minimum rate

A market price is only useful if it covers your costs. Work out the hourly rate you need from your income target and your running costs first.

The lawn care pricing guide goes through the costs in more detail.

What changes the price

Location

London and the South East cost the most. MyJobQuote gives these residential hourly rates for grass cutting:

In London, parking and congestion eat into your time, so build them into the price. Rural areas with few competitors can support better prices than a city average suggests, but the season is shorter and the weather takes more days off you.

Lawn size and time

Price the time, not the square metres. Two lawns of the same size can take very different times once you count the walk from the van, the gate and what is in the way.

Access and obstacles

Allow extra time for a side gate too narrow for your mower, steps and slopes, several separate lawns (front, back and side), trampolines and furniture to move, beds and trees to mow around, long grass that needs two passes, and uneven or boggy ground.

How often you visit

A weekly lawn is quicker to cut than a fortnightly one, and a monthly or one-off cut is slower again because there is more growth to deal with. Many gardeners charge a little less per visit for weekly and fortnightly regulars, because the work is quick and the income is steady, and more for one-offs, which are harder to fit into a round. How much is your call; time a few visits of each kind and let the times decide.

Extras

A standard cut usually covers mowing every lawn area, basic edging and blowing the clippings off the paths. Strimming, hedge cutting, weeding and taking the waste away are normally priced on top. For reference, Fantastic Services quotes lawn treatments (feed, weed and moss control, scarifying or aeration) at £30-70 an application outside London, and MyJobQuote quotes strimming at £15-100 a job.

To add up a cut and its extras for a customer, use the free lawn quote calculator.

How to quote a mowing job

Look at the lawn first: the area, the access and distance from where you park, the obstacles, the condition, and anything else the customer wants done.

Then time the whole visit, not just the mowing. An example, with made-up times:

At a rate of £40 an hour, that visit is £40. If the access is awkward or the grass is long, add the extra minutes rather than a percentage: the time is what it actually costs you.

Finally, compare the result with local prices. You do not need to be the cheapest, but if you are well above everyone else, the customer needs a reason: turning up on the same day every fortnight is a good one.

Ways to charge

Per visit is the most common. A fixed price for each cut is easy for customers to understand and easy to change. The downside is that you have to re-quote if the garden changes, and some customers will try to negotiate.

A monthly price for a regular round, for example £120 a month for weekly cuts or £70 for fortnightly, gives you predictable income and one invoice a month. It is harder to handle missed visits and the fast-growing weeks of May.

Tiers let the customer choose: say £30 for a mow only, £40 with edging and a blow-down, and £55 with a hedge tidy and weeded borders. Some customers like the choice; others find it confusing.

Raising your prices

It is time when you are turning work away, when fuel, insurance and equipment have gone up, or when you have invested in better kit. Many businesses put prices up once a year before the season starts.

Give two to four weeks' notice, say why in a sentence, and apply it to everyone. You may lose a few customers, often the ones who haggled hardest.

"Hi Margaret, from 1 April my price for your fortnightly cut will be £38. Fuel and equipment costs have gone up this year. Thanks for sticking with me, and let me know if you have any questions."

Commercial work

Commercial grounds maintenance is usually tendered, priced by the hour or per square metre, and paid on 30 to 60 day terms. Expect to show your public liability insurance and risk assessments. Volumes are bigger and margins thinner than domestic work. MyJobQuote puts commercial grass cutting at £30-50 an hour.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum I should charge for any lawn?

Set a minimum charge that covers the travel, setting up and admin of any visit, however small the lawn. The hourly rate calculator gives you the rate; a minimum of half an hour or an hour at that rate is a common way to set it.

Should I charge more for the first cut?

Yes, if the lawn is overgrown. A neglected lawn can easily take twice as long as a maintained one. Quote the first cut separately.

What about customers who say I am too expensive?

Explain what they get: insurance, reliability, proper kit, and you turning up when you said you would. If they still want the cheapest, they are not your customer. There is more on this in how to grow a lawn care business.

Should I charge for travel?

Most lawn care businesses include local travel in the price. For jobs outside your usual area, add a fixed call-out charge rather than itemising mileage.

Do I charge for visits missed because of the weather?

Most businesses do not. If you charge monthly, say in your terms how rained-off visits are handled.

Keeping prices straight across a round

Once you have thirty regulars at slightly different prices, the price for each garden needs to live somewhere other than your head. In TradeSender each regular customer has their visits on the calendar, and the round repeats weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly on its own; see the scheduling features. Repeating rounds are on Pro at £19 a month, and the Free plan covers one person with 30 visits a month (pricing). If you are a sole gardener rather than a mowing firm, start with the page on software for gardeners.