Free toolsPainting estimate
FREE CONTRACTOR TOOL

Painting estimate calculator for contractors

Measure the walls, take out the doors and windows, and see the gallons to buy. Then price the job from what you pay for paint, materials and labor.

Free, no signupYour numbers never leave this pageNo made-up prices: you enter yours
1 The walls
How you measure

Feet with decimals: 10 ft 6 in = 10.5. Two walls the same size? Put 2 in “How many”.

2 Doors and windows

Anything you won’t paint is taken off the wall area. Leave this empty to paint over everything.

3 Paint
Spills, touch-ups, what stays in the tray.
Copy it from your paint’s label or product data sheet. We don’t fill it in: it changes from product to product.
4 Other job costs
Overhead (optional)

Truck, insurance, phone, office, software: the costs of running the business that no single job pays for.

5 Your price
Pricing method
Added on top of your cost. 25% on $1,000 = $1,250.
It stays on this page and is never sent anywhere.

Selling price
$0.00

    Gross margin is the price minus the job's direct costs. It is not net profit: income tax, your own pay and anything you didn't enter still come out of it. Gallons are rounded up to whole gallons.

    How the calculator gets from walls to a price

    Five steps, all on your numbers. Nothing here is a typical price or a typical coverage: the paint price and the coverage come from you and your paint can.

    Wall area width × height × how many, for each wall
    Paintable area wall area − (door and window width × height × how many)
    Area to cover paintable area × coats
    Gallons needed area to cover ÷ coverage per gallon × (1 + extra %)
    Gallons to buy gallons needed, rounded up to a whole gallon
    Paint cost gallons to buy × your price per gallon
    Selling price (paint + materials + labor) × (1 + markup) or ÷ (1 − margin)

    Prices from a target margin are rounded up to the next cent, so you never land under the margin you asked for.

    Getting a number you can stand behind

    1. Measure, don’t guess. Width × height for every wall you’ll paint. A room with two pairs of matching walls is two lines: “12 × 8, how many 2” and “11 × 8, how many 2”.
    2. Take out what you won’t paint. Doors, windows, a fireplace face, a built-in. Each is its own line, with a count.
    3. Use your paint’s own coverage. Copy it from the label or the product data sheet. If you’ve painted that kind of wall with that paint before, your own records beat any label: use them, and set the extra % from what you’ve seen.
    4. Price the paint at what you pay. The calculator charges for the whole gallons you buy, not the fraction you use, because that’s what leaves your wallet.
    5. Count the labor, even if it’s you. Prep, cutting in, rolling, cleanup. Your own hours are a cost.

    Want the full walk-through with a worked bedroom job, every number shown? Read How to estimate a paint job from your own costs.

    Estimate the next room by talking through it

    TalkEstimate keeps your own prices in one list and builds the estimate from them while you talk through the job. You set every price; the AI only organizes what you said.

    Not released yet · Android first · built and tested on a real phone

    Join the waitlist

    Questions painters ask

    What coverage per gallon should I use?

    The one on your paint. Coverage changes from product to product, so this calculator doesn’t pre-fill a number. Copy the square feet per gallon from the label or the product data sheet of the paint you’ll actually use.

    Why does it round up to whole gallons?

    Because you buy whole gallons. If the job needs 2.3 gallons, you pay for 3. The calculator shows the exact amount and what’s left over, and prices the paint you buy.

    Does it do ceilings and trim?

    Ceilings, yes: use “I have the total” and enter the ceiling area (length × width), or add it as a “wall” line. Trim is easier to price as labor and materials, since it’s measured by the foot rather than the square foot.

    Should I add primer?

    If the job needs a separate primer, run it as its own estimate with the primer’s coverage and price, or add what you’ll spend on it to “Other materials”.

    Where do the numbers go?

    Nowhere. The math runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent to us. On talkestimate.com we count that the calculator was used, never what you typed.

    Updated October 2026 · TalkEstimate