Short answer: Leaf removal for a quarter-acre lot with moderate leaf cover costs about $210 to $550 per visit when the crew collects and hauls the leaves away, or $135 to $400 if they leave them at the curb for city pickup. Published rates run $55 to $110 per worker-hour (median $84), with $145 to $375 minimums.
$84 median posted rate per worker-hour for leaf and fall cleanup labor, across 11 U.S. companies (range $55–$110)
$145–$375 published job minimums, so small yards pay the minimum (6 companies)
$25–$45 per cubic yard that companies post for hauling leaves away (4 companies)
6 in. of maple and oak leaves mulched into turf with no apparent harm, in Michigan State University research (University of Illinois Extension summary)
Most leaf removal price pages quote a single national average from their own booking data and stop there. That average hides the three things that actually set your bill: how many worker-hours your leaves take, what the company charges per worker-hour, and where the leaves go afterward. In October 2026 we compiled the published leaf cleanup rates of 18 landscaping companies and haulers in 13 states, the leaf collection rules of 10 large cities, and land-grant extension research on mulching leaves in place. Then we built the price of a fall cleanup from those inputs.
The arithmetic is in the method box near the end. Labor data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For other project prices, see our cost guides and the full landscaping cost breakdown.
Leaf removal cost by lot size
Find your lot size, then read across. Each row assumes moderate leaf cover: the lawn is mostly hidden under an inch or two of leaves, the kind of drop a yard with a few mature shade trees gets at peak fall. The ranges come from 2 to 4 worker-hours per quarter acre, scaled by lot size, at $66 to $100 per worker-hour (the middle half of the 11 published hourly rates below). Haul-away adds $75 to $150 per truck or trailer load.
| Lot size | Square feet | Worker-hours (moderate leaves) | Mulch-mow into lawn | Blown or raked to the curb | Collected and hauled away | Typical (median rate, mid hours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/8 acre | 5,445 | 1.0–2.0 | $25–$75* | $65–$200* | $140–$350* | $240 |
| 1/5 acre | 8,712 | 1.6–3.2 | $40–$120* | $105–$320* | $180–$470 | $315 |
| 1/4 acre | 10,890 | 2.0–4.0 | $50–$150* | $135–$400 | $210–$550 | $365 |
| 1/3 acre | 14,520 | 2.7–5.3 | $65–$200* | $175–$535 | $250–$685 | $450 |
| 1/2 acre | 21,780 | 4.0–8.0 | $100–$300 | $265–$800 | $415–$1,100 (2 loads) | $730 |
| 3/4 acre | 32,670 | 6.0–12.0 | $150–$450 | $400–$1,200 | $550–$1,500 (2 loads) | $980 |
| 1 acre | 43,560 | 8.0–16.0 | $200–$600 | $530–$1,600 | $755–$2,050 (3 loads) | $1,345 |
Per-1,000-sq-ft ranges are 2 to 4 worker-hours per quarter acre (mulching 0.75 to 1.5; hand raking 3 to 5) at $66.33 to $100 per worker-hour, the middle half of 11 published rates. Leaf-cover factors are our assumptions. Most companies charge a $145 to $375 minimum, which the calculator does not apply. See How we built these numbers.
Two cross-checks suggest the model sits close to what real crews bill. Clean Earth Lawn, which serves Troy and Rochester Hills, Mich., and posts a $105 worker-hour rate plus $45 per cubic yard of leaves, says its average fall cleanup last season came to about $370 per property. Our typical quarter-acre figure is $365. And His Workmanship, a referral service that posts hourly rates in several Midwest metros, says a quarter-acre with moderate leaf cover takes roughly 3 to 5 labor hours by hand rake, a half acre 6 to 8, and an acre or more with heavy tree cover 10 or more. Crews with backpack blowers and leaf vacuums work faster than hand rakes, which is why our power-equipment range starts lower, at 2 hours.
The small-lot rows deserve a warning. A 1/8-acre city lot might take a two-person crew under an hour, but that does not make it a $65 job. Six of the companies in our set publish minimums or starting blocks between $145 and $375, with a median of about $220. Below that line you are paying the minimum, so a small yard gets more value from a season program or a curbside pickup service than from a one-off full cleanup.
