How much do movers cost? What 3,187 people said they paid

What people actually paid

We have read enough frozen rate cards to stop treating a single bold price as a market.

These figures are the number a reviewer typed into the price-paid field, dated with the review. As of 3 Nov 2026 the file holds 24,515 US reviews with a price, and 3,391 of them fall on or after 1 Jan 2025. The set leans toward long-distance jobs and toward people who wanted to say something.

A quiet local move that went fine is underrepresented here, so a median is a reported median, not a census of every truck on the road. Haulest is not a carrier. We publish what reviewers said they paid, and we read those reviews every week.

The 2025 interstate median is $4,500, and the same-state median is $1,500. Reviews dated in 2026, a partial year, sit at $4,500 interstate and $1,987 same-state. The yearly table back to 2022 shows the same shape.

Interstate reports sit several thousand dollars above same-state reports, and the year-to-year moves stay in the hundreds of dollars. That stability is the useful part. A page that quotes one hourly rate from an old press release is describing a different object than this review file.

Priced reviews since 1 January 2024, 5,418 of them, break at $2,780, $4,100, and $6,000. A quarter of reported prices fall at or under the first figure, and a quarter fall at or over the third.

Since 2025 the crowded bucket is $3,000 to $5,000 (1,300 reviews), then $5,000 to $8,000 (735). The ends are thinner: 240 reviews under $1,000, and 205 over $12,000. Bedroom count and mileage belong in the planning table and in the cost calculator. We have read enough frozen rate cards to stop treating a single bold price as a market.

Paying more did not buy a better move

The worse rating carries the higher bill.

Since 2025, reviews with 1 or 2 stars, 779 of them, show a median price of $5,000. Reviews with 4 or 5 stars, 2,605 of them, show a median of $4,000. The worse rating carries the higher bill.

Most cost guides treat a bigger spend as proof of a better crew. Our file shows the stars and the dollars parting company. The figure that lines up with a bad move is a bill that was not the bill written on the estimate.

Talk of being charged more than the quote, including a hidden fee or an extra charge, shows up in 4.8% of priced reviews since 2025. Those reviews carry a median price of $5,000 and a mean rating of 2.75.

Separate from the money fight, 21.2% of priced reviews since 2025 mention damage. Neither share condemns every company on the board. Both are common enough that a number given by phone still counts as unfinished work.

A higher price can still be the honest price. Labor that runs long costs money, and so does a shuttle the truck had no way to avoid. A company that writes those lines into the estimate is doing the dull part correctly.

The star split is about the other case, where the delivery-day total is a surprise. How those surprises get onto paper is laid out in hidden moving fees and in binding-estimate bait. Stairs never show up in a national median. They show up on the estimate when someone has looked at them.

Local is hourly, interstate is weight and miles

The hourly rate is the least useful number on the internet.

The hourly rate is the least useful number on the internet. Seven sites will give you seven hourly rates, and those rates disagree by a factor of three. Checked on 22 Sep 2026, Forbes Home published $45 to $80 per mover per hour, Extra Space Storage published $80 to $200 an hour, Bellhop published $120 to $180 an hour for two movers, and ConsumerAffairs published $80 to $100 an hour for two movers.

The rate is a marketing number until crew size, minimum hours, travel time, and the truck fee are on paper. Two hours at a pretty rate, once a four-hour minimum clocks in, is not two hours.

Local moves are usually priced by the hour, because the truck is back the same day and the clock is what you buy. Interstate household-goods moves are usually priced by weight and miles. Line-haul covers distance, and the inventory is what gets weighed, on a van dedicated to you or shared with other shipments. Setting an hourly local quote beside a cross-country weight quote makes both figures look arbitrary. They are different contracts. How to read a moving estimate shows which contract you were handed.

Some local jobs are flat-rated, and some shorter interstate jobs still list crew hours on the invoice. The label that decides your risk is the estimate type. Non-binding means final charges can move once the shipment is weighed. Binding means the price is tied to the inventory that was written down. Binding not to exceed can fall, and it should not rise when that inventory was right.

The walk-through is how stairs and a long carry get listed before the truck is in the street. Skip that look and the hourly rate was never going to protect you. An hourly calculator is worth opening only after the minimum and the travel time are filled in.

Lanes and states we can put a number on

A national median blends jobs that do not belong in one pile.

A national median blends jobs that do not belong in one pile. Since 2024, California to Florida reviews show a median of $5,122 across 66 priced reviews, and Florida to California shows $4,365 across 61 priced reviews. New York to Florida shows $5,000 across 42 priced reviews. Florida to Georgia, a much shorter drive, shows $4,500 across 57 priced reviews. Miles are not the whole story when the origin is slow to load.

Same-state medians in that window sit lower: Florida at $2,000 across 145 priced reviews, California at $2,360 across 141 priced reviews, Texas at $1,500 across 88 priced reviews, and New York at $1,700 across 95 priced reviews. The count is printed because a few dozen prices are a report, not a tariff.

