Moving costs roughly $1.40 to $13 per mile in 2026 — a uselessly wide range until you fix two things: distance and home size. A 2-bedroom moved 250 miles full-service works out to about $10-$13 per mile, while the same 2-bedroom moved 2,500 miles drops to $1.40-$1.85 per mile. That is not a discount for long hauls so much as arithmetic: the fixed costs of loading and unloading get spread across more miles. This page explains per-mile economics for full-service movers, rental trucks, and containers, and the calculator converts any move into a total and an effective per-mile rate you can compare against quotes.
Inside a metro area, distance barely matters. A crew that drives 8 miles or 28 miles across town spends most of its day carrying boxes, not driving, so local movers bill $100-$200 per hour for a 2-3 person crew and truck. A local 2-bedroom running $900-$2,000 might travel 10 miles — technically $90-$200 "per mile," which is why nobody prices it that way. Per-mile thinking only becomes meaningful past roughly 100 miles, where interstate weight-and-distance pricing takes over.
Interstate movers price on weight × distance: roughly $0.48-$0.80 per pound in 2026, with the per-pound rate rising slowly with distance while the per-mile rate falls fast. Here is a typical 2-bedroom (~5,000 lbs, fuel surcharge included) at different distances:
| Distance | Typical 2-BR full-service total | Effective cost per mile |
|---|---|---|
| 250 miles | $2,600-$3,150 | $10.40-$12.60 |
| 500 miles | $2,600-$3,150 | $5.20-$6.30 |
| 1,000 miles | $2,950-$3,750 | $2.95-$3.75 |
| 1,500 miles | $3,250-$4,150 | $2.17-$2.77 |
| 2,500 miles | $3,550-$4,600 | $1.42-$1.84 |
Note the 250- and 500-mile rows share a total: short-haul interstate moves hit the same tariff band, so doubling the distance halves the per-mile figure without changing the bill much. Home size scales everything, because weight is the other half of the formula:
| Home size (at 1,000 miles) | Approx. weight | Full-service total | Per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | ~2,150 lbs | $1,300-$1,600 | $1.30-$1.60 |
| 1-bedroom | ~3,150 lbs | $1,850-$2,350 | $1.85-$2.35 |
| 2-bedroom | ~5,000 lbs | $2,950-$3,750 | $2.95-$3.75 |
| 3-bedroom | ~8,250 lbs | $4,900-$6,150 | $4.90-$6.15 |
| 4-bedroom | ~11,500 lbs | $6,850-$8,600 | $6.85-$8.60 |
Local rentals are priced as a day rate plus mileage: typically $20-$40 per day plus $0.79-$1.29 per mile, plus fuel — cheap for a crosstown move, punishing if you make five trips. One-way long-distance rentals bundle mileage into a flat quote. The hidden per-mile cost is fuel: a 26-foot truck averages 8-10 mpg and mid-size trucks 10-12 mpg, so at $3.50-$4.20 per gallon a 1,000-mile drive burns roughly $350-$530 of fuel on top of the rental. Portable containers (PODS, U-Pack) sit between: you load, the carrier drives, and the per-mile curve behaves like a discounted full-service move. At 1,000 miles a 2-bedroom compares like this:
| Method (2-BR, 1,000 mi) | Typical total | Per mile | You do |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY rental truck | $1,450-$2,650 | $1.45-$2.65 | Pack, load, drive, unload |
| Portable container | $2,500-$4,050 | $2.50-$4.05 | Pack and load only |
| Full-service movers | $2,950-$3,750 | $2.95-$3.75 | Little; packing extra |
Enter your driving distance, home size, and service type. Get an estimated total and the effective per-mile rate to compare against quotes. Under 100 miles is treated as a local hourly move.
Example output: a 2-bedroom full-service move of 2,500 miles estimates $3,550 – $4,600 total, an effective $1.42 – $1.84 per mile. The same 2-bedroom at 400 miles estimates $2,600 – $3,150 total — a much smaller bill but a far higher $6.50 – $7.88 per mile, exactly the falling-curve effect described above.
Divide every written estimate by your driving distance and compare it to the tables above for your home size. Three things a per-mile check catches:
Remember that accessorials — stairs, long carries, shuttle trucks, storage-in-transit, packing — sit on top of any per-mile math. Our cost-per-pound guide covers the weight side of the same formula, and the cheapest-way guide shows how to push your effective rate down.
For a full-service 2-bedroom move, the effective rate runs from roughly $10 to $13 per mile on short 250-mile hauls down to about $1.40 to $1.85 per mile on 2,500-mile cross-country moves. Bigger homes cost more per mile and smaller ones less, because the real pricing driver is shipment weight. A DIY rental truck runs about $1.45 to $2.65 per mile at 1,000 miles, all-in with fuel.
Because distance is only one of two main cost drivers. Interstate movers price on shipment weight times distance, so a 4-bedroom and a studio traveling the same lane pay very different totals. Local movers do not price by the mile at all; they bill by the hour for crew and truck. Per-mile figures are still useful as a sanity check on quotes, which is exactly what this calculator produces.
For local moves, rental trucks are priced as a day rate of roughly $20 to $40 plus $0.79 to $1.29 per mile, plus fuel. For one-way long-distance rentals, mileage is bundled into a flat quote; all-in with fuel, a 2-bedroom truck works out to about $1.45 to $2.65 per mile at 1,000 miles. Remember fuel: a 26-foot truck averages only 8 to 10 mpg, and mid-size trucks 10 to 12 mpg.
Yes, dramatically. The fixed costs of any professional move, loading, unloading, crew time, and equipment, are the same whether the truck then drives 200 miles or 2,500. Spread over a short distance those fixed costs produce a high per-mile figure; spread over a cross-country run they nearly vanish into the linehaul. That is why a 250-mile 2-bedroom move can cost $10 or more per mile while a 2,500-mile one costs under $2.
Take the total quote, including fuel surcharge and fees, and divide by the driving distance between homes. For example, a $4,600 quote for a 2,500-mile move is $1.84 per mile, while a $3,150 quote for 400 miles is $7.88 per mile. Compare the result against the table on this page for your home size and distance band; a rate far above the band is your cue to get more quotes.
For a 2,500-mile full-service move of a typical 2-bedroom shipment weighing around 5,000 pounds, expect a total of roughly $3,550 to $4,600, which is about $1.40 to $1.85 per mile before accessorials like stairs, shuttle service, or storage. Portable containers run similar or slightly less; a DIY rental truck lands near $1.00 to $1.90 per mile on the same run once fuel is included.