Tree Removal Cost Calculator
Tree removal costs about $1,796 in Atlanta for a 50-foot tree with a 20-inch trunk in a suburban garden, in a range of $1,339 to $2,253. But height is the wrong variable to ask about: a 40-foot tree costs $1,480 with an 18-inch trunk and $2,436 with a 30-inch one, at the same height. Weight goes with diameter squared, and what is underneath decides whether it can be dropped or has to be roped down.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost to take the tree down and clear up
$1,880
typical · range $1,421 to $2,340 · 50 ft tall, 20 in trunk · 6 crew hours · about 0.8 days on site
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 46% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026osha.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
The one input that changes the answer for you.
A fence, a shed, a neighbour or a driveway inside the drop zone. The tree comes down in sections from the top, each one cut and lowered rather than dropped. Half again the hours, and it is the commonest case in a suburb.
Predictable wood: it holds a climber, it hinges where it is cut, and it comes apart the way the crew expects.
Full canopy and peak demand. Every leaf is volume that has to be chipped and hauled, and every crew is booked.
The default and what most quotes assume. Brush through the chipper, logs onto a truck, the site raked.
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The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
Height is not what you are paying for
Everyone quotes trees by height. Two things matter more, and both are on this screen.
- The same 50 ft tree with a 30 in trunk50% more diameter is more than twice the wood
- $2,878
- This exact tree, but over open groundFelled whole instead of dismantled
- $1,463
- This exact tree, booked for the dormant seasonLess canopy to chip, firmer ground, quiet season
- $1,647
A tree’s weight goes with its trunk diameter squared times its height, not with height alone — which is why the two trees above differ by $998 at exactly the same height. And what is underneath decides whether it can be dropped in one piece or has to be roped down limb by limb. Measure the trunk before you ring anybody: one tape measure around it, divided by three, is the diameter in inches.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climber or aerial operatorcrew hours from the size index × access × condition × season | 6hour | $255–$274 | sourced |
| Ground crew, two people2 ground workers for every crew hour | 6hour | $528–$567 | sourced |
| Chipper, lift and truckone machine hour per crew hour | 6hour | $192–$570 | estimated±50% |
| Getting the crew and the kit to your street1 per visit | 1job | $140–$390 | estimated±47% |
| Haul the chip and the logs awaycubic yards of chip where everything is hauled away | 7.3cu yd | $117–$336 | estimated±48% |
| Rake, blow and make good1.5 h + 0.2 h per 10 units of size index | 4.3hour | $189–$203 | sourced |
| Total | $1,421–$2,340 | ±24% |
Where these numbers come from
- How the hours are worked out
- From a size index — trunk diameter squared times height, which is proportional to the volume of wood — raised to the power 0.62, then multiplied by the access, condition and season factors. The exponent matters: a tree twice the volume is roughly one and a half times the work, because setting up, travelling and rigging are spread over more wood. The whole formula is our estimate, calibrated against market prices at four sizes, and it is written out on the dataset page so an arborist can point at the part that is wrong.
- Why the cheap quote is usually cheap
- OSHA, Tree care operations covers what this work involves, and it is among the most hazardous jobs there is. The practical consequence for a homeowner is narrow and important: a groundworker hurt on your property is your problem before it is anybody else’s. Ask for the certificate of insurance rather than the assurance, and ask for it from the company rather than from the person quoting. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- The wire changes who is allowed to do the work
- Nobody who is not qualified for line-clearance work may take a tool or a limb inside the minimum approach distance of an energised conductor. That is the substance of OSHA 1910.269, Electric power generation, transmission and distribution, and it is why an ordinary crew will stop and wait rather than reach across a wire. It is also the route to the only genuinely free tree removal there is: if the tree threatens the utility’s own line, they may deal with it themselves. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Labour rates by area
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, for tree trimmers and pruners and for labourers, adjusted to your metropolitan area. Retrieved 2026-08-20. Benefit load from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. ⚠️ Tree trimmers and pruners are published for only 192 of the 530 areas in our index, and on this page that is the main trade. Outside those 192 the hour comes from the broader group for the same area, which is a real approximation rather than a rounding.
- A note on the machines
- Every other calculator on this site prices machine hours from the FEMA Schedule of Equipment Rates, the published federal reimbursement figures. FEMA does publish rates for chippers and aerial lifts — but that document is a PDF whose text could not be extracted and checked here, so the machine band on this page is our estimate and is not presented as a FEMA figure. Citing an official rate we had not actually read would be exactly the thing this site exists not to do.
