How much does window replacement cost?

Two averages, $283 apart

Fixr's figure is about 55% higher, 54.7% to be exact, which is our arithmetic. That is a large gap for a product sold in the same market in the same year, and the explanation is on the two pages themselves.

Our reading, marked as ours, and it is the thing to take away. One of these is a record of what people reported paying. The other is a model of what the job costs. They answer different questions, and both answers are useful if you know which you are holding.

• The survey figure tells you what landed on real invoices, including the cheap vinyl inserts, the partial projects and the deals people negotiated.
• The model figure tells you what a correctly specified job should cost, which is closer to what a contractor will quote you from scratch.

If a quote comes in near Fixr's figure, it is not evidence that you are being overcharged. If a neighbour reports paying closer to the survey figure, they are not misremembering. Our advice is to carry both numbers into the conversation and ask which kind of job yours is.

Fixr's own full span is wider than either average suggests: $300 to $3,000 per window, depending on size, type, frame and glass.

What the survey found underneath the average

This Old House breaks its $517 down by what the window is made of. These are reported figures from the same 1,000 homeowners, not estimates:

And by glass:

Our observation, marked as ours. The whole frame table spans $111 per window, from aluminum to fiberglass. The glass table spans $209. So on this publisher's own survey data, the glass you choose moves the price almost twice as much as the frame material does, even though the frame is what most sales conversations are about. This Old House names vinyl frames with double-pane glass as the best value option, and on these two tables that combination is a sensible place to start.

Our glass replacement page covers what the glass costs on its own, if the frames are sound, and our double versus triple pane page works through the glazing choice itself.

Fixr's quantity table is one multiplication

Fixr prices the job by how many windows you are doing:

We checked every row against the single-window range, and this arithmetic is ours. Five times $450 is $2,250. Ten times $1,200 is $12,000. Eleven times $450 is $4,950. Twenty times $1,200 is $24,000. Twenty-one times $450 is $9,450. Twenty-five times $1,200 is $30,000. Every figure in the table is the per-window range multiplied by the window count at each end of the row. Nothing else is in it.

That matters because of what Fixr writes immediately above the table:

Many window installers will offer a discount per window when you agree to replace multiple windows, so while your total will always increase as the number of windows does, your cost per window can come down a bit.

Our reading. The prose says volume brings the per-window price down. The table applies no discount at any quantity. Both cannot be describing the same market. We think the prose is right and the table is arithmetic standing in for data, which is a pattern we have found repeatedly across this site, most recently in a labor line on our 50-gallon water heater page.

What to do with it. Use the table to sanity-check a total, not to predict one, and ask every installer directly what the per-window price is at your quantity. Fixr's own sentence is the one to quote at them.

Where labor sits

Fixr: labor runs $150 to $300 for smaller windows and up to $800 for larger or more difficult ones, and labor makes up about 30% of your total on average.

This Old House points at the variable that moves labor most, without pricing it: insert replacements cost less because the installer reuses the existing frame, while full-frame replacements may mean removing and replacing trim, framing or surrounding materials. Second-storey windows, custom modifications and repairs to rot or water damage all add.

Our reading, marked as ours. Insert versus full-frame is the question to settle before comparing any two quotes, because it is the difference between a half-day job and a carpentry job on the same opening. A quote that does not say which it is has not told you what you are buying. If the surrounding wood is sound, an insert is usually the answer; if there is rot, a full-frame replacement is not an upsell.

The number nobody prints next to the price

This Old House's 2026 survey found that 94% of homeowners feel satisfied with their replacement windows.

Our note, marked as ours. We flag it because satisfaction that high is unusual in the trades we cover, and because it is the kind of figure a seller would quote without the context. It says people are happy with the outcome. It does not say they paid a fair price, and it is not a reason to skip comparing quotes. Treat it as reassurance about the decision, not about the invoice.

What to take from this

1. Know which kind of number you are holding. $517 is what people paid. $800 is what a model says the job costs.
2. Budget per project, not per window. The survey average for a whole job was $7,183.
3. Glass moves the price more than the frame does, by nearly two to one on the survey's own tables.
4. Settle insert versus full-frame first. It changes the labor, and labor is about 30% of the bill.
5. Ask for the per-window price at your quantity. Published quantity tables may contain no volume discount at all.
6. If the frames are sound, price the glass alone before replacing whole units, on our glass page, and if only one thing is broken, start with our repair page.
7. Shaped and code-driven windows are their own jobs, priced on our bay window page and our egress window page, where the building work rather than the glass sets the total. The same is true through the roof, on our skylight page.
8. Screens are priced separately from the window, on our screen page, and are often left off a quote entirely.