Land clearing cost calculator

Enter the acres and how wooded the land is, then add stumps, grading, a survey and the permit. See the low, typical and high price for your state, with each step of the math.

$1,295Typical per acre, lightly wooded

$4,525Typical per acre, heavily wooded

5 guidesCombined into one range

Land clearing cost

$740 to $2,300

Typical $1,520 (US average)

$1,520Per acre, all in, typical

$740Low

$2,300High

Call 811 before any digging or stump pulling. Check for protected trees, wetlands and burn rules with your town before you clear.

Free. Your numbers become an estimate you can send from your phone.

How we got this

Lightly wooded1 acres × $540 to $2,050 an acre (typical $1,295) = $540 / $1,295 / $2,050LawnStarter $733 to $2,333, Lawn Love $580 to $2,100, HomeAdvisor and Bob Vila $500 to $2,000. Middle of the lows, highs and midpoints.
Clearing permit$200 to $250 (typical $225)Lawn Love: $200 to $250. One source. HomeAdvisor notes permits for building sites can reach $2,500. Not scaled by ZIP.
RegionUS average prices (no ZIP entered)Enter a ZIP to scale the labor part of the price to your state's wages.
Total$740 to $2,300, typical $1,520

Item	Qty	Low	Typical	High
Land clearing, lightly wooded	1 acres	$540	$1,295	$2,050
Land clearing permit	1	$200	$225	$250
Total		$740	$1,520	$2,300

Sources: LawnStarter, land clearing cost; Lawn Love, land clearing cost; HomeAdvisor, land clearing cost; Bob Vila, cost to clear land; Fixr, land clearing and building site preparation cost; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files); US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file. Checked 2026-10-08.

Add this calculator to your websiteFree. Paste the code into any page builder that takes HTML. It fits its own height and works on phones.

<iframe src="https://www.koira.ai/embed/tools/land-clearing-cost-calculator" title="Land clearing cost calculator" width="100%" height="900" style="width:100%;max-width:100%;height:900px;border:0;display:block" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write" data-koira-tool="land-clearing-cost-calculator"></iframe>
<p style="margin:6px 0 0;font-size:13px"><a href="https://www.koira.ai/tools/land-clearing-cost-calculator" rel="noopener">Free calculator by Koira</a></p>
<script>(function(){if(window.__koiraTools)return;window.__koiraTools=1;var ok=["https://www.koira.ai","https://koira.ai"];addEventListener("message",function(e){var d=e.data;if(!d||d.type!=="koira:tool-height"||ok.indexOf(e.origin)<0)return;var f=document.querySelectorAll("iframe[data-koira-tool]");for(var i=0;i<f.length;i++)if(f[i].contentWindow===e.source)f[i].style.height=Math.max(200,Math.min(8000,Math.ceil(+d.height||0)))+"px";});})();</script>

Key takeaways

Clearing a lightly wooded acre usually costs about $540 to $2,050, $1,295 typical. Heavily wooded land runs $3,350 to $5,600 an acre.
Brush alone can be as little as $20 to $200 an acre. Forestry mulching runs $400 to $600 an acre and leaves the chips on site.
Stumps, grading, a survey and permits are usually priced separately.
Small lots cost more per acre, because the machines cost the same to bring out.

How much does it cost to clear land per acre

Land clearing is priced by the acre, and what is growing on it sets the rate. A field of brush and saplings can be cleared in hours. A heavily wooded acre means felling, cutting up and hauling or grinding dozens of trees and pulling their stumps.

We combined five cost guides. Where three or more give a range, the low is the middle of their lows, the high is the middle of their highs, and the typical price is the middle of their midpoints.

Land	Per acre	Typical	Sources
Brush and small growth	$20 to $200	$110	HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila, LawnStarter, Lawn Love
Forestry mulching	$400 to $600	$500	Bob Vila, HomeAdvisor, Fixr
Lightly wooded	$540 to $2,050	$1,295	LawnStarter, Lawn Love, HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila
Heavily wooded	$3,350 to $5,600	$4,525	LawnStarter, Lawn Love, HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila

As whole jobs, Lawn Love's national average is $2,900 for lots of half an acre to 2 acres, and Bob Vila's is $3,374, with most between $1,359 and $5,572. HomeAdvisor and Fixr both put clearing at roughly $500 to $5,600 an acre, or about $1.30 to $2 a square foot when it is priced as site preparation for a build.