How much more a heavy leaf drop costs
Lot size is the number homeowners know, but tree cover moves the price more. A quarter acre under three big oaks can take three times as long as a quarter acre with one young maple. The table below holds the lot at a quarter acre and changes only the leaf load.
| Leaf cover on a 1/4-acre lot | What it looks like | Worker-hours | Left at the curb | Hauled away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light (factor 0.6) | Scattered leaves; most of the grass still shows | 1.2–2.4 | $80–$240* | $155–$390 |
| Moderate (1.0) | Lawn mostly covered, 1 to 2 in. deep | 2.0–4.0 | $135–$400 | $210–$550 |
| Heavy (1.7) | Several inches deep; wooded edge or several mature shade trees | 3.4–6.8 | $225–$680 | $300–$830 |
| Wet, matted or more than one season (2.5) | Soaked, compacted or left from last year; needles mixed in | 5.0–10.0 | $330–$1,000 | $405–$1,150 |
Why the wide bands? Leaf work is hard to estimate even for the people who do it. In a pricing guide for contractors, equipment maker ECHO warns that experienced professionals “routinely miscalculate labor requirements by 50% or more” on leaf cleanups, and walks through a job estimated at 7 hours that took 12. Its examples of what blows up the clock: leaves that were dry at the estimate and soaked on the work day, compacted layers from earlier years, pine needles mixed into hardwood leaves, and ground that turns out frozen or muddy. That is the reason many companies bill leaf work by the hour rather than flat, and the reason a flat quote for a wooded lot carries a cushion.
You can shrink the heavy and wet rows by timing. Two visits, one at mid-drop and one after the last leaves fall, often cost less than one visit to a lawn buried under the whole season, because the crew moves dry, loose leaves instead of a wet mat.
What leaf removal companies charge per hour
Most companies that post a price for leaf work post it per worker-hour, also called per man-hour: a three-person crew on site for one hour bills three hours. Minnesota’s JLS Lawn Care spells this out on its price page: $84 per hour per person with a three-person crew, so one hour on site is $252. Here is every published hourly rate we found, checked in October 2026.
| Company (published price page) | Area | Rate per worker-hour | Minimum or starting block | Disposal / haul-away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MJR Landscape | Wyoming (Grand Rapids area), Mich. | $110 | $375 project minimum | $150 per job |
| Clean Earth Lawn | Troy and Rochester Hills, Mich. | $105 | Not stated | $45 per cubic yard |
| Lawnade | Metro Detroit, Mich. | $100 | $250 per job | Dump fees “$100 or more” |
| Just Landscaping | Catonsville and Ellicott City, Md. | $95 (collect, vacuum and haul) | $145 | Included |
| JLS Lawn Care & Snow Removal | Prior Lake, Minn. | $84 | $189 plus disposal | $5.50 per 55-gal. drum or $28 per yard |
| Gasper | Richboro, Pa. | $84 (maintenance and clean-up labor) | Not stated | Not stated |
| RS Lawn Care & Landscaping | Southeast Michigan | $80 | $250 | $30 per cubic yard |
| Foxscapes | Lansing area, Mich. | $80 | From $299 (3 labor hours and 4 yards of waste) | $25 per yard |
| Pro Yard Landscaping | Denver, Colo. | $66.33 after the first block | $159 for 3 labor-hours | $10 per bag, or from $189 for up to 2 yards |
| J&J Lawn Care | Riverside, Conn. | $65 (cleanups, pruning, bed care) | Not stated | Not stated |
| His Workmanship (referral service) | Naperville, Ill., and other metros | From $55 per person | Not stated | Not offered; you supply bags |
Three things stand out. First, the median published rate, $84, is higher than the $15 to $60 per hour that consumer cost guides tend to repeat, and closer to the $40 to $80 per person-hour that ECHO tells contractors to charge. Second, rates are rising fast: MJR’s order form still carries its fall 2024 terms of $85 per worker-hour plus $110 disposal with a $325 minimum, against $110, $150 and $375 on the same page now. Third, the hourly rate is only half the quote. A $65 rate with a separate $189 haul fee and a $110 rate with disposal built in can land on the same total for your yard, so compare totals, not rates.
Flat per-visit prices
Companies that quote by the visit tend to post a “starting at” price for a typical lot and adjust from photos or a site visit:
- Once Upon A Leaf (North Atlanta) posts three tiers for a typical quarter-acre lot, all hauled away: curbside pickup of leaves you rake to the street from $75 a visit, pile pickup from $125, and blow-and-collect of the whole property from $175.
