What Movers Charge: Hourly Crews and Whole Local Moves From 192 Companies
Hourly rates for two, three and four movers and flat prices by home size, taken from what 192 moving companies print on their own sites, with a quote checker and the extra fees to ask about. Prices read on 8 and 13 November 2026.
Updated
Most local movers quote by the hour for a crew and a truck, and the rest quote a flat price by the size of the home. We read what 192 moving companies on the lists of MoverSlate print on their own price pages, and used them to answer one question: is the number on your quote ordinary?
Put your quote next to what companies print
Enter the figure on your quote. Nothing leaves your browser.
The rate must include the truck, as most price lists do. If your quote adds a travel, truck or fuel charge, see the section on extras below before you compare.
What a crew costs per hour, on the price lists we read
The box holds the middle half of companies. The black bar is the median. The thin line runs from the cheapest to the dearest.
Middle halfMedianCheapest to dearest
Hour by hour, in numbers
| Crew | Middle half | Median | Cheapest to dearest | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 movers | $120 to $150 | $139 | $80 to $230 | 98 |
| 3 movers | $169 to $220 | $189 | $120 to $345 | 71 |
| 4 movers | $215 to $290 | $239 | $160 to $460 | 51 |
A whole local move, priced by the size of the home
Some companies skip the hourly rate and print a price for each size of home. These are the figures for local moves, with the lowest price each company lists.
| Home | Middle half | Median | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or one room | $336 to $500 | $400 | 81 |
| One bedroom | $400 to $650 | $540 | 48 |
| Two bedrooms | $610 to $1,000 | $800 | 77 |
| Three bedrooms | $908 to $1,708 | $1,318 | 74 |
| Four bedrooms | $1,200 to $2,550 | $1,800 | 30 (thin) |
Every company sets its own assumptions about distance, floors and hours, and prints a range rather than a promise. Four bedrooms rests on fewer price pages than the other sizes, so treat it as a rough guide.
Five cities with enough price lists to compare
For two movers an hour, the places where at least five companies publish a rate.
| City | Median | Cheapest to dearest | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego | $139 | $120 to $150 | 5 |
| Phoenix | $150 | $90 to $185 | 5 |
| Houston | $125 | $110 to $150 | 5 |
| Los Angeles | $120 | $99 to $139 | 5 |
| Dallas | $130 | $112 to $149 | 5 |
Five companies a city is a small sample, and one cheap or dear firm moves a median a lot. In every other city fewer than five companies print a rate, so we do not rank them.
The charges some companies add on top of the hourly rate
A flat fee for the truck or the trip
35 companies list a separate truck, trip, travel or fuel fee. The median is $89, the middle half runs from $60 to $150, and the range is $25 to $219. A quote that looks cheap by the hour can end up level with a dearer one once this is added.
What the number leaves out
An hourly rate rarely includes packing materials, heavy items such as safes and pianos, flights of stairs or insurance beyond the basic cover. Ask for each of these by name and have the answer written next to the rate.
Six questions to settle before you pay a deposit
- When does the clock start?At your door, at the yard or when the truck leaves the yard. The difference can be an hour.
- Is there a minimum?Some crews bill a set number of hours even if the job is shorter.
- Is the truck in the rate?Ask whether the figure is for a crew and a truck, or labor alone.
- Is there a trip, truck or fuel fee?Ask for the figure, not "it depends".
- Is the deposit refundable?Ask what you lose if you cancel, and when.
- What if something breaks?Ask what the cover pays per item and how to file a claim.
Over a state line, the price works differently
A move to another state is priced by the weight of your things and the services you add, not by the hour, so a table of printed prices would mislead. The federal rules let the mover offer a binding estimate that fixes the total, or a non-binding one whose final price follows the weighed shipment. How those two behave when the truck arrives is in the guide on held goods and damage claims, and how to check that the company is registered for it is in the license guide. The companies that make those runs are grouped by city under long distance movers.
How the sample was put together
We read the price pages that the movers on our lists publish on their own sites on 8 November 2026. 570 companies had at least one price. For every figure used above we searched the company page again on 13 November 2026 and kept it only when the amount, written as a dollar figure, was still there: 192 companies remained. A company counts once for each figure, at the lowest price it lists, and a range counts at its low end. Crew rates are for two, three or four movers per hour and leave out labor-only lines, weekend, peak and holiday rates, per-extra-mover charges and anything with a minimum number of hours in its name. Comparison sites and quote platforms were not used.
- Company price pagesThe pages the companies print themselves, read on 8 November 2026 and again on 13 November 2026.
- 49 CFR Part 375Binding and non-binding estimates for interstate moves. Read on 13 November 2026.