Land clearing cost by lot size

Most residential lots are well under an acre. At the typical rates above, before stumps, grading or permits:

Lot	Square feet	Lightly wooded, typical	Heavily wooded, typical
1/4 acre	10,890	$407	$1,131
1/2 acre	21,780	$648	$2,263
1 acre	43,560	$1,295	$4,525
2 acres	87,120	$2,590	$9,050
5 acres	217,800	$6,475	$22,625

The quarter-acre light figure is the small-job price, not a quarter of an acre's rate. Fixr's low end is about $250 for a quarter acre, and LawnStarter's average small project is $563. Getting an excavator, a mulcher or a crew with chippers to the site costs the same however small the lot.

What counts as light or heavy is a judgment call, and it is the biggest swing in any quote. Lightly wooded land has scattered trees with open ground between them, where a machine can drive. Heavily wooded land is closed canopy, trees close together, often with thick undergrowth, where every tree has to be cut before the next can be reached. Slopes, rocks, wet ground and a long walk from the road all push a quote toward the top of its range.

The guides' own lot-size tables agree. HomeAdvisor and Bob Vila put a lightly wooded half acre at $250 to $1,000 and a heavily wooded one at $1,500 to $2,800. Lawn Love puts a full acre, any density, at $810 to $5,870.

Clearing methods: cutting, mulching, burning and goats

Cut, pile and haul. Trees are felled and bucked, brush is chipped, and everything is trucked away. The cleanest result and the most expensive in hauling and dump fees.
Forestry mulching. A tracked machine with a mulching head grinds brush and small trees where they stand and leaves a layer of chips. LawnStarter puts it at about $150 to $250 an hour, or $400 an acre on average. Good for brush, trails, fence lines and pasture; not for big timber or a building pad.
Bulldozing. Pushes trees over, roots and all, for a building site. Fast, but leaves big piles to deal with and disturbs the soil.
Burning. Piles burned on site where local rules allow it. Usually needs a burn permit and good weather, and many towns ban it.
Goats. Lawn Love puts goat rental at $400 to $800 an acre. They eat brush, vines and poison ivy on slopes where machines cannot go, and leave the trees.

If you want to keep good trees, mark them clearly before the crew starts and put it in writing. Machines move fast. Keep heavy equipment off the root zone of the trees you save, roughly out to the edge of the canopy, because compacted soil over the roots can kill a tree a few years later.

Stumps, grading, surveys and permits

Item	Typical price	Sources
Stump removal	$100 to $345 a stump	HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila
Single tree removal	About $700 a tree	HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila
Fallen trees	$75 to $150 a tree	HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila
Grading and leveling	$750 to $5,500	HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila
Land survey	$310 to $750	Lawn Love
Clearing permit	$200 to $250	Lawn Love
Erosion control	$1 to $5 a sq ft	Bob Vila
Geotechnical testing	$1,000 to $5,000	Lawn Love

Building on the land adds more. HomeAdvisor notes permits for a building site can reach $2,500, and Fixr lists soil testing at $700 to $1,800 an acre and site preparation at $200 to $2,000 an acre on top of clearing. For a handful of trees rather than a lot, the tree removal cost calculator prices each tree by height.

Ways to lower the cost

Land clearing is one of the few jobs where the land itself can help pay for the work.

Sell the timber. Fixr notes lumber companies will often remove valuable trees for free in exchange for the wood, and LawnStarter describes the same kind of timber exchange with tree companies. Lawn Love suggests a registered forester or consultant to find mills to bid, for a fee of 5% to 20% of the sale. Trees meant for lumber have to be cut with more care, so plan it before the clearing crew arrives.
Hire in the off season. Fixr's advice is to book when contractors are less busy.
Clear only what you need. The house pad, the driveway, the septic field and the yard. A wooded buffer at the edges costs nothing and adds privacy.
Mulch instead of haul where the chips can stay. At $400 to $600 an acre it is a fraction of cutting and trucking.
Keep the firewood. Ask the crew to cut and stack logs on site instead of hauling them away.
Bundle the work. One mobilization for clearing, stumps and grading costs less than three.