- Parsonic Services (Hoover, Ala.) starts leaf removal at $200 per visit, with every leaf inside the property line collected and removed.
- Jackson Lawn Services (Florissant, Mo.) starts a full-property vacuum and haul-away at $200 and a curb-only vacuum pickup at $50.
- Zertuche Pro Solutions (Arlington, Tex.) starts leaf removal at $80 a visit and fall yard cleanups with haul-off at $150.
- College Bros (Louisiana) puts leaf removal at $75 to $600 depending on lot size and leaf load.
- Cassell (Eatontown, N.J.) starts spring and fall cleanups at $250.
The Southern flat prices run lower than the Northern hourly ones. Part of that is labor cost: Alabama and Texas landscaping wages are among the lowest in the country (see the wage table below). Flat “starting at” prices also describe a typical yard, not a heavy one, so compare them with our moderate-cover rows.
How much do people charge to pick up leaves you rake to the curb?
If your town does not collect loose leaves, a curbside pickup service is the cheapest way to get rid of a pile you raked yourself. MJR Landscape charges $134 for the first 15 minutes of vacuuming a curb pile plus $25 per extra five minutes, and says about 75 percent of its pickups cost the base $134; five or more neighbors in a row pay $109 each. Foxscapes sells a season of curbside pickups, 2 to 4 trips from late October to early December, for $390. Once Upon A Leaf starts at $75 a visit and Jackson Lawn Services at $50.
Haul-away vs. curbside collection: what disposal adds
Where the leaves go is the biggest line item after labor. If your city vacuums loose leaves from the street or collects paper bags, a crew can blow everything to the curb and the disposal costs you nothing extra. If it does not, someone has to load the leaves, drive them to a compost site and pay to tip them. Published disposal prices in our set:
| How disposal is priced | Published examples | What it works out to |
|---|---|---|
| Per cubic yard | Foxscapes $25; JLS $28; RS Lawn $30; Clean Earth $45 | A 30-gal. paper bag holds about 0.15 cu. yd., so roughly $4 to $7 of disposal per bag-equivalent |
| Per 55-gallon drum | JLS $5.50 | About $20 per cubic yard (a 55-gal. drum is about 0.27 cu. yd.) |
| Flat per job or load | Lawnade “$100 or more”; MJR $150; ECHO’s contractor guidance $75 to $100 per dump run | The usual adder for one truck or trailer load |
| Per bag hauled | Pro Yard $10; JUNKRUN (Mass.) $10 with a $109 minimum | A 20-bag yard: about $200 just to haul the bags |
| By trailer share | JUNKRUN: 1/4 trailer $189, 1/2 $289, 3/4 $369, full $469; Pro Yard from $189 for up to 2 yards | Haulers’ pricing when no cleanup crew is involved |
What a contractor pays to tip the leaves is a small part of that. New York City’s Department of Sanitation, which runs the city’s largest permitted compost site on Staten Island, raised its plant-waste fee to $12.67 per cubic yard on September 1, 2026, charged on the truck’s full registered capacity whatever the load. An 8-cubic-yard truck pays about $101 a trip. The rest of a $75 to $150 haul fee is the truck, the loader and the drive.
New York also shows why the curbside option is not always open to a hired crew. DSNY’s rules say leaves generated by commercial landscapers cannot be set out for curbside collection; landscapers must take them to a permitted composting facility. If your crew offers to bag your leaves for the city truck, ask whether your city allows it.
Leaf collection rules in 10 big cities
City rules decide whether you need haul-away at all. They vary more than most homeowners expect: some cities vacuum loose piles from the street, some take only paper bags, and some changed their programs this year.
