Moving Cost Calculator

When this calculator helps

A move is often one of the larger unplanned expenses in a year, and the price tag depends heavily on whether you are going across town or across state lines. Use this calculator when you are budgeting a move, weighing a local hourly crew against a long-distance carrier, or sanity-checking an estimate a mover just emailed you. It turns home size, crew hours, hourly rate and distance into a realistic ballpark so you walk into the quoting process with a number in your head.

It answers the questions that come up while you plan: roughly what should moving a 1-bedroom apartment across the city run, how much does a long-distance or interstate haul add, and is the estimate you just got reasonable or padded. Because it returns a low–high range rather than a single figure, it keeps the real spread of moving prices in view instead of implying false precision.

How to read your result

The estimate pairs a labor component (crew hours times the hourly rate for a 2- or 3-person team and truck) with a distance component (a per-mile charge for the loaded leg). The low–high band reflects the roughly ±20% that real quotes vary by, depending on the company, the date, stairs, and how the day actually goes.

Read it as a budgeting guide, not a binding quote. It excludes packing materials, Full Value Protection above the default Released Value coverage, storage between closing dates, parking permits in cities like NYC or SF, and tips for the crew. Those add up, so use the figure to judge whether a quote is in the right neighborhood — and for any long-distance or interstate move, get a binding-not-to-exceed estimate in writing.

A worked example

Say you are moving a 1-bedroom apartment 20 miles across town. A 2-person crew with a truck might take about 5 hours at $100 an hour, which is $500 of labor, plus a small loaded-distance charge of roughly $30 at $1.50 a mile — a base near $530. Apply the ±20% range and you would budget somewhere between $425 and $635. Add $50–$100 for boxes if you pack yourself, and figure $50–$100 in tips for a competent crew on top.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most blown moving budgets come not from the hourly rate but from the line items that never made it into the headline number.

• Skipping packing supplies and valuation coverage — the default $0.60/lb Released Value Protection barely covers anything, and Full Value Protection costs extra.
• Underestimating the volume — closets, the garage and the basement always hold more than expected, and on an hourly local move that means more billed hours.
• Not booking peak dates early — summer (May through September) and end-of-month dates book out fast and cost 20–40% more.
• Ignoring access and parking — flights of stairs, a long carry, or a required permit in NYC or SF all push the final bill above the estimate.

US movers notes

The big divide in US moving is local versus long-distance. Local moves are usually billed hourly with a 2- or 3-hour minimum, so the estimate here maps cleanly onto them. Long-distance and interstate moves are a different animal — typically a flat linehaul rate based on weight or volume rather than hours — so for those, use this figure only as a rough floor and insist on a written estimate from an FMCSA-registered carrier.

For any interstate move, get a binding-not-to-exceed (BNTE) quote. A non-binding estimate can drift 20–50% higher on moving day if the mover claims more weight or hours than estimated, whereas a binding-not-to-exceed estimate caps your bill at the quoted figure unless you add services in writing. That single piece of paper is the best protection against a day-of surprise.