2026 public-data edition

Mobile detailing pricing and profitability report

A source-transparent guide to the public industry, labor, and mileage data operators can use—plus the costs that must come from their own business.

Published October 18, 2026 · Sources reviewed October 18, 2026

What the public data says

19,422

establishments

reported for NAICS 811192 in the 2022 Economic Census

$16.42

median hourly wage

for cleaners of vehicles and equipment in May 2023

76¢

per business mile

IRS optional rate for July–December 2026

What these numbers cannot tell you

U.S. Census Bureau

The category combines car washes and automotive detailing; it is not a count of mobile detailers.

Review the primary source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employee wage data is not owner compensation, customer pricing, or a detailing labor-rate recommendation.

Review the primary source

Internal Revenue Service

A tax mileage rate can be a planning reference, but it is not every operator's actual vehicle cost.

Review the primary source

Build the economics from your own operation

A useful price begins with the job-level costs the operator can actually observe. For each service, record productive labor time, travel time and distance, chemical and material use, payment costs, allocated overhead, and a reserve for rework or uncertainty.

Contribution model

Price − labor − materials − travel − transaction costs = contribution before fixed overhead and owner profit

This is an operating framework, not tax or accounting advice. Define each input consistently and review completed jobs against the estimate.

A pricing review operators can repeat

  1. 01

    Define the standard job

    Write down the vehicle, condition, scope, quality standard, and exclusions the price assumes.

  2. 02

    Measure complete labor

    Include setup, teardown, travel, customer handoff, and administrative time—not only hands-on detailing.

  3. 03

    Allocate variable costs

    Record chemicals, towels, consumables, payment fees, and the operating cost of reaching the job.

  4. 04

    Review completed work

    Compare estimated and actual time and cost, then revise the package instead of defending a stale price.

Use the pricing calculatorRead the pricing guide

Sources, download, and citation

The downloadable source record includes the publisher, reference period, scope, limitation, original URL, and verification date for each figure. Cite the original agency for the statistic and Rinse for this analysis and methodology.

Download the source record

Suggested citation

Rinse, “Mobile Detailing Pricing and Profitability Report: 2026 Public-Data Edition,” reviewed October 18, 2026.

Citation and publisher resources

Writers and educators may quote the public figures with their original agency source, link to this methodology, download the source record, or embed the calculator. Attribution is appreciated but never requires a followed link or specific anchor text.

Plain-text citation

Rinse. “Mobile Detailing Pricing and Profitability Report: 2026 Public-Data Edition.” Reviewed October 18, 2026. https://www.rinsehq.com/reports/mobile-detailing-pricing-profitability

Definitions

Contribution
Customer price minus the modeled job costs included in the calculation.
Effective hourly return
Modeled contribution divided by total labor hours.

Embed the calculator

The sandboxed embed uses no Rinse login and keeps entered figures in the visitor’s browser.

<iframe src="https://www.rinsehq.com/tools/pricing-calculator/embed?v=1" title="Mobile detailing job profitability calculator" loading="lazy" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-popups" style="width:100%;min-height:560px;border:0"></iframe>

Report update log

  1. 2026.1 · October 18, 2026

    Initial public-data edition

    Added the Census industry context, BLS employee wage context, IRS mileage reference, source CSV, unit-economics methodology, calculators, worksheet, comparison builder, and publisher embed.

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