How much does window cleaning cost in Sydney?

For a typical Sydney house, the published guides land in a fairly tight band. According to Airtasker's window cleaning cost guide (updated September 2026), a job in Sydney typically costs $150 to $350, with a single-storey house at $180 to $330 and a two-storey house at $330 to $500 or more. What's The Damage's Sydney window cleaning guide (updated November 2026) prices by window count instead: $100 to $240 for a small home with up to ten windows cleaned inside and out, $150 to $450 for ten to twenty windows, and $220 to $650 for more than twenty. The Quote Yard's NSW guide (August 2026) breaks Sydney down by region and puts a three-bedroom house, inside and out, at $165 to $302 in the Eastern Suburbs and on the Lower North Shore and $162 to $298 on the Northern Beaches, rising to $240 to $428 for four or five bedrooms. Oneflare's 2025 guide gives a flatter NSW figure of $150 to $200 for a standard clean.

TPS Trade Connect does not set prices; the tradies you're matched with quote directly, and quotes vary with access, condition and size. Those ranges are for checking a quote against the market, not for negotiating one down.

Number and type of windows

Most window cleaners count panes, not openings. A Federation house in Mosman or Randwick with multi-pane casements and leadlight takes far longer than a newer house in Dee Why with six large sliding doors, even if the glass area is the same. Louvres, French doors, bay windows and skylights are usually priced as extras, and so are the tracks and fly screens if you want them done properly.

Inside, outside or both

Exterior-only cleans are the quickest because they happen from the ground on a water-fed pole. Interior cleans mean moving furniture and blinds, protecting floors and working around the household. According to Airtasker, exterior glass alone runs $140 to $250, interior alone $130 to $230 and both together $200 to $350, with a full clean that includes frames, tracks and screens at $250 to $450 or more.

Height and access

Ground-floor glass is simple. A second storey adds time and gear, and anything above that needs a ground-based water-fed pole, which commonly reaches three or four storeys, or rope access and platforms beyond that. Oneflare's guide puts the second-storey premium at 15 to 30 per cent and limited access at 20 to 40 per cent more, while Airtasker notes that water-fed pole work can cost around 40 per cent more than ground-level work. Glass balustrades on balconies and around pools, which line the clifftops from Dover Heights to Whale Beach, are priced by the panel or the metre.

Condition

Salt is the Sydney problem. Oceanfront glass in Bronte, Coogee, Manly and Collaroy builds a film that needs a scrub and sometimes a mineral remover; Airtasker lists heavy grime or salt build-up at $30 to $100 extra and hard-water stain removal at $60 to $200 or more. Paint overspray, render splash and silicone smears after a renovation are quoted as a separate builder's clean.

Strata and shared glass

In an apartment, the glass on the outside face of the building is usually common property. The owners corporation arranges those cleans, often on a schedule, and a cleaner you hire privately will normally do the inside only unless the strata manager has approved more.

These are the figures we could verify in published guides. They are each publisher's estimate of the market, not TPS Trade Connect prices, and not a quote for your windows.

These guides agree more closely than for most trades, and the differences are mostly about basis rather than price. Airtasker and The Quote Yard price the house; What's The Damage and Oneflare price the window. Oneflare's flat NSW figure stops short of what a large house costs, though it does say Sydney's Northern Beaches and the CBD sit at the top of its range. The per-window rates are the most useful for a quick check: count your windows, decide whether you want inside and out, and multiply by the What's The Damage or The Quote Yard rate for the floor they are on.

A standard residential window clean usually covers the glass itself, inside and out if you asked for both, a wipe of the sills and a dry of the edges so there are no drips. Fly screens are generally taken off and put back so the outside can be reached, but they are not always washed.

Things that are commonly priced on top, or need to be requested:

• frames, tracks and sills scrubbed rather than wiped, and fly screens washed (The Quote Yard's NSW guide lists frames and tracks at $2 to $5 per window and screens at $3 to $8 each);
• skylights, roof windows and glass over stairwells that need a ladder or pole inside;
• glass balustrades, pool fences and shower screens;
• mineral and salt stain removal with a cerium or acid-based product;
• builder's cleans after a renovation, including removing paint, render and silicone;
• solar panels and gutters, which some window cleaners bundle in from the same pole;
• removing and refitting security screens or shutters.

