How Much Does a Yard of Concrete Cost?

What a yard of concrete costs in 2026

Start with the number nobody quotes, because it comes from the producers rather than from a lead-generation site. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association runs an annual benchmarking survey of its members, and it reports an average 2023 selling price of $160 per cubic yard, split into a base selling price of $148.11 and $11.57 of additional charges, fees and products. That is producer-reported revenue across 174 participants representing about a third of the US industry by volume. It is the single most reliable per-yard figure available.

Now compare the consumer sources, and note how far apart they are.

Angi's $130 and Concrete Network's $179.95 are $50 apart, a 38 percent gap on the same product. On a 10-yard pour that is a $500 difference before anyone has added a fee. Two of those sources also contradict themselves: Fixr's prose says $125 to $133 per yard while its own table prices 3,000 psi delivered at $160 to $170, and HomeGuide's January 2026 page says $119 to $147 including delivery up to 20 miles while its May 2026 page says $125 to $150 for material only.

What that tells you is not that somebody is lying. It is that a national average for concrete is close to meaningless, because concrete is a local product with a short shelf life that cannot be shipped far. The NRMCA figure being 2023 data and still sitting above most 2026 consumer estimates suggests the low end of the published ranges understates what people actually pay.

On the trend, there is real government data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks ready-mixed concrete as producer price index series WPU1333. It stood at 395.186 in August 2026 against 386.359 a year earlier, a rise of 2.3 percent. The index bottomed in November 2025 and has risen in six of the eight months since. So concrete price inflation has cooled back to roughly the pace of general inflation after the surge that followed 2021. The reason shows up in the US Geological Survey's cement figures: the average mill value of cement went from $127 per metric ton in 2021 to $152 in 2023 and an estimated $160 in both 2024 and 2025. Cement stopped climbing, so concrete did too.

Price per yard by mix strength

Concrete is priced by strength, measured in psi. Here is where most cost guides mislead you: they publish psi tables showing enormous spreads, when the actual price lists from companies that sell the stuff show something much flatter.

The whole span from 3,000 to 5,000 psi is $16 a yard at Townsend, about 10 percent, and $10.45 at Supreme, about 8 percent. Both suppliers also list contractor pricing $10 a yard below list. Compare that with the aggregator tables, where 4,000 psi concrete is published at anywhere from $118 to $190 depending on who you ask, a 61 percent spread for one mix.

The practical consequence is worth stating plainly: upgrading the mix is cheap. Going from a 3,000 psi patio mix to 4,000 psi costs roughly $8 a yard, which on a 3-yard pour is about $24. If your climate, your soil or your inspector wants the stronger mix, that is not the place to save money. For what the psi numbers mean and when they matter, see our concrete psi guide, and note that for exterior slabs exposed to freezing and de-icing salts the ready-mix industry recommends 4,000 psi with 6 percent entrained air, which matters far more than the strength number alone.

No industry body publishes per-psi prices, incidentally. NRMCA publishes one average across all mixes. The tables above come from two suppliers' own public price lists, which is the best evidence available and also a reminder that both of those suppliers are in California.

Why your price is not the national average

If you want the direction of travel rather than the level, the federal producer price index is the only free monthly series for it, and it tells a surprising story for 2026: cement got cheaper while ready-mix got dearer. We work through it in what moved the price.

Look again at those two price lists. Townsend, serving the Sacramento area, lists 3,000 psi at $162. Supreme, serving Los Angeles County, lists the same strength at $127.05. That is a 28 percent difference inside one state, between two companies publishing their own current numbers. No national average survives contact with that.

The drivers are distance to the batch plant, local aggregate and cement haul costs, how competitive your local market is, and how far the truck has to drive to you. Concrete cannot be stockpiled or shipped, so you are buying from whoever is within about a 20 to 30 mile radius, and that is the whole market.

BLS also publishes ready-mix producer price indexes for the four census regions. Since December 2012, prices have risen fastest in the West (up about 86 percent) and slowest in the South (up about 77 percent), with the Midwest and Northeast in between. One caution on reading those: the regional indexes measure price change within each region since 2012, not the price level in one region against another. They tell you where concrete has got more expensive fastest. They do not tell you where it is dearest today.

For metro-level dollars, the only source publishing city figures is Angi, which puts New York at $150 a yard for general purpose mix against $130 nationally, roughly 13 to 15 percent above its own national number. That is one aggregator, so treat it as indicative.

The takeaway: get two or three local quotes against a volume you have already calculated. That is the only number that matters, and the concrete yardage calculator gives you the volume to quote against.

The fees that push the total up

The per-yard price is the part people compare. The fees are the part that surprises them, and on a small pour they can rival the cost of the concrete.

