How Much to Charge for Ceramic Coating: Package Prices Built From Stage Hours

How much should I charge for a ceramic coating? The formula

Charge the job's break-even divided by one minus your margin.

1. Hours = wash and decontamination + paint correction + panel wipe + coating application.
2. Break-even per hour = wage × (1 + burden %) + yearly overhead ÷ sellable hours.
3. Product = ml of coating used × your cost per ml, plus pads, polish, chemicals and towels.
4. Price = (hours × break-even per hour + product) ÷ (1 − margin).

I build pricing maths; I do not coat cars. Every hour and dollar below is an assumption to replace with your own timed jobs and invoices. The set is for a one-person shop with a bay. For wash, interior and full-detail packages on a mobile set, and the hourly cost derived step by step, see the auto detailing pricing guide.

Assumed rates: $30 wage plus 20% burden is $36 an hour. Overhead of $43,200 a year ÷ (1 person × 225 billable days × 8 hours = 1,800 hours) is $24 an hour. Break-even is $60 an hour; at a 45% margin each hour sells at $60 ÷ 0.55 = $109.09, before product.

Of the 20% burden, 7.65 points are the employer's 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare, per IRS Topic 751; the other 12.35 points (workers' compensation, unemployment tax, paid time off) are assumed. This is arithmetic, not tax advice.

Ceramic coating cost calculator (opens on a one-step polish and coating)

Enter total stage hours, wage, burden, product, overhead and margin to get break-even and the price to quote. It opens on the example below, so it shows $1,207.27.

Product goes in the materials box: 20 ml of coating at an assumed $1.50 a ml ($75 for a 50 ml bottle) is $30, plus $8 of iron remover and clay, $14 of pads and polish and $12 of panel wipe, applicators and towels: $64.

Check it: 10 hours × $36.00 = $360.00 of labour, plus $240.00 of overhead and $64.00 of product, is $664.00. Divided by 0.55 that is $1,207.27, or $120.73 per hour worked.

The free mobile detailing pricing calculator runs the same engine on its own page: hours per vehicle, workers, wage, burden, chemicals and consumables, yearly overhead, people in the field, billable days and margin. It opens on mobile-detailing defaults, so overwrite them.

Why do people charge so much for ceramic coating? Correction is where the hours are

Because most of the bill is preparation time, not the bottle. Hold the coating at one layer and change only the correction stage: the assumed sedan goes from $636.36 to $1,890.91.

Correction is 50% of the hours on the one-step job and 68.8% on the two-step. The gap between no correction and two-step is $1,254.55 for the same coating. The coating product is $30 of the $1,207.27 one-step price, 2.5%; all product is 5.3%.

The product instructions put the preparation first. The CQUARTZ UK 3.0 page on carpro-us.com (Sky's the Limit Car Care) says to use an iron remover and clay before polishing if contamination exists, that the paint should be "polished to a high level", and that removing polishing oils with a panel wipe "is critical to ensure durability". Gyeon's Q² Mohs EVO page lists the same order: polish, wash, an oil-free and completely dry surface, its prep product, then a 15-minute wait before coating.

Inspect the paint before you quote, and write the correction stage on the quote.

Ceramic coating pricing packages: define them by correction stage and product

Name each package by what is done and which product goes on, not by a number of years. Three assumed packages for a sedan:

The coat-only row suits paint that needs no correction:

The second layer is an assumed 1.5 hours and another 20 ml; on the two-step job it adds $218.18. Whether a second layer is worth selling depends on the product: Gyeon says one layer of Mohs EVO is enough for most cars, while the carpro-us.com page says CARPRO recommends two coats of CQUARTZ UK 3.0, the second within 45 to 60 minutes of the first or the following day.

The price-per-hour check. Divide each package price by its hours. Every row should sit above $109.09, the hourly selling rate before product. If a round menu number pulls the long package under that line, the biggest job on the menu is the worst-paid hour in the shop.

What to say about durability

Quote the durability the maker states for the product you use, name the product, and stop there. As one example of a maker's wording, Gyeon's page for Q² Mohs EVO (read October 2026) gives a "Real World Lifespan up to 36 MONTHS / 40KKM for 1 layer & 48 MONTHS / 50KKM for 2 layers". That is Gyeon's figure for that product only; I have tested no coating.

Ceramic coating cost for an SUV or truck: the vehicle-size table

Scale the hours and the millilitres, then run the same formula. Assumed here: an SUV takes 1.2 times the sedan hours and 25 ml a layer, a full-size truck 1.4 times and 30 ml. The one-step package moves from $1,207.27 to $1,451.45 and $1,695.64.