| City | How leaves must go out | Season and schedule | Cost and catches |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | Paper lawn and leaf bags, clear plastic bags, or a labeled bin, with Curbside Composting | Weekly composting collection; separating yard waste from trash is mandatory | No fee for residents; leaves from commercial landscapers may not go to the curb |
| Washington, D.C. | Loose, raked to the curb or tree box the weekend before your week | 2025–26 season ran Nov. 3, 2025, through February 2026, at least two collections per neighborhood | No fee |
| Philadelphia | Large brown biodegradable paper bags; mechanical (vacuum) collection only in some heavy-leaf areas | Nov. 2 to Dec. 19, 2026; Saturday bagged-leaf drop-offs at 13 sites | Bagged leaves set out with trash are not composted |
| Chicago | Bagged separately from garbage and recycling, in the alley or at the curb | Call 311 to request a separate yard waste pickup | Collected for composting |
| Boston | Large paper bags or open barrels labeled YARD WASTE with a City sticker; no plastic bags | Curbside only in scheduled weeks between April and December, on your trash day | Leaves out by 6 a.m.; nothing collected on unscheduled weeks |
| Minneapolis | Kraft paper or compostable bags (compostable plastic must carry the BPI logo), reusable containers, under 40 lb each | Mid-April through November; last 2026 pickup the week of Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 | Included in the base solid waste fee; yard waste in the garbage or in regular plastic bags is illegal |
| Detroit | Biodegradable paper bags or a container labeled “yard waste” | Weekly at the curb, March 31 to Dec. 19, 2026 | Contract haulers will not take yard waste in plastic bags |
| Portland, Ore. | Loose piles in the street, a foot from the curb, in 50-plus Leaf Day zones | Nov. 9 to Dec. 21, 2026 | Free; in tow zones a parked car risks an $85 citation plus $337 in tow fees |
| Raleigh, N.C. | Yard waste carts plus up to 15 paper bags per pickup | Weekly; loose-leaf collection ended Sept. 8, 2026 | Raking leaves to the curb no longer works |
| Charlotte, N.C. | Paper bags or containers of 32 gal. or less, 75 lb max; no plastic bags, including compostable plastic | Weekly on your collection day | Loose leaves are not picked up |
Raleigh is the clearest example of a rule change that moves the price of a cleanup. Under loose-leaf collection, a crew could blow a whole yard to the street and leave. Under carts and a 15-bag limit, a heavy-leaf lot either needs several weeks of bagging or a haul-away fee.
Some of these rules come from state law. Minnesota has barred placing yard waste in mixed municipal solid waste or in a disposal facility since 1990 in the Twin Cities metro area and 1992 elsewhere (Minn. Stat. 115A.931). Pennsylvania’s Act 101 requires the municipalities it covers to make residents and businesses separate leaf waste and to collect it at least monthly, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Nationally, the EPA estimates Americans generated 35.4 million tons of yard trimmings in 2018; 63 percent was composted and about 10.5 million tons still went to landfills.
Is it better to remove leaves or leave them? What the research says
The cheapest leaf removal is the kind that removes nothing. Mulch-mowing chops leaves into small pieces that drop between the grass blades, so there is nothing to bag, haul or tip. In our model it costs a third or less of a full cleanup: about $50 to $150 for a quarter acre.
The turf research is unusually consistent. Michigan State University studies found that a six-inch layer of maple and oak leaves could be mulched into established turfgrass with no apparent adverse effects, according to a University of Illinois Extension summary, with later work linking mulched leaves to quicker spring green-up and fewer weeds. Purdue’s turfgrass program says its research and other universities’ show tree leaves can be mulched without detrimental effects on the soil or turf, with no effect on soil pH and no increase in thatch or weeds. A multi-year Cornell Waste Management Institute study of lawns in Westchester County, N.Y., found that mulch-mowed lawns had higher pest and traffic tolerance than lawns where leaves were removed, that mowing practice explained less than 1 percent of the variation in tick numbers, and that community leaf pickup used 4 to 33 times as much fuel as mulch-mowing.
The limit is depth, and extension services draw the line in slightly different places:
- University of Minnesota Extension: mulch until you can see only about half of the lawn surface; past that, start bagging, because excess leaf residue can promote snow mold.
- UConn Integrated Pest Management: no more than 20 percent of the lawn should be covered by leaves after each mulching; mulching mowers can chop up to 6 inches at a time.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension: a three-year trial found 2 inches of shredded leaves left over winter is reasonable, but 4 inches is highly likely to cause winter damage.
- K-State Research and Extension (Johnson County): mow each time about an inch of leaves covers the turf, and do not blow leaves into the street, where they clog storm drains and feed algae in ponds and streams.
So the honest answer to “should I pay to remove my leaves?” is: mostly no, if you or your mowing service can mulch them every week or so as they fall. Pay for removal when the leaves arrive faster than you can mow them, when they land in beds, gravel or on a slope a mower cannot reach, or when they have already matted. A practical hybrid is to mulch the lawn weekly and pay for one cleanup after the last big drop. Many mowing companies price that weekly pass as an add-on: College Bros lists a leaf and debris blowout from $45 for its mowing clients, and Just Landscaping lists bi-weekly mulching from $67.50 per visit.
