Moving Cost Calculator

Two completely different pricing models

Moving cost isn’t one number because local and long-distance moves are priced in fundamentally different ways, and pricing them with the wrong model produces a wildly wrong estimate. Local moves are almost always hourly — a crew, a truck, and a clock. Long-distance moves are almost always priced by weight and distance through the moving company’s tariff, since the truck is making one specific trip regardless of how many hours it takes. This calculator splits the two so you’re estimating with the model that actually applies to your move.

Local moves: the hourly math and its hidden costs

A local hourly move is straightforward to estimate — crew size times hourly rate times hours — but the actual final bill routinely runs longer than the initial estimate for reasons worth planning around: a slow elevator, a third-floor walk-up with no elevator at all, furniture that has to be disassembled and reassembled, or simply underestimating how much stuff accumulated in a garage. Padding your hours estimate by 20-25% beyond a company’s initial guess is a reasonable hedge, and this calculator’s contingency line does exactly that for the dollar total.

Don’t forget the truck rental if you’re doing a hybrid move — hiring loading and unloading labor but renting your own truck — since that’s a separate line item most people forget to budget until the receipt shows up.

Long-distance moves: why the estimate you get by phone means little

Long-distance moving is priced by shipment weight and distance, and the number that actually determines your bill — the shipment’s real weight — usually isn’t known precisely until the truck is loaded and weighed. A phone estimate based on your description of “a 3-bedroom house” is a starting point, not a commitment, unless it’s explicitly a binding estimate. This matters enough that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration publishes consumer protection guidance specifically about interstate moving, because weight-based final bills that come in well above the phone quote are one of the most common consumer complaints in the industry.

Ask specifically whether a quote is binding, non-binding, or “binding not-to-exceed” (which caps the price but can still come in lower if the actual weight is less) — the difference determines how much price risk you’re carrying into moving day.

The extras that add up faster than people expect

Packing service, if you use one, is priced separately from transport and can add a meaningful percentage to the total bill, especially for full-service packing of an entire household. Boxes, tape, bubble wrap and moving blankets are a real cost even for a DIY pack — a few hundred dollars is typical for a multi-bedroom home. Valuation coverage (what movers call insurance) matters disproportionately for a long-distance move, where the basic released-value protection included by default is minimal — often 60 cents per pound per item, meaning a $2,000 TV that weighs 40 pounds is “covered” for $24 unless you purchase additional valuation.

What actually keeps a move on budget

The single highest-leverage move is decluttering before you get any quotes — both local hourly time and long-distance weight are direct functions of how much you’re moving, so a garage sale or donation run the week before pays for itself twice, once in lower moving cost and once in a smaller shipment. Beyond that, get at least two or three written estimates for any move over a few hundred miles, confirm in writing whether the estimate is binding, and budget the contingency this calculator adds rather than treating the initial quote as the final number. See the relocation cost calculator if you’re factoring a job-driven move into a broader household budget, or the home affordability calculator if the move includes buying in a new area.