How Locksmith Pricing Actually Works
Every locksmith bill breaks down into three numbers: a trip fee for the drive out, labor for the actual work, and parts if anything gets replaced. Nights and weekends multiply the first two, typically by 1.5 to 2. That's the whole formula. Once you know it, quotes start making sense and padding stands out fast.
The trip fee comes first
Nearly every locksmith charges a service call fee, sometimes called a trip fee, typically $30 to $100. It covers the drive and the time the tech can't spend on another job. You owe it even if the fix takes ninety seconds. That stings the first time, but it's the same reason a plumber charges to show up. The visit itself costs the business money.
What you shouldn't accept is a trip fee that appears after the fact. A legitimate shop states it on the phone, before anyone gets in a van. Those famous "$19 service call" ads work the other way around: the low number gets a truck to your door, and then the real charges start.
Labor is the actual work
Labor varies by job, not by how desperate you sound. Opening a locked house or car typically runs $50 to $150. Rekeying is priced per lock, around $20 to $40 each plus the trip fee, which is why plenty of people pay for brand new locks when a rekey would do. Car keys are their own price universe: a plain metal copy typically costs $5 to $25, a transponder key $75 to $250, and a smart fob $150 to $400 or more. If your situation involves a lost or broken car key, our guide to car key replacement cost walks through those numbers in detail.
Parts and the after-hours multiplier
Parts are the third line: a new deadbolt, a key blank, a fob. A fair shop charges close to what you'd pay at a hardware store, maybe a modest markup for keeping it stocked on the truck. If the parts line is triple retail, ask why.
Then there's the clock. Nights, weekends, and holidays typically run 1.5 to 2 times the daytime rate, applied to the trip fee, the labor, or both. That's not a scam. A tech who leaves a warm bed at 1 a.m. has earned the premium. It just needs to be disclosed before dispatch, not discovered on the invoice.
Two worked examples
Say you're locked out of your house on a Tuesday at 2 p.m. Trip fee: $60. Picking the lock open: $75. Parts: zero, because a competent tech opens a standard door lock without drilling it. Total: around $135, and it should land inside the range you were given on the phone.
Now make it a car lockout at 1 a.m. The same job in daylight might be a $60 trip fee plus $90 of labor, around $150. Apply a 1.5x after-hours rate and you're near $225. At 2x, it's $300. Steep, but honest, as long as the dispatcher told you the multiplier up front. The bill that starts at $50 on the phone and lands at $600 in your driveway is a different animal, and we covered it in our piece on bait-and-switch scams.
What a fair phone quote sounds like
For routine work, a legitimate shop can quote a total range before the truck moves. Lockouts, rekeys, and key copies are their bread and butter, and they've done thousands. "Trip fee is $60, a standard lockout runs $70 to $120 on top, so plan on $130 to $180 unless something unusual turns up." That sentence takes ten seconds, and any real dispatcher can say it. Numbers also swing by region, so if you're pricing a job in Florida, we put together typical Florida locksmith prices separately.
"We can't tell you anything until we see it" is only fair for genuinely odd jobs: a snapped key inside a 1920s mortise lock, a safe, a door mangled in a break-in. For a garden-variety lockout, it's a stall.
Before you say yes, get three answers on the phone:
- The trip fee, in dollars, not "it depends."
- The labor range for your specific job.
- Whether an after-hours rate applies tonight, and what the multiplier is.
Write the total range down, along with the dispatcher's name. A shop that answers all three has nothing to hide. A shop that dodges just told you everything you need to know.