Why a $19-an-hour job bills at $84
Landscaping and groundskeeping workers earn a national median of $18.82 an hour, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025. The median posted leaf cleanup rate in our set is $84 per worker-hour, about 4.5 times that. The gap is not all margin. In the 2022 Economic Census, payroll was 32.3 percent of revenue for the landscaping services industry, which implies a billed rate of roughly three times wages before anyone counts trucks, leaf loaders, dump fees, insurance, fuel and the hours spent driving between jobs.
| Company and state | Posted rate per worker-hour | State median wage, landscaping workers (May 2025) | Rate as a multiple of the wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| MJR Landscape, Mich. | $110 | $18.33 | 6.0x |
| Clean Earth Lawn, Mich. | $105 | $18.33 | 5.7x |
| Lawnade, Mich. | $100 | $18.33 | 5.5x |
| Just Landscaping, Md. | $95 | $18.93 | 5.0x |
| Gasper, Pa. | $84 | $18.99 | 4.4x |
| RS Lawn Care, Mich. | $80 | $18.33 | 4.4x |
| Foxscapes, Mich. | $80 | $18.33 | 4.4x |
| JLS Lawn Care, Minn. | $84 | $22.41 | 3.7x |
| Pro Yard Landscaping, Colo. | $66.33 | $22.00 | 3.0x |
| J&J Lawn Care, Conn. | $65 | $21.99 | 3.0x |
| His Workmanship, Ill. | $55 | $21.05 | 2.6x |
The pattern by state is weak: Michigan wages are below the national median, yet all five Michigan companies post rates of $80 to $110. Leaf season is short and demand is concentrated in a few weeks, so crews price for peak. Wages still set the floor. Median pay for landscaping workers ranges from $16.76 in Louisiana and $17.13 in Alabama to $22.41 in Minnesota and $23.40 in Massachusetts, which is part of why the Southern flat-rate prices above run lower. For the full picture of pay by state, see our landscaper salary data and the landscaping industry by state tables.
Prices have also climbed faster than inflation. The BLS consumer price index for gardening and lawncare services rose 52.0 percent from September 2019 to September 2025, against 26.5 percent for all items, and 13.9 percent in the 12 months to September 2025 alone. The latest reading, August 2026, is 344.981, about 64 percent above September 2019. That is why five-year-old quotes and older cost guides undershoot.
Gas leaf blower bans and noise rules that change the bill
Leaf removal is the job most affected by the spread of gas blower restrictions, because a fall cleanup is hours of continuous blowing. Where gas blowers are restricted, crews switch to battery equipment, which Portland itself says was not powerful enough for peak wet-leaf season when it passed its rule. Where these rules apply, expect slower wet-leaf work and some equipment cost in the quote.
| Jurisdiction | Rule | In effect | Penalty or note |
|---|---|---|---|
| California (statewide) | AB 1346 (2021) directed the Air Resources Board to require zero exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, including leaf blowers | CARB’s 2021 rule amendments took effect Jan. 1, 2023; CARB says smog-forming emission standards for new engines reach zero by model year 2028 | Applies to new equipment; CARB says owners may keep using and repairing existing compliant equipment |
| Washington, D.C. | Sale and use of gas-powered leaf blowers prohibited | Jan. 1, 2022 | Fines up to $500 per offense |
| Montgomery County, Md. | Use of handheld, backpack and walk-behind gas leaf blowers and leaf vacuums banned | July 1, 2025 | $500 citation; 70 dBA noise limit |
| Evanston, Ill. | Gasoline- and propane-powered leaf blowers prohibited | April 1, 2023 | No seasonal limits on electric blowers |
| Portland, Ore. | Gas leaf blowers allowed only October through December | 2026 and 2027; banned year-round from 2028 | The city says any “surcharge” on a contractor’s invoice is the contractor’s, not a city fee |
Portland’s seasonal window is telling. The city says it delayed a full ban to 2028 because, when the policy passed, electric blowers were not powerful enough for peak wet-leaf season. In other words, the fall cleanup is the hardest job to electrify, and the one where a crew’s productivity, and so your bill, is most exposed. The air quality case behind the rules is large: the California Air Resources Board estimates that one hour of a commercial leaf blower emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a new passenger car about 1,100 miles.
