How to Price a Tradie Job in Australia (2026 Pricing Guide)

Why "gut feel" pricing is costing you money

Most tradies price jobs the same way: think about what feels fair, round it to a nice number, and send it. The problem is "feels fair" doesn't account for your actual costs — and it's almost always biased toward undercharging, because nobody likes saying a big number out loud to a customer's face.

A proper price is built from numbers, not vibes. Here's the framework professional tradies actually use.

Step 1: Work out your real hourly rate

Most tradies price labour based on what competitors charge. That's backwards. Start with what YOU need to earn.

The formula:

(Target annual income + business overheads) ÷ billable hours per year = your hourly rate

Say you want to earn $100,000 a year, and overheads (insurance, ute, tools, phone, accounting, rego) run another $25,000. That's $125,000 you need to bring in.

Now the part everyone gets wrong: billable hours are not the same as working hours. Between driving, quoting, admin, sick days, and slow weeks, most solo tradies only bill 1,000–1,200 hours a year — not the 2,000 you'd get from 40 hours × 50 weeks.

$125,000 ÷ 1,100 billable hours = $113/hour, just to hit your target. That's before profit margin.

Step 2: Add material markup, don't just pass through cost

If you buy materials at trade price and charge the customer the exact same price, you're doing unpaid admin work — sourcing, transporting, and warehousing materials for free.

Standard practice across most trades is a 15–25% markup on materials. Higher for small, fiddly items you had to make a special trip for; lower for big-ticket items where the raw dollar markup is already substantial.

Step 3: Set a callout or minimum job fee

Every job has fixed costs before you even pick up a tool: driving time, fuel, and the opportunity cost of not being on a bigger job. A callout fee (commonly $80–$150 depending on your area) or a minimum job charge protects you from small jobs quietly losing money.

Step 4: Build in a contingency, not just for materials — for scope creep

Ask any tradie what kills margin and they won't say materials — they'll say scope creep. "While you're here, can you also..." The fix isn't refusing extra work, it's pricing for the likelihood of it upfront: add 10–15% contingency to jobs with any uncertainty (old houses, jobs without full specs, anything sight-unseen).

Step 5: Check your price against the local market — but don't anchor to it

Once you've built your price from the bottom up, sanity-check it against 2–3 competitor quotes if you can get them. If you're wildly higher, check whether you're overspecifying (better materials/warranty than asked for — fine, just say so) or under-costing your time. If you're wildly lower, you're probably about to work for free.

Rates also vary a lot by region — a Sydney or Melbourne CBD job supports a higher rate than a regional town, because your overheads (rent, insurance, cost of living) are higher too.

The pricing mistakes that quietly kill tradie margins

Charging by the job when the job is unpredictable. Fixed-price is great when the scope is well understood (installing a fixed unit). It's dangerous on anything with unknowns (rewiring an old house, ripping out and finding rot). When in doubt, quote a range or add a documented contingency clause.

Forgetting your own admin time. Writing the quote, chasing payment, and doing the books all cost time. If you're not pricing for it, you're doing 5–10 hours a week of unpaid work.

Never revisiting old rates. Materials and insurance costs move constantly. A rate you set two years ago is probably underpriced today. Review your hourly rate at least once a year.

Discounting instead of re-scoping. If a customer says your price is too high, the fix usually isn't a discount — it's removing scope ("we can do a cheaper unit" or "you supply the fixtures, we supply labour"). Discounting straight off your price trains customers to always ask for one.

Turning your price into a quote that wins the job

Once you know your number, how you present it matters almost as much as the number itself — see our guide on how to write a tradie quote that actually wins jobs for the exact structure.

Make the maths automatic

SmokoHQ handles the itemisation, GST, and formatting automatically once you've got your rate — you just plug in the job details and it writes a professional quote in 60 seconds. Try it free.

The bottom line

Pricing isn't guessing, and it isn't copying whatever the tradie down the road charges. It's your real hourly rate, plus honest material markup, plus a buffer for the unpredictable stuff. Get the framework right once, and every future quote gets faster and more accurate.