What is The Average Cost of Hiring Movers 2026?

Key Points (2026)

• National averages: The average cost of a local move is approximately $1,400. The average cost of a long-distance move at 1,000 miles is approximately $4,890 for a two- to three-bedroom household. Full-service moving costs range from $550 to $15,000+ across all move types and sizes.
• Hourly rates for local moves: Most moving companies charge $50–$100 per mover per hour for local moves, meaning a standard two-person crew with a truck runs $80–$200 per hour depending on the metro area and company tier.
• One person of labor: When hiring a mover for labor only, the standard rate is $50–$100 per person per hour nationally, with higher rates in major metro areas like New York City, San Francisco, and Boston running $80–$130 per hour per mover.
• Long-distance pricing model: Interstate moves are priced by shipment weight and mileage rather than hourly rates. Your final price depends on how many pounds your household goods weigh and the exact distance the truck drives between your two addresses.
• Timing affects cost by 20–40%: Summer weekend moves from May through September cost 20–30% more than baseline. Off-season mid-month weekday moves from November through March can cost 30–40% less for identical service.
• Always verify licensing: Local movers should hold an active state transportation license. Interstate movers must carry a valid FMCSA registration number, verifiable at protectyourmove.gov before any contract or deposit is signed.

How Moving Companies Calculate What They Charge

The most important thing to understand before comparing moving company quotes is that local and long-distance moves operate on completely different pricing systems, and the one that applies to your move determines how every other cost factor gets calculated.

Local moves, generally defined as moves within 50 to 100 miles depending on the state and carrier, are priced by the hour. The clock starts when the crew arrives at your origin address and stops when the last item is placed at your destination. The hourly rate covers the movers’ labor, the truck, fuel, and standard equipment including dollies, furniture pads, and straps. The total bill is the hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours actually worked, which is why home size, floor access, and how prepared you are when the crew arrives all affect the final number so directly.

Long-distance moves, meaning moves across state lines or beyond approximately 100 miles, are priced by shipment weight and mileage. The moving company estimates your total shipment weight through an in-home or virtual inventory survey, then applies a tariff rate per hundred pounds per hundred miles. The heavier your household goods and the farther the truck drives, the higher the base rate. Packing services, storage, specialty item fees, and insurance upgrades are then added on top of the base transportation rate to produce the final quote.

Understanding which model applies to your move before you start collecting quotes prevents the confusion that comes from comparing an hourly local estimate to a weight-and-mileage interstate quote, since those numbers cannot be compared directly without translating both into total project cost.

How Much Do Movers Cost Per Hour by Crew Size

For local moves, the hourly rate is the number that drives everything else, and it is set by crew size rather than by the job itself. Booking a smaller crew at a lower hourly rate often produces a higher final bill than booking a larger crew at a higher hourly rate, because a two-person crew working on a three-bedroom house takes proportionally longer to finish the same amount of work than a three- or four-person team.

One mover per hour nationally runs $50–$100 for labor-only services, which is the rate that applies when someone hires a single mover to load or unload a truck they have rented themselves. A standard two-person crew with a truck, the most common configuration for studios and one-bedroom apartments, runs $80–$200 per hour depending on the market. That range reflects the difference between a smaller city with lower operating costs and a major metro like New York, Boston, or San Francisco where labor, insurance, and overhead are substantially higher. A three-person crew runs $120–$290 per hour and is the most efficient configuration for two-bedroom apartments and smaller houses, while four-person crews at $160–$380 per hour represent the best value for three-bedroom or larger homes where the time savings more than offset the higher hourly rate.

Note: Data sources: Coastal Moving Services Aggregated Moving Data – Updated May 2026. Note: Rates reflect base transportation only. Packing services, specialty items, storage-in-transit, and long-carry fees are billed separately by most carriers. Rates in high-cost metros like New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle run 20–35% above these national figures. Most companies apply a minimum charge of 2–4 hours regardless of actual job duration.

Local Moving Costs by Home Size

Home size determines both the number of hours a local move realistically requires and the crew size that handles it most efficiently, which is why it is the most reliable single predictor of what a local moving company will cost. The ranges below reflect what households pay nationally across reputable, licensed moving companies in 2026, covering the full move from truck arrival at origin to final placement at the destination.

Studios and efficiencies are the most affordable local moves, typically finishing in two to three hours for $200–$600 with a two-person crew handling a modest furniture inventory and a manageable number of boxes.

One-bedroom apartments run between $400 and $900 for three to five hours depending on how much has accumulated in the space, with the higher end reflecting walk-up buildings, more furniture, or greater distance within the local area.

Two-bedroom homes typically land between $850 and $1,500 with a three-person crew working four to six hours, while three-bedroom houses run $1,200 to $2,500 with a crew of three to four working six to nine hours depending on floor access and total volume. Four-bedroom homes start at $1,800 and can reach $3,500 or more when years of accumulation across multiple floors are involved.