If you live where gas blowers are banned, ask a contractor directly whether it runs battery equipment and whether its quote reflects that. A crew working from a neighboring town with gas equipment may be cheaper and may also put the fine on your street.
What a fall cleanup includes, and what costs extra
“Leaf removal” and “fall cleanup” are often sold as the same thing, but fall cleanup usually means more. Read the scope line by line.
- Usually included: leaves off the lawn, beds, patios and walks; sticks and small debris; a final blow-off of hard surfaces. The published scopes of Foxscapes and Pro Yard also include dead plant material in beds.
- Often extra: haul-away and disposal (see the table above), bags supplied by the crew (Pro Yard charges $0.70 a bag), perennial and ornamental-grass cutbacks (Foxscapes sells fall pruning from $199.99), gutter cleaning (Foxscapes excludes gutters and roofs; RS Lawn sells gutter cleaning as a separate service), and a final mow.
- Rarely included: roofs, pruning of shrubs and trees, and fall lawn work such as core aeration and overseeding, which are priced on their own.
One visit or a season?
Leaves fall over six weeks or more, so one visit only works if you schedule it after the last drop and accept a buried lawn in between. Published seasonal prices give a sense of the total: CLE Landscaping in South Euclid, Ohio, typically makes 4 fall leaf cleanups per season for a total of $500 to $1,500; Foxscapes typically visits 2 to 3 times; and Just Landscaping’s program includes two scheduled cleanups, starting at $135 each. A practical budget for a quarter acre with moderate leaves is two hauled visits, roughly $420 to $1,100 for the season, or less where the city collects.
Doing it yourself: hours, bags and where the leaves go
The labor-hour figures cut both ways. If a crew needs 3 to 5 worker-hours to hand-rake and bag a quarter acre of moderate leaves, as His Workmanship estimates, so will you, and probably more. Budget a full weekend day for a quarter acre with a rake and tarp, less with a blower or a mulching mower.
Your out-of-pocket costs are bags, fuel or batteries, and disposal. Most of the cities above require paper or certified compostable bags, and Charlotte and Boston refuse plastic outright. Check whether your town vacuums loose leaves, runs drop-off sites (Philadelphia runs Saturday drop-offs at 13 locations), or collects only on set weeks. If none of that works for your volume, a haul-only service is an option: JUNKRUN in Massachusetts posts $10 per bag with a $109 minimum.
Is leaf removal worth paying for? On a small, lightly treed lot, rarely: a mulching mower handles it, and the job minimum would eat most of the value. On a half acre or more under mature oaks and maples, especially where the city no longer takes loose leaves, the 8 to 16 worker-hours involved make a crew worth it for most households.
How to read a leaf removal quote
- Get the unit. Ask whether the rate is per worker-hour or per crew-hour. A “$100 an hour” quote is very different for a crew of one and a crew of four.
- Get the minimum and the disposal fee in writing. In our set they range from $145 to $375 and from $25 per yard to $150 per job.
- Ask where the leaves will go. “Blown to the curb” is only legal and free where the city collects loose leaves. In New York City, leaves from a landscaper may not go to the curb at all.
- For hourly jobs, ask for a range and a cap. ECHO’s own contractor guidance recommends hourly billing with progress updates when a job approaches the high end of its estimate. A not-to-exceed figure protects you.
- Check equipment against local rules. In D.C., Montgomery County and Evanston, a gas backpack blower on your lawn is a violation.
- Check the business. Insurance matters when a crew works with blowers near cars and windows and on ladders at gutters. Our guide to checking a landscaper’s license and insurance covers what to ask for.
For contractors setting their own leaf prices, the data above points one way: price by the worker-hour with a clear minimum and a separate disposal line, as most of the companies in our set do, rather than guessing a flat number from the street. Our guide on how to bid landscaping jobs covers how to build a loaded hourly rate.
How we built these numbers
Rates. In October 2026 we collected every leaf or fall cleanup price we could find published on a U.S. company’s own website. Eleven posted an hourly labor rate: $110, $105, $100, $95, $84, $84, $80, $80, $66.33, $65 and $55 per worker-hour. The median is $84; the 25th and 75th percentiles (third and ninth of eleven values) are $66.33 and $100. Seven more posted flat or per-visit prices, which we use as cross-checks. Six published a minimum or starting block ($145, $159, $189, $250, $250, $375; median about $220).