Our glass balustrade cleaning and high window cleaning pages cover the two most common extras in these suburbs.

1. Same basis. Ask each tradie to quote the same thing: the number of windows, inside and out or exterior only, and whether tracks and screens are in. A per-window price and a per-house price can only be compared once you know the count.
2. Method for upper floors. A pure-water pole from the ground is the safest way to do a second or third storey. If ladders are proposed, ask who foots them and how the tradie meets NSW fall-protection rules.
3. Stain treatment. On the coast, ask whether salt and mineral staining is included or assessed on the day. A quote that does not mention it may come with a surprise.
4. Access and timing. Say how long the job should take and whether the tradie needs you to clear sills, move furniture or unlock balconies. Oneflare's guide notes that weekend work can carry a premium and scheduled repeat cleans a discount.
5. Insurance and conduct. Ask for a public liability certificate of currency and a written quote. Both are conditions of joining the TPS Trade Connect network; see how we vet.
6. Repeat pricing. If you want quarterly cleans, ask for the repeat price now. It is usually lower than the first visit because the glass stays in better condition.

Ground-floor glass is well within reach of a homeowner with a bucket, a squeegee, a microfibre cloth and a little dishwashing liquid. Work on an overcast morning so the water does not dry before you squeegee it, do the inside with a vertical stroke and the outside with a horizontal one so you can see which side a streak is on, and wipe the squeegee blade between passes. Vacuum the tracks before you wet them. On coastal homes, a plain hose rinse of the outside glass every few weeks keeps salt from bonding.

Upper floors are a different matter. Ladders on paving, decks or sloping lawns cause serious falls, and leaning out of a sash window to reach the outside is how people end up in hospital. A consumer-grade extension pole with a microfibre head can reach some second-storey glass from the ground, but anything higher, anything over a drop, and any glass that needs scraping belongs with a tradie who has the pole system, the training and the fall controls for it.

No licence class covers window cleaning in NSW, so the clean itself never needs a contractor licence. The related jobs that do:

• Glazing and repairs. Replacing a cracked pane, resealing a leaking frame or reglazing a leadlight is building work. Once such work is worth over $5,000 including GST it falls under the Home Building Act 1989, which means a licensed contractor, a written contract and, under NSW Government rules, a deposit capped at 10 per cent.
• Electrical. Cleaning around external lights is fine; fixing them is a licensed electrician's job at any value.
• Heights. Under NSW work health and safety law, fall controls are compulsory wherever a fall could hurt someone. SafeWork NSW ranks edge protection and platforms above harness systems, with ladders used only for short, low-risk tasks.
• Pool fences. Cleaning the glass on a pool barrier leaves its compliance under the Swimming Pools Act 1992 untouched, but anything that loosens a panel, hinge or latch should be fixed by a fencing or glazing trade before the pool is used.
• Strata. Exterior glass on an apartment building is common property; approval for work on it comes from the owners corporation, which usually acts through its strata manager.

The regulations page has the detail on each.

Describe the job on the quote form: your suburb, the number of windows, how many storeys, inside and out or exterior only, and anything awkward such as balustrades or skylights. We match it with vetted tradies who work in your suburb. Each gets in touch to quote you directly; you pick one, or none at all. Homeowners are never charged, and nothing obliges you to hire.

Vetting, in practice: we have seen the tradie's photo ID and tied it to a live ABN, filed their public liability certificate, looked through photos of recent work around these suburbs along with references, and had them commit to quoting in writing and to keeping to our code of conduct. A licence is checked only where the work needs one, which for window cleaning is rare. See the residential window cleaning page, or the window cleaning pages covering the Eastern Suburbs, the North Shore and the Northern Beaches.

• Airtasker, How much does window cleaning cost (updated 24 September 2026)
• What's The Damage, Window cleaning cost in Sydney (updated November 2026)
• The Quote Yard, Window cleaning prices NSW 2026 (published 27 August 2026)
• Oneflare, How much does window cleaning cost in Australia in 2025
• SafeWork NSW, Working at heights
• NSW Government, Contracts for residential building work