Cost guide

How much does land clearing cost per acre?

Land clearing is priced per crew day, not per acre. Divide the crew day rate by realistic acres per day. LandWorkPro's bid engine uses 0.6 acres per day for medium density, flat ground with easy access, so a single crew day covers roughly 0.6 of an acre.

What our own bid data shows

Price per acre is not a constant, and that is the real answer to the question. It falls as the tract gets bigger and climbs steeply on small ones, because getting a machine to the site and a minimum charge have to be spread across whatever acreage is there. Across ten acres they disappear into the number. Across a tenth of an acre they are the number.

Every operator in our data who bid land clearing at more than one job size priced the smaller job higher per acre. That is 2 operators across 6 of their own bids, with no exception in either direction.
One of them bid 0.47, 0.22 and 0.08 acres. Their 0.08 acre job came out at about 11 times their own per-acre figure on the largest of the three. Same operator, same rates, same week.
The other bid tracts of 15.41, 10.95 and 1 acres. They priced the smallest of those three at about 5 times their own per-acre figure on the 15.41 acre tract.
Between 10.95 and 15.41 acres that same operator moved only 10 percent per acre. That is the flat end of the curve: once a job is big enough to absorb the mobilization, more acreage stops buying much.
So the useful question to ask a contractor is not what they charge per acre. It is what a crew day costs them and how many acres a day they really cover on ground like yours. Those two numbers give you a per-acre figure for the job in front of you, which is the only one that is true.

Measured 2026-09-05 against our own production data: 6 land clearing bids carrying both a drawn work area and a bid total, from 2 contributing operators, of which 1 is a closed job. These are bids, not invoices. The ratios above compare each operator only against their own other jobs.

Where these numbers come from

What is above is the shape our own operators' bids make, not a market average, and the difference matters. We publish figures drawn from closed jobs only once at least five contributing operators sit behind them, which is our standing anonymity floor. Land clearing is at two today, so you get the mechanism and the sample size rather than a number that would really be one or two businesses' pricing wearing a national label.

What actually drives the number

Vegetation density: Light, moderate, heavy and extreme are not a style of ground, they are a multiplier on days. This is the single largest swing in the estimate.
Clearing method: Mulch in place, push and pile, and cut and haul are three different jobs on the same acre. Push and pile leaves windrows to burn or haul; cut and haul recovers timber value but is slowest.
Terrain and access: Slope and how a machine gets on and off the tract change production before anything is cut. A tract you can only enter from one corner costs more than the same acreage with two gates.
Stumps and grubbing: Grinding removes the stump to below grade. Grubbing pulls the root ball and is required wherever a pad, foundation or paved surface is going. These are different line items, not a rounding difference.
Debris disposal: Burning, chipping, or hauling off. Haul distance and dump fees are pass throughs that belong in the estimate rather than absorbed into a per acre rate.

Work out your own number

The free crew day calculator takes your rate, your acreage and the site conditions and returns your crew days and your break even. No account needed.

Open the crew day calculator

How to work out a land clearing price per acre

1
Get the crew day rate
Ask what one full day on site costs to run: machine, operator, fuel, wear parts and getting there. This is the number every acre-based price is built from.
2
Get realistic acres per day
Ask how much ground that crew covers in a day on conditions like yours. Our bid engine uses 0.6 acres per day for medium density, flat ground with easy access, and adjusts down for density, slope and access.
3
Divide one by the other
Crew day rate divided by acres per day gives the per-acre floor for that contractor on that ground. Anything below it loses them money, so it is the number to sanity-check a quote against.
4
Then correct for the size of your job
Small jobs carry the mobilization and the minimum charge on very little acreage. In our own data an operator's smallest job ran about 11 times their per-acre figure on their largest. Expect a higher per-acre number on a fraction of an acre, and do not read it as being overcharged.

Common questions

Why will nobody quote me a price per acre over the phone?

Because acreage alone does not determine the work. Two acres of six inch pine on flat ground and two acres of mixed hardwood on a slope with one access point are different jobs at the same acreage. Any number quoted before someone has seen density, method and access is a guess that will be revised.

Is land clearing cheaper than forestry mulching?

Per acre, mulching is usually faster, which is why it is usually cheaper. Our engine assumes 1.25 acres per day for forestry mulching against 0.6 for land clearing on comparable ground. Mulching leaves the material on site as chip, though, so if the ground needs to be clean it is not the same finished product.

What is a crew day rate?

What one full day of work costs the contractor to run: machine, operator, fuel, wear parts, and getting to the site. Every acre based price is that number divided by how much ground gets covered in a day. Asking a contractor for their crew day rate and their acres per day tells you more than asking for a price per acre.

Why is the price per acre so much higher on my small job?

Because getting the machine to site and the contractor's minimum charge do not shrink with the tract. On a large job they disappear into the total; on a fraction of an acre they are most of it. In our own bid data one operator's 0.08 acre job priced at about 11 times their own per-acre figure on their 0.47 acre job. Same operator, same rates. A high per-acre number on a small job is arithmetic, not a markup.

Does LandWorkPro publish average land clearing prices?

Not yet, and we say what is missing rather than rounding it off. We publish figures from closed jobs once at least five contributing operators sit behind them. Land clearing is at 2 as of 2026-09-05, so what we publish today is the mechanism above and the sample size behind it. When the floor clears, the figures follow.