- After a storm
- A tree that has already come down on something is two jobs — getting it off safely, and repairing what is underneath — and only the first is priced here. Wood under tension releases when it is cut, which is why a hung-up or leaning tree is the most dangerous case on this page rather than the easiest. Ready.gov, Severe weather covers preparing for the weather that causes it. Photograph everything before anybody touches it if there is a claim in it. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
- Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- The stump, unless you ask for it
- Felling leaves a stump at ankle height. Grinding it is a different machine on a different visit and it is priced as its own allowance here, with a dedicated calculator on this site that does it by the inch.
- Roots, and what they were holding up
- Grinding removes the stump and the top of the root plate, not the roots. A large root under a path or a drive stays where it is, and taking it out can be more disruptive than the tree was. Nothing here prices root removal or the repair of what a root had lifted.
- Repairs to anything the tree damaged
- A tree that has already come down on a fence, a roof or a car is two jobs: getting it off safely, which is this one, and repairing what is underneath, which is not. Photograph everything before anybody touches it if there is an insurance claim in it.
- Permits and protected trees
- Many municipalities require a permit to remove a tree above a certain size, and some species or street trees cannot be removed at all without approval. This varies so completely by locality that any figure would be invented. One call to the local authority costs nothing and can save a fine larger than the job.
- Emergency call-out at night or in a storm
- A tree on a house at two in the morning is a different price from the same tree on a Tuesday, and rightly so. The season factor here covers the weeks after a storm, not the night of it.
Questions people actually ask
How much does it cost to cut down a 40 ft tree?
Between $1,160 and $2,436 in Atlanta, and the spread is the answer rather than a hedge. A 40-foot tree with an 18-inch trunk over open ground, where it can be felled whole, is $1,160. The same tree in a suburban garden where it has to come down in sections is $1,480. And a 40-foot tree with a 30-inch trunk — same height, nearly three times the wood — is $2,436. Height alone cannot answer this question, which is why every table that tries produces a number nobody's quote matches. Measure the trunk: a tape around it divided by three is the diameter in inches.
What is the average price to have a tree taken down?
About $1,796 in Atlanta for the tree most people are actually asking about — 50 feet, a 20-inch trunk, a suburban garden with a fence and a shed inside the drop zone, everything chipped and taken away. The honest range around that is wide: $1,339 to $2,253, because two trees of that description can be genuinely different jobs. What pushes it up is what is underneath: the same tree at 70 feet and 30 inches costs $2,644 over open ground and $4,470 over a house, because nothing is allowed to fall and every piece is roped down.
What is the cheapest time of year for tree removal?
Late autumn and winter, once the tree is dormant, and the reason is physical rather than commercial. A bare tree is a fraction of the debris volume — every leaf is something that has to be chipped and hauled — and firm or frozen ground carries the machines without ruining the lawn. It is also the quiet season. On the tree above that is $1,571 against $1,796, a saving of $225. The most expensive time is the weeks straight after a storm, when every crew in the county is committed: $2,154 for the same job. If the tree is not threatening anything, waiting is worth real money. These seasonal factors are our estimate of trade practice, not a published figure.
How big of a tree to charge $1000 for removal?
Roughly 28 feet tall with an 11-inch trunk in Atlanta, in a suburban garden where it has to be taken down in sections — a mature garden tree rather than a big one. Two thousand dollars buys about 52 feet and 21 inches; five thousand, around 88 feet and 35 inches. Those assume a normal drop zone: put the same tree over a roof and the figure roughly doubles. If a quote is far above this for a tree that size, the question to ask is what is underneath it and whether a crane is in the price. If it is far below, ask to see the certificate of insurance.
How to get your trees cut down for free?
Three routes exist and all three are narrow. First, the utility: if the tree threatens their line rather than the service drop to your house, they may remove or reduce it at no cost, and nobody unqualified may work near a live conductor anyway. One phone call before paying anybody. Second, the municipality, if the tree stands on the public right of way — the strip between the pavement and the road often is not yours, and in some places it also means you are not allowed to remove it. Third, storm damage: if a tree has hit a structure, that is usually an insurance question rather than a tree question, and photographing everything before anybody touches it matters. What almost never works is the timber: urban trees have embedded nails and fence wire that ruin a mill's blades, so a firm offering to take a tree "for the wood" is rarely offering it for the wood.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 23 August 2026, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- Tree trimming cost
Prices pruning by canopy access rather than by wood removed, and sets it against felling the same tree from our own model.
- Stump grinding cost
Prices grinding by the inch of diameter, the trade's own unit, and explains why the job is an excavation in the federal sense.
- Retaining wall cost
Prices a wall by square foot of built face rather than linear foot, which is what explains why height costs so much more than length.
- The full tree removal cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.