The millilitre figures are assumptions to check against your product's sheet. Gyeon's Mohs EVO page states consumption of "15-25ml/car"; the carpro-us.com page states coverage of about 10 ml per coat for CQUARTZ UK 3.0.

How to price ceramic coating add-ons: wheels, glass, interior, trim

Price each add-on as its own small job: hours plus product, same rates. On these assumptions an hour of add-on work with no product is $109.09.

Wheels-off hours include lifting the car and refitting the wheels. Cost each surface's product from your own invoice.

Maintenance washes and the annual visit: price them from minutes

Convert the minutes to hours and run the formula; do not pick a discount. A 75-minute maintenance wash with $6 of product prices at $147.27 on these inputs.

A plan of four washes and one decontamination visit a year is 4 × $147.27 + $245.45 = $834.53. On what a visit includes, the carpro-us.com page suggests an iron-remover decontamination every 3 to 6 months and its spray topper every 3 months; Gyeon's page says to wash with pH-neutral shampoo and avoid harsh chemicals.

Cure time is bay time: the overhead floor per bay-day

If a coated car holds the bay while nobody works on it, the bay's overhead still runs: $43,200 ÷ 225 days = $192 a billable day, or $24 for each unsold bay hour.

How long the car must stay is the maker's call. Gyeon says to keep a Mohs EVO surface "out of direct sun and away from water for the first 12 hours". The carpro-us.com page says to keep CQUARTZ UK 3.0 dry for at least one hour, 24 hours for best results, and to avoid detergents and chemicals for 5 days.

Idle bay hours = bay-days × 8 − hours worked. Add them at $24 to break-even, then divide by 0.55. This assumes you fill your own idle hours with paid work outside the bay; if you cannot, add your $36 loaded wage for those hours too.

Capacity follows. By hours, 1,800 ÷ 10 allows 180 one-step jobs a year. If each one holds the only bay for 2 days, 225 ÷ 2 allows 112. At the $1,207.27 price, 4.6 such jobs a month cover the $3,600 of monthly overhead after wage and product; the break-even calculator guide shows that working.

Mobile operators have no bay, but the drive is paid time: add it to hours. The auto detailing guide prices travel.

Excel formulas for a ceramic coating price list, and the markup mistake

One row per package and vehicle size; each note names its cells.

The mistake: adding 45% to break-even in place of dividing by 0.55. On the one-step job that bills $962.80 and keeps 31.03% of the price, not 45%. It is $244.47 short per job and $25,425.16 a year at an assumed 2 jobs a week. The markup vs margin calculator guide has the conversion chart.

What to put on a ceramic coating price sheet, and which tool to build it with

The sheet needs the stage, the product and the terms; the tool depends on how many rows you keep.

• Packages named by correction stage and coating product, with the number of layers.
• Prices by vehicle size, and "correction quoted after inspection".
• Add-ons and maintenance visits as separate lines.
• Drop-off and collection times that match the maker's cure instructions.
• The maker's stated durability, attributed to the maker, and its care instructions.

Cost rework in your own hours. The carpro-us.com page says any product left on the surface "will harden and require polishing to remove". Keep the inspection pass inside the coating hours.

On chemical safety, read the product's safety data sheet before pricing protective equipment into overhead. OSHA's Hazard Communication page says all employers with hazardous chemicals in their workplaces must have labels and safety data sheets for their exposed workers, and train them to handle the chemicals appropriately. What each product requires is on its own sheet.

Tools. The calculator above prices one package at a time. The free Job Pricing Starter spreadsheet puts loaded labour, overhead, break-even and margin on one sheet in Excel or Google Sheets. A booking app handles scheduling and deposits; you still supply the prices. The done-for-you custom job-pricing calculator is a $497 one-time build with your packages and rates and a branded client quote page.

Step-by-step: How Much to Charge for Ceramic Coating: Package Prices Built From Stage Hours

1. Time each stage. Record hours for wash and decontamination, correction, panel wipe and coating on real jobs, by vehicle size.
2. Find break-even per hour. Wage × (1 + burden %), plus yearly overhead ÷ sellable hours.
3. Cost the product. Millilitres of coating used × your cost per ml, plus pads, polish, chemicals and towels.
4. Compute break-even. Total stage hours × break-even per hour, plus product.
5. Apply margin by dividing. Divide break-even by (1 − margin); for 45%, divide by 0.55.
6. Check price per hour and bay time. Price ÷ hours must clear your hourly selling rate. Add overhead for bay hours the car occupies while nobody works on it.

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