How Much Does a General Contractor Charge? [2026]

Cover Image: Build: ODE Design / Photography: Jennifer Hughes

Ask how much a general contractor charges and you’ll hear everything from $50 an hour to 20% of a million-dollar build.

Both numbers can be accurate.

The range is that wide because “general contractor cost” covers three distinct fee structures, and the total depends on your contract type, the scope of your project, and how much detail you’ve locked in before work begins.

We’ve matched hundreds of homeowners with builders through TALD, and the question we hear most often is some version of “what’s normal?” The short answer: 10-20% of total project cost is the most common fee structure.

But understanding how contractors charge, what that fee covers, and how the budget conversation unfolds in practice will help you plan with a lot more confidence.

Build: BSP Design. Build. / Photography: Hagan Hinshaw

What general contractors typically charge

Most general contractor fees fall into one of three structures.

In practice, most general contractors don’t bill hourly. The percentage model is the standard for anything beyond a small, defined-scope job. The range feels wide because a bathroom remodel is a completely different project from a ground-up new build.

To put the percentage in context:

A bathroom remodel ($15,000-$45,000 total project cost) means a GC fee of roughly $1,500-$9,000

A kitchen remodel ($25,000-$100,000 total) puts the fee at roughly $2,500-$20,000

A whole-home renovation ($100,000-$300,000 total) means roughly $10,000-$60,000 in GC fees

A new build of a 3,000-square-foot home ($450,000-$1,000,000 at roughly $150-$300 per square foot) puts the GC fee at $45,000-$200,000

The spread is wide because a contractor retiling a bathroom and a contractor building a house from scratch are doing very different jobs, with very different costs behind them.

Cost-plus vs. fixed-price: how the percentage model actually works

If your contractor charges based on a percentage of the project, that can be structured in two ways, and which one you choose affects how you experience costs throughout the project.

Option 1: Cost-plus

This is the most common version of the percentage model. The contractor charges a markup on each individual cost as it comes in. Your windows cost $5,000, the GC adds their percentage on top. Your tile costs $3,000, same thing. You see every line item and know exactly where your money went. The tradeoff: more transparency, less cost certainty. The total isn’t locked in until the project is done. The upside is that the contractor is your partner on every spending decision, and you can see exactly where the money is going.

Option 2: Fixed-price

Instead of marking up each cost individually, the contractor quotes one total number upfront with their profit baked in. It’s their job to manage the project within that budget. More predictable for you, but if you change your mind on something mid-build, that predictability starts to erode (more on that below). The contractor is incentivized to keep costs down because their profit depends on it.

A third option: design-build firms

Design-build firms combine architecture, construction, and budget planning under one roof, with in-house designers and contractors. That often makes the process faster and more budget-focused than hiring each professional separately. Worth considering if you want one team managing everything from plans to punch list.

What affects the final price

Your contractor’s fee percentage matters, but it’s rarely the biggest variable. Your selections, your scope, and your location will almost always have more impact on total cost than the difference between a 12% and an 18% fee.

Selections

Marble countertops vs. quartzite vs. Formica can mean a $2,000-$7,000 difference in a single kitchen, and more in a large one. A side-by-side refrigerator and freezer vs. a standard fridge, double ovens vs. single. These decisions stack up fast across an entire project.

Scope

Scope is the single biggest cost driver. A bathroom remodel might run $8,000-$45,000. A new build can hit $450,000-$1,000,000. Which rooms you’re touching, whether you’re adding square footage, and whether you need an architect all determine where you land in that range.

Whether you need an architect matters here too. If you’re keeping the existing layout and not touching any structural elements, you probably don’t. But if you’re building from scratch or doing an addition, you will, and their fee (typically 8-15% of total build cost for full-service) stacks on top of the GC’s. (Our guide on who to hire first covers how these professionals work together.)

Location

As a ballpark, new construction runs roughly $100-$200 per square foot in the Midwest and South, and $150-$350+ per square foot in the Northeast, West Coast, and major metro areas (with luxury builds pushing well beyond that). These numbers shift with material costs and labor markets, so treat them as a starting point. Your local market matters more than any national average, and a good contractor will give you numbers specific to your area in the first conversation.

Build: Sneller Custom Homes & Remodeling / Photography: Kris Shopov

What you’re actually paying for

Understanding what’s inside that 10-20% changes how the fee feels.

The basic idea of a general contractor is: tell me what you want and it’s my job to make that happen. They coordinate every specialty your project needs. Plumber, electrician, tile installer, painters, roofers. You hire one person and get everyone. They’ve worked with these subcontractors before and know who’s reliable. The scheduling alone is a full-time job. They make sure the right people show up at the right time, line up backups when someone’s unavailable, and catch problems on-site before they become yours to solve.

Then there’s value engineering. Your architect might spec something one way, and your builder comes back with: we can achieve the same look with a different material for a lot less. You might not realize that a particular approach is going to be expensive when there’s a more affordable route to the same result. Over the course of a project, those calls add up. (You can see what that coordination looks like in practice in this complete Greenwich remodel by Cola Studios.)