Hours. For a quarter acre (10,890 sq. ft.) with moderate leaf cover we used 2 to 4 worker-hours with power blowers and vacuums. The upper end is near the 3 to 5 hours His Workmanship publishes for hand raking; 3 hours is the starting labor block that both Pro Yard and Foxscapes price around; the lower end is what published quarter-acre flat prices ($175 to $200 for a full cleanup) imply at the median rate. Mulch-mowing: 0.75 to 1.5 worker-hours, close to a mowing visit and consistent with mulching add-ons posted at $45 to $67.50. Hand raking and bagging: 3 to 5 hours. Hours scale in proportion to lot size; leaf-cover factors (0.6, 1.0, 1.7 and 2.5) are our assumptions, with 1.7 matching ECHO’s 7-hour-estimate, 12-hour-actual example.
Arithmetic. Low = low hours x $66.33; high = high hours x $100. Quarter acre, curbside: 2 x $66.33 = $133 (shown as $135) to 4 x $100 = $400. Haul-away adds $75 to $150 per load (the middle of the published flat disposal fees and ECHO’s $75 to $100 per dump run), one load up to a third of an acre, two for a half to three-quarter acre and three for an acre; load counts are our assumption. Quarter acre, hauled: $133 + $75 = $208 (shown as $210) to $400 + $150 = $550. “Typical” = 3 hours x $84 + $112.50 = $364.50. Per 1,000 sq. ft., the calculator uses $12.18 to $36.73 (blown or raked and collected), $4.57 to $13.77 (mulch-mow) and $18.27 to $45.91 (hand rake and bag). Figures are rounded to the nearest $5.
Limits. These are estimates, not quotes. Published price pages skew toward companies that are comfortable posting rates, and several are in Michigan. Lot size is a proxy for the leaf-covered area; a lot where the house and drive take up most of the space will cost less. Wages are BLS OEWS May 2025 medians for landscaping and groundskeeping workers (SOC 37-3011); prices are BLS CPI-U series CUUR0000SEHP02, not seasonally adjusted. See our methodology for how we handle sources.
This page is general information, not legal advice. City collection schedules and equipment rules change each season; confirm with your city or county (linked above) before you set leaves out or hire a crew.
Leaf removal questions, answered
How much do people charge to pick up leaves?
For a full cleanup, companies that publish rates charge $55 to $110 per worker-hour, a median of $84, with minimums of $145 to $375. A quarter-acre with moderate leaves comes to about $210 to $550 hauled away. If you rake the leaves to the curb yourself, curbside pickup services start at $50 to $134 a visit.
How much to charge per hour for leaf cleanup?
The middle half of the published rates we found is $66 to $100 per worker-hour, and the median is $84. ECHO’s guidance for contractors puts the range at $40 to $80 per person-hour depending on market. Most companies add a job minimum and charge disposal separately, by the cubic yard ($25 to $45) or per load ($75 to $150).
How much for 2 hours of yard work?
Two worker-hours at the published rates comes to $110 to $220, or about $168 at the $84 median. But most companies have a minimum: Pro Yard in Denver sells a 3-labor-hour block for $159, while others start at $145 to $375. Two hours from a two-person crew is four worker-hours, or $265 to $400 at mid-range rates.
Is it better to remove leaves or leave them?
Mulch them where you can. Michigan State, Purdue and Cornell research found that mulching leaves into the lawn does not harm turf or soil and can improve it. Remove them when they are too deep to mulch: University of Minnesota Extension says to start bagging once less than half the lawn is visible, and Wisconsin research found 4 inches of leaves over winter likely to cause damage.
How do I get rid of a lot of leaves in my yard?
Mow them in thin layers through the season, about an inch at a time, and bag or compost the excess. For what you cannot mulch, use city collection if it takes loose leaves or paper bags, a drop-off site, a curbside pickup service ($50 to $134 a visit in our set), or a full cleanup with haul-away.
How much does leaf removal cost per acre?
About $755 to $2,050 for one visit to an acre with moderate leaf cover, collected and hauled away in about three loads. Left at the curb, about $530 to $1,600. Mulch-mowing an acre costs roughly $200 to $600. Heavy tree cover can push a full cleanup well past those figures.
What is typically included in a fall clean up?
Leaves and small debris cleared from the lawn, beds and hard surfaces, usually with dead plant material in beds. Haul-away, bags, perennial cutbacks, gutters and a final mow are often priced separately, so ask for each line in writing.
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