Solo Groomer How much to charge for dog grooming depends on three numbers that only you know: what your business costs to run each month, how many hours you can actually groom, and how long each dog takes. Get those right and your price per dog follows. Then check it against what groomers near you charge. This guide gives you the method, a worked example and a price list template you can fill in. National cost guides put a basic groom at about $30 to $50 for a small dog and $120 to $200 for a giant dog (Whole Dog Journal, November 2024), but local prices vary a lot, so use those numbers as a rough check, not as your price.
Why not copy the local price list?
Looking at other groomers' prices is useful, and you should do it (see Step 7). But it is a bad place to start:
- Their costs are not your costs. A salon with five groomers spreads rent across all of them. A van with one groomer does not.
- Many groomers underprice, especially when they start. Copying them copies the mistake.
- Their time per dog is not yours. A groomer who finishes a doodle in two hours can charge less per dog than one who takes three.
Start with your own floor. Then look around.
Step 1: Find your hourly cost floor
Your hourly cost floor is the least you must earn for each hour on the table to pay your costs and yourself.
Add up your monthly costs:
- Van payment or salon rent or booth rent
- Fuel and vehicle maintenance (mobile)
- Insurance: general liability, care, custody and control, commercial auto
- Shampoo, blades, sharpening, towels, cleaning products
- Phone, software, card fees, marketing
- Equipment repair and replacement (set money aside each month)
- An accountant, licences and fees
- The pay you need to take home
- Self-employment tax and income tax on that pay. Ask an accountant for a rough percentage for your state.
Count your grooming hours. Only hours with a dog on the table count. Not driving, not cleaning the van, not texting clients. If you work 4 days a week and groom 6 hours a day, that is about 24 hours a week, or about 100 hours a month after holidays and sick days.
Divide: monthly costs ÷ monthly grooming hours = hourly cost floor.
A worked example
These are example numbers to show the arithmetic, not benchmarks. Use your own.
| Item | Example per month |
|---|---|
| Van payment, fuel, maintenance | $1,400 |
| Insurance | $250 |
| Products, blades, supplies | $300 |
| Phone, software, marketing, fees | $150 |
| Set aside for equipment | $100 |
| Pay you want to take home | $4,000 |
| Tax on that pay (ask your accountant) | $1,200 |
| Total | $7,400 |
With 100 grooming hours a month, the floor is $7,400 ÷ 100 = $74 an hour. Any groom that earns less than $74 for each hour it takes loses you money against your own goal.
Step 2: Time each dog by size and coat
Your price should follow time, because time is what you sell. Size matters, but coat matters more. A short-coated large dog can be quicker than a small dog with a full curly coat.
Time a few weeks of real grooms, from the dog arriving to the dog leaving, including the bath, the dry, the cut and the clean-up. Group them like this:
| Short / smooth coat | Double coat | Curly or long coat (cut) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | your time | your time | your time |
| Medium | your time | your time | your time |
| Large | your time | your time | your time |
| Giant | your time | your time | your time |
Then price each box: time in hours × hourly floor. In the example, a small curly-coated dog that takes 1.5 hours needs at least 1.5 × $74 = $111. A large smooth-coated dog that takes 1 hour needs at least $74.
Round up to clean numbers and keep the table short. Owners understand "small, medium, large, doodle". They do not understand twelve tiers.
Step 3: Add the mobile premium
A mobile groomer offers convenience: no car ride, no waiting room, one-to-one attention. The costs are higher too: the van, fuel, generator or power, and fewer dogs a day because of drive time.
You do not need a separate "premium" number if you used your real mobile costs and your real grooming hours in Step 1. The premium is already in your floor. If you moved from a salon to a van, compare the two floors and you will see the difference.
Step 4: Charge for travel
Drive time is time you are not grooming. Two common ways to cover it:
- A service area with a flat price, and a travel fee for addresses outside it.
- Route days: group clients by area on set days, so drive time stays short and you can keep the travel fee low.
To set the fee, take the extra drive time in hours × your hourly floor, plus fuel. Charge per visit, not per dog, so a multi-dog household is a better deal for both of you.
Step 5: Price the add-ons
Some work takes extra time that is not in a normal groom. Price it separately, by time:
- De-matting. Slow and hard on the dog. Agree the price before you start, and offer a shave-down when de-matting would hurt.
- De-shedding treatments for double coats.
- Teeth brushing, nail grinding, paw balm, special shampoos.
- Difficult handling. A dog that needs two short sessions or extra breaks takes more of your time.
- Late cancellation or no-show. Not an add-on, but decide a policy and say it at booking.
Publish the add-ons so there are no surprises at pickup.
A dog grooming price list template (by size and coat)
Owners search for a "dog grooming prices list" before they call you, so publish one. Many groomers do not price each breed one by one. They group breeds by size and coat, which keeps the list short and still covers every dog. Copy this table, set your own weight lines, and fill each box from Step 2: time in hours × your hourly floor, rounded up.
| Service | Example breeds | Small (up to 20 lb) | Medium (21–50 lb) | Large (51–80 lb) | Giant (over 80 lb) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath and tidy, short coat | Beagle, Pug, Boxer, Labrador | $___ | $___ | $___ | $___ |
| Bath and brush-out, double coat | Pomeranian, Corgi, Husky, Golden Retriever | $___ | $___ | $___ | $___ |
| Full haircut, long or drop coat | Shih Tzu, Yorkie, Maltese, Cocker Spaniel | $___ | $___ | $___ | $___ |
| Full haircut, curly coat | Poodle, Bichon, doodles | $___ | $___ | $___ | $___ |
| Hand-stripping or breed show trim | Terriers, Schnauzers | Priced by time | Priced by time | Priced by time | Priced by time |
Add-ons (price by time, the same for every size or by size if the time differs):
| Add-on | Your price |
|---|---|
| De-matting (per 15 minutes) | $___ |
| De-shedding treatment | $___ |
| Teeth brushing | $___ |
| Nail grind | $___ |
| Extra handling time (per 15 minutes) | $___ |
| Travel fee outside your service area (mobile) | $___ |
| Late cancellation or no-show | $___ |
Three rules that keep the list fair:
- Price the dog in front of you. The list is a starting price. A matted or very anxious dog moves to the add-ons, and you say so before you start.
