Updated October 22, 2026
This HVAC pricing calculator is for flat-rate service and repair prices, not load sizing. It first builds the hourly selling rate your shop needs from techs, wages, payroll burden, yearly overhead and the hours your techs actually bill, then prices a repair from the task time, parts, refrigerant and your markup. You get the flat-rate price, a maintenance-member price, the hourly rate behind it, the break-even and how long the tech can take before the job loses money.
Quick answer: Hourly selling rate = (yearly tech labor cost + yearly overhead) ÷ yearly billable hours ÷ (1 − profit %). Flat-rate price = task hours × selling rate + (parts + refrigerant) × (1 + markup). Member price = flat-rate price × (1 − member discount).
An estimate from the numbers you entered, not a market price. Put in your own costs for a number you can stand behind.
Home service businesses answer only about half their calls (Invoca, July 2026), and owners spend about 11 to 16 hours/week on admin. Pricing is the easy part; the money leaks out in the calls you can't take, the quotes nobody chases and the invoices that sit unpaid. Unmanually is a 24/7 AI Office Manager for HVAC companies that you run by voice from your phone:
Sources: Invoca, July 2026 (52% of home-service calls answered by a person, 60M+ calls); admin hours: Time etc / Censuswide 2023 and Amex SME Barometer 2026.
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yearly tech labor = techs × wage × (1 + burden) × paid hourscost per billable hour = (yearly tech labor + yearly overhead) ÷ (techs × billable hours)hourly selling rate = cost per billable hour ÷ (1 − profit %)flat-rate price = task hours × selling rate + (parts + refrigerant lb × cost per lb) × (1 + markup)member price = flat-rate price × (1 − member discount)break-even time = (flat-rate price − parts and refrigerant cost) ÷ cost per billable hour
These are assumptions for illustration, not market figures. Swap in your own.
A shop with 3 service techs at $32 an hour with 25% burden, 2,080 paid and 1,300 billable hours each per year, $240,000 of yearly overhead and 15% profit on labor. The repair: a 1.5-hour task with $85 of parts and 2 lb of refrigerant at $35 a lb, 60% markup, 15% member discount.
Tech labor costs 3 × $32 × 1.25 × 2,080 = $249,600/year. Add $240,000 overhead and divide by 3,900 billable hours: $125.54 per billable hour. At 15% profit the selling rate is $147.69 an hour. Labor on the repair is 1.5 × $147.69 = $221.54. Parts and refrigerant cost $155 and sell for $248 at 60% markup. The flat-rate price is $469.54, the member price $399.11, and break-even $343.31. The tech can take up to 2.51 hours before this repair loses money.
If each tech bills 1,100 hours instead of 1,300, the selling rate jumps to about $175 an hour: billable hours move your prices more than almost anything else.
The hourly selling rate in a flat-rate price book has to carry every paid hour that isn't billed: drive time, shop time, parts runs, callbacks and training. A shop whose techs bill 60% of their paid hours needs a much higher rate than one at 75%. Work out your own share from timesheets before copying anyone's price book. Re-run the numbers each year, or whenever you add a tech or a truck, because overhead per billable hour changes with both.
Use the time your average tech takes, not your best tech on a good day. Capacitors, contactors and igniters are quick and predictable; blower motors, coils and boards vary more with access. Attics in summer and crawl spaces in winter deserve their own time adders.
Members usually get a discount on repairs and priority scheduling, and the agreements smooth out the slow shoulder seasons with tune-up visits. Make sure the member price still clears break-even; the calculator warns you when it doesn't. A tune-up visit should be priced like any other task, from time and parts, even if it is bundled into the agreement fee.
Cooling calls peak in the first heat wave and heating calls on the first cold snap. Those are the weeks when unanswered calls cost the most, because the customer calls the next company within minutes. Spring and fall are for tune-ups, replacements and catching up on agreement visits.
Refrigerant costs have changed a lot with regulation and supply. Keep the cost per pound current and price by the pound used, rather than burying it in a fixed repair price that was set when it was cheaper. The same goes for equipment: replacement quotes should use this week's distributor price, not last season's sheet.
A diagnostic or service call fee pays for the visit when the customer decides not to repair. Many shops credit it toward the repair if they go ahead. Either way, say it on the phone before you send a truck.
When the AC quits in a heat wave, homeowners call HVAC companies until one picks up. Unmanually is an AI Office Manager that works 24/7 and that you run by voice: the AI Office Manager answers, asks the system, symptoms, age and whether they are a member, gives your diagnostic or flat-rate price, books the tech and texts the confirmation, then sends the invoice and chases it. See what Unmanually does for HVAC companies, or get a free website that calls every new lead back in about a minute.
What the AI Office Manager does for HVAC businesses, from calls to invoices.
Flat rate, agreements and seasonal pricing in more depth.
Keeping the schedule straight in peak season.
Pricing calculators and templates for every trade.
Build an hourly selling rate from your yearly labor, overhead and billable hours, divide by one minus your profit target, multiply by the task time and add parts and refrigerant with markup. The calculator shows each step.
The rate that covers your labor, overhead and profit over the hours your techs actually bill. With the worked example's assumptions it is $147.69 an hour; your billable hours and overhead decide your number.
Shops differ, and many use a sliding scale by part cost. Whatever markup you choose, check the margin it leaves: a 60% markup is a 37.5% margin on the part.
Enough to make the agreement worth buying and still above break-even. The calculator applies the member discount to the whole flat-rate price and warns you if it falls below cost.
You absorb it. The calculator shows how long the tech can take before the job loses money, which tells you how much room the task time has.
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