Data sources: Coastal Moving Services Aggregated Moving Data – Updated May 2026. Note: Rates reflect base transportation only. Packing services, specialty items, storage-in-transit, and long-carry fees are billed separately by most carriers.

Long-Distance Moving Company Costs by Distance and Home Size

Once a move exceeds roughly 100 miles or crosses state lines, the pricing shifts entirely from hourly billing to a weight-and-mileage model, and the cost table below reflects what full-service interstate movers charge nationally across the most common route categories. These figures assume self-packing by the homeowner and no specialty items. Professional packing services, full-value insurance upgrades, and storage-in-transit add to these base ranges.

Data sources: Coastal Moving Services Aggregated Moving Data – Updated May 2026. Note: Rates reflect base transportation only. Packing services, specialty items, storage-in-transit, and long-carry fees are billed separately by most carriers.

What Affects How Much a Moving Company Costs

The national averages give a starting point, but the price you actually receive from a moving company is shaped by a specific set of variables that push costs above or below those benchmarks. Understanding each one helps you identify where your move falls in the range before quotes arrive, and where you have genuine room to bring the number down.

Home size and shipment volume are the most direct cost drivers for both local and long-distance moves. A fully furnished three-bedroom house with two decades of garage storage produces a very different quote from a three-bedroom home lived in minimally for two years, even though both would show up identically on a size-based table.

Geographic market has a significant effect on local hourly rates. Moving company costs in San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Seattle, and Washington DC consistently run 25–40% above the national average because of higher labor costs, commercial insurance minimums, and urban operational overhead. The same move that costs $1,200 in a mid-sized Southern city can cost $1,800 or more in a dense coastal metro.

Building access affects local move bills directly because it determines how long every single item takes to move from point A to point B. Walk-up stairs, freight elevator reservation windows, long carries from a parking-constrained street to a building entrance, and tight hallway corners each add measurable time to the clock and translate directly into higher hourly bills.

Cost Factors at a Glance

Moving Service Types and What Each One Costs

The term “hiring movers” covers four meaningfully different service arrangements, each with a distinct cost profile and trade-off between price and convenience. Choosing the right service type for your situation can produce savings of $1,000 or more compared to defaulting to the most obvious option.

Full-service moving is the most comprehensive arrangement, covering packing, loading, transportation, unloading, and unpacking if requested. The moving company handles every physical element of the move. Cost ranges from $800 to $15,000+ depending on home size, distance, and whether packing is included. This is the most expensive option and the one that requires the least from you physically.

Labor-only moving is an arrangement where you rent a truck yourself and hire movers only for the loading and unloading work. You pay the per-mover hourly rate for the time the crew works, but you handle truck rental, driving, and logistics independently. Costs typically run $200–$600 for the labor portion of a local one-bedroom move, making it the most affordable professional option for people comfortable driving a large rental vehicle.

Portable container moving, through services like PODS, U-Pack, or 1-800-Pack-Rat, offers a middle ground where the container company handles transportation while you load and unload at your own pace. Container moves typically cost $1,000–$3,500 for local and regional moves and $2,500–$6,000 for interstate moves on a one- to two-bedroom household. The flexibility of a loading timeline and multiple container drop-off and pickup windows makes this a practical option for moves with uncertain destination timelines.

DIY truck rental through U-Haul, Penske, or Budget requires you to handle all packing, loading, driving, and unloading yourself. Truck rental alone runs $100–$400 for local moves and $1,200–$2,500 for long-distance trips, but the total realistic cost including fuel, insurance, equipment rental, and lodging brings long-distance DIY totals to $2,500–$4,500 for a two-bedroom move.

Note: Interstate DIY cost includes truck rental, fuel, insurance, lodging, and equipment. Labor-only interstate cost covers loading/unloading crews at both ends separately from truck rental costs.

When You Hire Movers Affects How Much You Pay

Moving company costs respond directly to supply and demand, and the calendar creates predictable pricing patterns that any household can take advantage of with enough advance planning. The most expensive combination of timing factors is a summer weekend move at month-end. The most affordable is a winter weekday move in the middle of the month.

Summer from May through September is peak season nationally, driven by school-year transitions, corporate relocation cycles, and apartment lease structures that cluster around June 30, July 31, and August 31. Rates during this window run 20–30% above the baseline that the same company charges in January, and availability on popular weekend dates disappears four to eight weeks in advance at established, reputable companies. Fall from October through November offers a genuine sweet spot, with rates 10–20% below summer peaks, manageable weather for most of the country, and moving companies that have shifted from turning away business to actively competing for it. Winter from December through March delivers the lowest rates of the year, down 30–40% from peak summer pricing, with companies willing to negotiate on crew configuration, included services, and total price in ways they will not entertain during July.

Combined effect: A winter mid-month Tuesday move can cost 40–50% less than the same move scheduled on a summer weekend at month-end. On a $2,000 move, that is $800–$1,000 in savings purely from calendar positioning.