Get at least three quotes and make them comparable: same acreage, same trees kept, same stump method, and the same answer to where the debris goes. Lawn Love notes some pros burn the waste on site and others include the trip to the dump in their basic price, and that one line can be thousands of dollars on a wooded lot.

A worked example: two wooded acres for a house

An owner bought 2 acres of heavily wooded land and wants it cleared for a house and yard, with 20 large stumps pulled, the site rough-graded, and a clearing permit.

Clearing. 2 acres × $3,348 / $4,525 / $5,600 = $6,695 / $9,050 / $11,200.
Stumps. 20 × $100 / $235 / $345 = $2,000 / $4,700 / $6,900.
Grading. $750 / $3,125 / $5,500.
Permit. $200 / $225 / $250.
Total. $9,645 to $23,850, with about $17,100 typical at the US average.

LawnStarter's range for clearing 2 forested acres alone, $1,466 to $12,310, covers the clearing line. Clearing only the house pad and yard, and leaving a wooded buffer, is the easiest way to cut that bill.

The same 2 acres at other densities, clearing only, at the typical price: lightly wooded, about $2,590; brush only, about $407, which is the small-job price; forestry mulched, about $1,000. The density you pick in the calculator matters more than anything else on this page, so walk the land first. Photos and a short video from a walk through the middle of the lot, not just the road edge, help a contractor give a firm number before a site visit, and help you compare one quote with another. Mark the trees you want to keep with bright tape before anyone comes out, and mark the property corners if the survey stakes are hard to find.

Enter a ZIP to scale the labor share to your state's landscaping wages.

Before you clear: rules and safety

Know your lines. A survey shows exactly where your property ends. Clearing a neighbor's trees by mistake is expensive.
Check the rules. Many towns protect large trees, wetlands, stream buffers and steep slopes, and some require a permit for clearing at all. Lawn Love notes protected plants or animals and erosion risk can affect what you are allowed to do.
Call 811. Before stumps are pulled or anything is dug, have buried lines marked.
Control erosion. Bare soil washes away in the first heavy rain. Silt fence, straw and quick seeding protect the site and the neighbors. Bob Vila puts erosion control at $1 to $5 a square foot where it is needed.
Burning. Only where allowed, with a permit, in safe weather, and never near structures or power lines.

For contractorsPrice by the acre and density with a mobilization minimum, put stumps, hauling, grading and erosion control on their own lines, and note who pulls the permit. Our profit margin calculator shows the price that keeps your margin after fuel and machine costs. The "Save as an estimate" button above turns the result into lines you can send from Koira.

Last checked October 8, 2026. More for your trade: how lawn and landscape crews run on Koira.

FAQ

How much does it cost to clear an acre of land?

About $540 to $2,050 for a lightly wooded acre, $1,295 typical, and $3,350 to $5,600 for a heavily wooded acre, combining LawnStarter, Lawn Love, HomeAdvisor and Bob Vila.

How much does it cost to clear a quarter acre lot?

Usually at least $250 to $563, because of the cost of bringing machines out, and about $1,131 typical if it is heavily wooded.

How much does forestry mulching cost per acre?

About $400 to $600 an acre according to Bob Vila, HomeAdvisor and Fixr. LawnStarter puts it at $150 to $250 an hour.

How can I lower the cost of clearing land?

Fixr suggests hiring in the contractor's off season, and notes lumber companies will sometimes remove valuable trees for free in exchange for the wood. Clearing only what you need also helps.

How much does stump removal cost when clearing land?

HomeAdvisor puts it at $100 to $150 a stump and Bob Vila at about $345, depending on size and method.

Do I need a permit to clear my land?

Often. Lawn Love puts a clearing permit at $200 to $250, and building-site permits can run higher. Check with your town or county first.

More free tools

Price a jobTree removal cost calculatorRemoval, trimming and stump grinding, priced by height and hazard.Price a jobJunk removal cost calculatorTruck-load pricing plus mattresses, appliances, hot tubs and pianos.Price a jobFrench drain cost calculatorYard, curtain, footing or basement drains, priced per linear foot.Price a jobLawn care cost calculatorMowing by lot size, the season's services and mulch by the cubic yard.