Permitting is another piece most homeowners don’t want to deal with, and your contractor handles it. The construction permit lives under the builder, and the town comes in at multiple points throughout the project:

Inspecting plumbing and electrical before you can close up the walls

Checking fire and carbon monoxide detectors toward the end

Issuing a certificate of occupancy (CO), which confirms the home is safe to live in

That’s all on your contractor to coordinate.

Besides being the person organizing all the subs, a contractor is also your partner when it comes to budget. They’re the best people to talk to about what your project will cost. Architects design the space. Your contractor prices it. They know what materials are running right now, what subcontractors are charging in your area, and what’s realistic for your market. If you want a real number before committing to anything, a builder is the person to call.

That’s a lot of ground covered by one fee. Coordination, problem-solving, permitting, and budget guidance, plus often the advice that saves you more than the fee itself costs. When you look at what’s included, the 10-20% starts to feel less like an expense and more like the thing holding the whole project together.

What to expect when you start talking budget

Budgeting with a contractor happens in two stages, and neither one requires you to have everything figured out upfront.

You can approach it two ways. You can give the contractor a budget (“my budget is $50,000, what can I do with that?”) and they’ll tell you what’s possible. Or you can tell them what you want (“I’d like to redo all the bathrooms and the kitchen”) and they’ll price it out. Either way works.

Stage one: the initial estimate

Early on, a contractor’s biggest value add is that they can give you some pretty solid estimates of what things will cost. They’ll walk your space, listen to what you want to do, and within about a week come back with a high-level budget, usually framed as a price per square foot.

All you need to know going in: which rooms you’re touching, whether you want to add any square footage, and how you want the space to function. You do not need a mood board. You don’t need to know what tile you want or what your cabinets should look like. Just scope and function.

Say you want to renovate your kitchen. You tell the contractor: new counters, change the cabinets, add an island, bigger refrigerator. They’ll ask follow-ups. Do you want to keep the sink where it is? If you have natural gas, do you want to keep the stove where it is? Those questions aren’t arbitrary. Moving plumbing or gas lines adds thousands to the project, and a good contractor surfaces that early so you know what you’re looking at.

Stage two: the line items

Once you decide to move forward, the budget gets detailed. The contractor breaks it down: how much for carpentry, painting, tile, faucets, appliances. If you started with an architect and already have plans and specific selections, this bid is much more accurate from the start. If you’re working with a contractor only, they help you allocate within your total.

Say you have $100,000 for your kitchen. The contractor knows their carpentry costs and painting costs. They help you figure out what’s left for your tile budget, your countertop slab, and your appliances. This is the budget partnership in practice. They’re helping you make spending decisions that keep the project within your number.

Build: Nest Planning & Construction / Photography: Heatherful Photography

What can push your budget higher

Change orders are the most common reason projects go over the original budget, and they’re largely within your control.

A change order happens when you change something that was already agreed on. Maybe you decide you want two ovens instead of one, or different tile than what was specced, or bigger windows. The contractor writes up a change order with the cost difference plus their fee on that change. Swapping from one oven to two mid-build, for example, could run roughly $3,000-$8,000 once you factor in the appliance itself, electrical work, cabinetry modifications, and the contractor’s fee on the change (the exact number depends on your selections and your contractor’s rates).

This is normal. Decisions evolve during a build. You see the framing go up, walk through the space, and want to adjust something. Things happen outside your control too: it snows, there’s a torrential downpour, the electrician has a family emergency. Stuff always comes up. But each adjustment and delay has a cost, and they add up.

The best way to minimize change orders:

Make as many selections as possible before the build starts. The more you’ve locked in, the fewer surprises.

Get a detailed schedule of work from your contractor (weeks one and two we’re demoing, week three we’re prepping the site, week eight the electrician comes). When you know what’s happening each week, you make decisions in advance rather than on the fly.

Ask about contingency. Most experienced contractors will recommend budgeting 10-15% above the quoted price for the unexpected.

A bad hire makes all of this worse. Rework, delays, and avoidable miscommunication can push a project 15-25% or more over what it should have cost. Who you hire matters at least as much as what you pay them.

Ready to find a general contractor?

The hardest part of budgeting for a contractor is that most of this information is buried. Rates aren’t published, project minimums aren’t listed, and you can spend hours in introductory conversations before discovering there’s a mismatch on budget or scope.

On TALD, every builder on the platform is vetted on their training, experience, quality of work, and client sentiment. You can browse portfolios, filter by budget and scope, and see pricing information before you ever reach out. That’s something a Google search for “general contractor near me” doesn’t give you.

If you’re not sure where to start, book a complimentary renovation concierge call and we’ll help you figure out who you need and what to budget. You can also DM us on Instagram or reach out to concierge@tald.co.

If you’re earlier in the process and not sure whether you need a builder, an interior designer, or an architect first, our guide on who to hire first covers how to sequence the team. And if you’re thinking about design costs specifically, expert design help costs less than you think.

Final thoughts

The general contractor fee is one line item in your total project cost, but it’s the one that determines how well everything else comes together. A good contractor helps you figure out what you can afford, where to spend, and where to save. They’re the ones who catch the $15,000 material decision before it’s too late and suggest the $5,000 alternative that looks just as good. Start with a conversation about what you want to do. The numbers will follow from there.