Origin-state medians mix local jobs with interstate ones, so they run hotter than the same-state rows. Since 2024, moves that started in Florida show a median of $4,000 across 707 priced reviews. California origins show $4,250 across 583 priced reviews. New York shows $4,200 across 347 priced reviews and Texas $4,000 across 241 priced reviews. Illinois shows $3,950 across 213 priced reviews, and Colorado $3,999 across 217 priced reviews. City pages take a tighter slice: New York, Denver, and Austin. A long lane with its own page is New York to Miami.

When your lane is missing, start from the national interstate or same-state median, then adjust for the building. FMCSA household-goods authority as of 3 Nov 2026 covers 9,010 active holders. 959 of those are brokers, who arrange the move rather than haul it.

The name on the quote and the name on the truck are allowed to differ, and that difference is the whole risk. Definitions sit on the FMCSA trust page. Companies reviewers actually named sit in the mover directory. Recent priced writeups are browsable in the US review index.

The fees that turn a quote into a bill

Ask for every line in the fee table by its name before you compare two bids.

Most of the gap between a quote and a bill shows up in the last fifty feet, or on the clock once the crew is standing there. A shuttle is what you pay when the semi cannot reach the door. Stairs and a long carry are what you pay when the door sits far from a legal parking spot.

Waiting time and a certificate of insurance come from the building's rules. Storage in transit is what you pay when the delivery window slips and the goods have to sit. Price the predictable lines in the accessorial calculator before two bids get compared.

The reviews get concrete when a line was left off. A shuttle you can see from the curb was missing from the quote. A storage hold described as a short delay was billed as a longer stay.

That pattern matches the over-quote flag, which appears in 4.8% of priced reviews since 2025, at a median reported price of $5,000. Hidden moving fees collects the ordinary version of those lines. Moving scams covers the case where the opening number was never the number the company intended to collect.

Ask for every line in the fee table by its name before you compare two bids. Weekend and month-end charges belong in that conversation too, because the calendar is a price. A company that writes the lines that apply is giving you a figure you can set beside another figure.

A company that calls the whole set included, and writes nothing, has not priced your building. Binding-estimate bait is what the paperwork looks like when it says binding and the inventory never accounted for a scale or a staircase.

When you move changes the price

Demand piles up from May through August, on Saturdays, and in the last five days of any month.

Demand piles up from May through August, on Saturdays, and in the last five days of any month. Crews and trucks are already spoken for, so the same rooms cost more than they do in a quiet week.

A bid dated midweek in March and a bid dated the last Saturday in July are bids on two different calendars. Line them up with that in mind. The peak calculator shows which of those squeezes you are booking before the date gets hard to move.

Diesel is the other input that carries a date. For the week of 2 Nov 2026, EIA reported US on-highway diesel at $6.29 a gallon. Long-distance invoices pick that price up as a fuel surcharge, often a percent of line-haul or a per-mile amount written into the tariff.

When the pump price moves, that surcharge can move with it, including on a quote that felt finished. A weight-and-miles price with no surcharge line can grow without anyone adding a box. The fuel prices page keeps the weekly EIA figure beside that question.

Reported medians did not jump just because diesel is being talked about. Same-state reviews moved from $1,500 in 2025 to $1,987 in 2026 to date. Interstate reviews moved from $4,500 to $4,500. The 2026 slice is a partial year, and both figures are medians of what people typed, not a fuel model. Use the gap as a check on drift across seasons. A single invoice still has to name its own surcharge line and the published diesel price that line claims to follow.

How to get a number you can hold someone to

Hold the company to an estimate type, not to a sentence from a phone call.

Hold the company to an estimate type, not to a sentence from a phone call. A binding estimate locks the price to the inventory listed. A binding not-to-exceed estimate may come in lower, and it may not come in higher when that inventory was right. A non-binding estimate is a forecast.

At delivery, the 110 percent rule caps how much of a higher non-binding total you can be required to pay on the spot, with the rest billed later. The 110 percent rule is the short version of that split. Read it while changing estimate types is still cheap.

The walk-through is the half of the price you can enforce later. Someone has to look at the stairs and at the carry from the door to where a truck can legally stop. Elevator rules count when they are the rules the building actually enforces. A video survey counts when the camera goes into the rooms. A price built from a bedroom count and two zip codes does not.

The second kind is the verbal quote that grows on delivery day, the story that repeats in the reviews we read every week. How to read a moving estimate covers weight, miles, fees, and the line that names the estimate type.

Interstate moves of household goods require FMCSA authority. As of 3 Nov 2026 the active count stood at 9,010 holders, including 959 brokers. Look up the legal name before any deposit moves. The license lookup is that check on this site.

The FMCSA trust page covers what an active record leaves unsaid about how your goods will be handled. Authority is permission to offer the job. Van lines and independents differ in who actually arrives with the truck once that permission is on file.