- Put "from" in front of each price on your website or price card, so a dog in poor coat does not lock you into the lowest number.
- Keep breeds as examples, not rules. A doodle can be medium or giant. Weight and coat decide the box, not the breed name.
What do groomers charge on average?
National averages are rough, but they help you spot a price that is far off. These are the two cost guides we opened and read in November 2026 that give clear numbers:
| Source | Small | Medium | Large | Giant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole Dog Journal, published November 10, 2024: basic groom (bath, brush-out, nail trim, ear cleaning, simple trim) | $30–$50 (up to 20 lb) | $50–$80 (20–50 lb) | $80–$120 (50–80 lb) | $120–$200 (over 80 lb) |
| Whole Dog Journal, same page: full grooming package | $50–$80 | $80–$110 | $110–$150 | $150–$250 |
Vetster (updated April 29, 2024) gives wider ranges: a standard groom at $30 to $90, a breed-specific cut at $50 to $150, and a mobile groom at $60 to $100 a visit, which it says is 20% to 40% more than a salon.
How to read these numbers:
- They are consumer guides, written for owners. Neither page names the survey or data behind its figures, and both are more than a year old.
- They mix salons, chains and mobile groomers, and cities with small towns. Your area can be well above or below.
- They are not a floor. If your cost floor from Step 1 is higher than these ranges, the answer is to check your costs and your area, not to charge less than it costs you to groom.
Use them as a sanity check, then compare with the groomers near you in Step 7.
Step 6: Treat tips as extra
Many owners tip groomers, and many do not. Do not build tips into your price. Set prices that pay your costs and your take-home pay without tips. Then any tip is a bonus, not a gap in your budget.
Record tips separately from the groom price. That way you can see what your prices alone earn, and you can tell when a price is too low because only tips are making the day work.
Step 7: Check against your local market
Now look at other groomers' published prices near you. Search Google Maps for groomers in your area, read their websites and Facebook pages, and note what they charge for a few common dogs.
National cost guides also publish average prices (see What do groomers charge on average? above). They are useful as a rough check, but they disagree with each other and mix salons, chains and mobile groomers. Your local list is the better comparison.
What you find tells you:
- Your floor is well below local prices: you have room to charge more.
- Your floor is close to local prices: price at the market, and work on speed and dogs per day.
- Your floor is above local prices: check your costs and hours again. You may need a different set-up (booth rent instead of a van, for example), a different area, or a higher-value service such as calm one-to-one grooms for anxious dogs.
Never price below your floor to win clients. Clients who come for the lowest price leave for a lower one.
Step 8: Raise prices for regulars
Your costs rise every year, so your prices must too. A simple routine:
- Review prices once a year, on the same month each year.
- Raise for new clients first. New clients start on the new price immediately.
- Give regulars written notice, a few weeks ahead, in a short text or a note at pickup. Say what changes and when. You do not need to apologize.
- Look at your slowest dogs. If one dog always takes longer than its price allows, raise that dog's price, or move it to a larger size or coat group.
Most regulars stay. A few may leave, and that frees a slot for a client who pays your new price.
Keep the numbers you need
This method only works if you know how long each dog really takes and what it paid. Paper cards can hold that, if you write it down every time. A spreadsheet works too.
Solo Groomer, the phone app we are building for one-person groomers (not released yet), records this for each groom: duration, price, tips as a separate field, and extras. Your service list holds a default duration and price for each service, and each client can have a travel fee. You can see what you earned this week and this month. It does not set size or coat price tiers for you, it takes no card payments, and it does no accounting or expense tracking, so you still work out your floor yourself, with your accountant. Planned pricing is free for up to 15 dogs, then $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year for Pro.
If you are still setting up the business, read How to Start a Dog Grooming Business for the steps before pricing.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for dog grooming?
Work out your hourly cost floor first: your monthly costs plus the pay you need, divided by the hours you actually groom. Multiply that by the time each dog takes, by size and coat, then add a mobile premium, travel fees and add-ons. Check the result against local groomers' published prices, and price at or above your floor.
What is the average price for dog grooming?
National cost guides give wide ranges. Whole Dog Journal (November 2024) lists a basic groom at about $30 to $50 for a small dog and $120 to $200 for a giant dog, and Vetster (April 2024) lists a standard groom at $30 to $90. Neither names its data, so use local groomers' published prices as your real comparison.
How do I make a dog grooming price list by breed?
Group breeds by size and coat instead of listing every breed. Use four sizes by weight and three or four coat types, put example breeds in each row, and price each box from the time it takes you times your hourly cost floor. Add a short list of add-ons, such as de-matting and de-shedding.
How much more should a mobile groomer charge?
There is no fixed percentage. A mobile groomer sees fewer dogs a day because of drive time and pays for a van, fuel and commercial insurance, so the price must cover that. Use the same cost-floor method with your mobile costs and your real dogs per day, and the premium follows.
Should I charge extra for matted dogs?
Most groomers do, because matting takes longer and is harder on the dog. Price it by time, tell the owner before you start, and give them the choice of a short shave-down if de-matting would be painful for the dog.