Move Planning Checklist

How to Reduce Your Moving Company Cost

Moving costs are more controllable than most people realize before they start the process, and the decisions that produce the largest savings are ones made in the weeks before the truck arrives rather than on moving day itself.

Decluttering before your estimate visit reduces your quoted cost at its source. For a local move, fewer items means fewer hours. For an interstate move, fewer items means lower shipment weight, which reduces the base transportation rate before any other factor is applied. Most households that have not moved in five or more years can realistically reduce their shipment volume by 20–30% through deliberate pre-move clearance of closets, basements, attics, and storage rooms, and that reduction translates directly into a lower quote.

Scheduling a mid-month weekday move in the November through March off-season is the single most effective calendar-based cost reduction available. Stacking all three of those timing advantages simultaneously, off-season, mid-month, and mid-week, produces the widest pricing gap between what you pay and what the same move would cost at peak. On a move with a $1,500 baseline, the combined discount can reach $500–$750.

Packing yourself eliminates the professional packing line item, which adds $300–$2,500 to move invoices depending on home size and how many fragile items need specialized wrapping. The practical requirement is completing the packing before moving day rather than treating it as something manageable the night before, which creates idle-time billing that offsets the savings from doing it yourself.

Getting three written estimates, not three web-form quotes, exposes the actual competitive range for your specific move. Quotes for identical moves regularly vary by $300–$800 for local jobs and $1,000–$2,500 for interstate moves, depending on each company’s current booking level, overhead structure, and how they handle the specific access conditions at your addresses.

FAQ

How much do movers cost?

Movers cost between $80 and $200 per hour for a standard two-person crew on a local move, with total local move bills typically running $800 to $2,500 depending on home size and how many hours the job takes. Long-distance moving companies charge by shipment weight and mileage rather than hourly rates, with interstate moves averaging $4,890 nationally for a two- to three-bedroom household moving 1,000 miles.

How much does a moving company cost for a local move?

Local moving company cost averages $1,400 nationally, with typical ranges of $200–$600 for studios, $400–$900 for one-bedroom apartments, $850–$1,500 for two-bedroom homes, and $1,200–$2,500 for three-bedroom houses. Rates vary by metro area, time of year, building access, and crew size.

How much are movers per hour?

Most moving companies charge $50–$100 per mover per hour nationally for local moves. A standard two-person crew with a truck runs $80–$200 per hour depending on market, a three-person crew runs $120–$290 per hour, and a four-person crew runs $160–$380 per hour. Metro areas like New York City, San Francisco, and Boston run 25–35% above these national figures.

How much do movers charge for one person of labor?

One person of labor typically costs $50–$100 per hour nationally for loading or unloading assistance. In major metro areas, single-mover hourly labor rates run $80–$130 per hour. Most companies require a minimum booking of two movers for full-service moves, but labor-only platforms allow hiring one mover for loading or unloading tasks on a truck the customer rents independently.

How much does it cost to hire movers for a long-distance move?

Hiring movers for a long-distance move costs $600–$4,000 for short interstate routes under 250 miles, $2,350–$7,750 for mid-range routes of 500–1,000 miles, and $3,150–$15,250+ for coast-to-coast moves, with costs varying by home size and total shipment weight. The national average for a long-distance move at 1,000 miles is approximately $4,890 for a two- to three-bedroom household.

How much is a moving company versus renting a truck yourself?

A full-service moving company costs $850–$2,500 for a local two-bedroom move. Renting a truck and handling everything yourself costs $200–$600 for the same local move, but a realistic DIY total for a long-distance two-bedroom move runs $2,500–$4,800 once fuel, insurance, lodging, and loading help are included, compared to $3,000–$9,000 for a full-service mover on the same route. The gap narrows considerably at longer distances once all DIY costs are accounted for honestly.

What is included in the cost of movers?

Most local moving company rates include the truck, fuel, standard equipment such as dollies, furniture pads, and straps, and the labor to load and unload. Professional packing, packing materials, specialty item handling, storage-in-transit, and full-value insurance protection are typically billed separately unless explicitly included in a written estimate. Always confirm what your quote covers and excludes before signing.

How far in advance should I book movers?

For summer moves between May and September, booking four to eight weeks in advance is the minimum to secure quality crews on weekend dates. For off-season moves from October through March, two to three weeks of lead time is generally sufficient. The earlier you book, the more likely you are to secure your preferred date and have time to collect multiple written estimates for comparison.

References

1. Extra Space Storage: How Much Does It Cost to Hire Movers? 2026
2. HomeGuide: How Much Do Movers Cost? 2026
3. Storage Scholars: How Much Is a Moving Company? 2026 Cost Guide
4. Moving.com: Moving Cost Calculator — 2026 National Averages
5. Allied Van Lines: Long Distance Moving Cost Calculator 2026
6. Discipled Movers: Cost to Hire a Moving Company — 2026 Price Guide
7. MoveBuddha: Moving Cost Calculator — 2026 Data
8. Homeaglow: How Much Does a Mover Cost? Hourly Rate Breakdown