• Short-load fee. The consumer sites put this at $40 to $60 per yard under the minimum. The two suppliers we found publishing a policy both charge a flat fee instead: $100 or the value of the shortfall, whichever is less, in one case, and $50 to $150 on orders of 1 to 5 yards in the other. A flat fee is the more common real-world structure and it is far kinder to a 2-yard order than the per-yard framing implies.
• Delivery. Suppliers price this by zone, not by the mile. Townsend publishes $120 to $350 per load depending on where you are. Ignore any per-mile figure you see quoted: the published numbers run from 50 cents to $9.50 a mile, a nineteenfold spread, with one site contradicting itself by a factor of ten.
• Waiting time. This one is well documented and consistent. You get 5 to 7 minutes per cubic yard to unload, so about an hour on a 10-yard load. After that it is roughly $2 to $5 a minute. Two supplier price lists land at $2.00 and $3.33 a minute.
• Environmental fee. The one supplier publishing one charges $55 per trip, which is nearly double the $10 to $30 the consumer sites estimate.
• Winter hot water. Heated mixing water in cold months adds around $5 to $15 a yard, and accelerator is priced separately again.
• Saturday delivery and fuel surcharges both exist, both are confirmed by suppliers, and neither publishes an amount. The consumer estimates are $50 to $200 for a weekend load and $20 to $100 for fuel.

The pattern is simple: small jobs cost more per yard than big ones, because the fixed costs of sending a truck do not shrink with your order. Our ready-mix concrete delivery guide has the full fee schedule with sources, the minimum-load question, and what to have ready before the truck arrives.

A yard of cement is not a yard of concrete

People search for the price of a yard of cement and mean concrete, so it is worth untangling, because the difference is most of the price.

Cement is one ingredient. NRMCA puts a typical mix at 10 to 15 percent cement, 60 to 75 percent aggregates and 15 to 20 percent water by volume, with entrained air taking another 5 to 8 percent in many mixes. So a cubic yard of concrete, 27 cubic feet, contains roughly 3 to 4 cubic feet of cement. A standard bag of portland cement is 94 pounds to the cubic foot, which puts the cement content of a yard at somewhere near 250 to 380 pounds. At the USGS average mill value of $160 per metric ton, that is about $18 to $27 of cement in a $160 yard of concrete. That arithmetic is ours, from published inputs, but the order of magnitude is the point.

The rest is sand, stone, water, admixtures, batching, and above all the truck and the driver that bring it to you within 90 minutes. Which is why buying bags of cement and mixing your own aggregate almost never saves money on anything but the smallest repair. Our concrete mix calculator works out cement, sand and aggregate for a given ratio if you do need to batch from raw materials, and the concrete slab guide covers the cement versus concrete question in general terms.

What a yard actually covers

One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet of concrete. At a standard 4-inch thickness, a yard covers about 81 square feet. Go thicker and it covers less: roughly 65 square feet at 5 inches, and 54 square feet at 6 inches.

That is why almost nobody orders "a yard." They measure the job, work out the volume, and order to that number plus a cushion. NRMCA's own guidance on ordering is to buy 4 to 10 percent more than the estimate calculated from your plan dimensions, which is the authoritative version of the ten percent rule of thumb. Running short mid-pour and waiting on a second truck is the expensive outcome. Full conversion tables are in our square feet per yard guide.

Real project costs

Here is what the per-yard price looks like attached to common projects. These use $160 a yard, the industry average selling price, and assume a short-load fee applies on the smaller pours.

These are the concrete only. If you are hiring a crew to form, pour and finish, labor typically doubles or triples the total: a contractor-installed slab usually runs $6 to $12 per square foot all in. For finished project pricing rather than material pricing, see concrete slab cost, concrete patio cost or cost per square foot. A decorative finish changes the picture entirely, and stamped concrete roughly doubles the installed price of the same slab.

Buying by the bag instead

For very small jobs bagged concrete can pencil out, but it adds up fast. An 80-pound bag yields about 0.6 cubic feet, so it takes 45 bags to make a single cubic yard. At $5 to $6 a bag that is $225 to $270 per yard, above what a delivered truck charges, and it is 3,600 pounds of bags to carry and mix by hand.

The rule of thumb: under about half a yard, bags win on convenience. Above a yard, a truck wins on both cost and your back. The bags per yard guide has the counts for every bag size, and the concrete cost calculator prices bags against delivery for your own volume.

Work out your own number

Prices swing by region, season and distance from the plant, so the only figure that matters is a local quote against a volume you have already calculated. Measure length, width and depth, run it through the concrete yardage calculator, add NRMCA's 4 to 10 percent, and call two suppliers with that number. Knowing you need 4.2 yards rather than "a few yards" changes the conversation and stops you paying for concrete you tip down the drive.

For the full picture across yards, bags and finished cost, read how much does concrete cost. For what happens on delivery day, see ready-mix concrete delivery and how many yards are in a truck.