A replacement window runs $450 to $1,500 installed, and the frame material and window type move it further than the brand does. Before the price, though, settle one question: does your city require a permit for this job? There is no national rule and the model residential code contains no window exemption at all, so cities wrote their own and wrote them differently. In many states the permit answer also decides whether the work legally needs a licensed contractor.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Replacement window, installedNational range | $450 to $1,500 per window |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
Most residential window replacement is a like-for-like swap: same opening, same rough frame, no header touched. Whether that needs a permit depends entirely on your local building department, and the split is not subtle. Some cities exempt it outright. At least one exempts only the glass and treats the window itself as permit work.
The reason is structural, and it is national. The model code's exempt-work list for one- and two-family homes, IRC section R105.2, has no window item in it. The familiar "glass or glazing materials, sash, doors and hardware" language lives in IBC 105.2.1, which governs commercial buildings. So a city that adopts the residential code and writes no local amendment lands, by default, with no window exemption at all. Cities that wanted one had to write it themselves, and they wrote it differently from each other.
Several states exempt small jobs from contractor licensing on price, then withdraw the exemption whenever a permit is required. Arizona is the clearest example: A.R.S. section 32-1121(A)(14) exempts work "of a casual or minor nature" under $1,000 including labor and materials, and then removes that exemption "in any case in which the performance of the work requires a local building permit." Splitting a job into sub-threshold contracts to get under the line is blocked in the same statute.
The practical effect is that the two questions collapse into one. If your city requires a permit, the small-job exemption is gone regardless of price, and the work belongs to a licensed contractor. Check the state page for your state before you assume the price threshold is the whole test.
Where a state licenses this work as its own classification rather than folding it into general contracting, the scope is usually wider than glass. Arizona's Registrar of Contractors licenses glazing under R-65 residential, C-65 commercial and CR-65 for both, covering glass products, window film, window treatments, and the steel and aluminum members that hold glass, along with the weatherproofing, caulking, sealants and adhesives needed to install and repair them.
Start by asking whether the quote is for a pocket replacement or a full-frame one. A pocket replacement drops a new unit into the existing frame; full-frame takes the frame out and is materially more work. Two quotes that differ by 40 percent are often quoting two different jobs, and only one of them will find the rot behind the trim.
Compare like for like on frame material, because it drives the price more than anything else, and the table above gives the installed range for each. A quote that does not name the material is not a quote.
Get the whole-house number as well as the per-window number. Doing all the windows at once lowers the per-window price, and ten windows at $4,500 to $15,000 is a very different decision from one window at $900.
Ask what happens if the opening is not sound once the old window is out. Frame or siding repair runs $2 to $14 a square foot and is almost never in the original quote. An installer who has a written answer for that has done this before.
$450 to $1,500 installed for a single-hung window, averaging about $900. The floor is around $300 and large bay or bow windows run $2,000 to $8,000. Frame material moves it most: aluminum $175 to $1,000, vinyl $200 to $1,500, fiberglass $400 to $2,000, wood $800 to $3,800.
It depends entirely on your city, and there is no safe default. The model residential code, IRC R105.2, contains no window exemption at all, so a city that adopted it without writing its own amendment requires a permit by default. The familiar exemption for glass, sash and hardware sits in the commercial code, not the residential one.
Per window, yes. Bulk replacement is one of the few reliable ways to move the price down, which is why whole-house figures run $4,500 to $15,000 for ten windows rather than ten times a single-window price.
Frame or siding repair found once the old window is out, at $2 to $14 a square foot. Permits at $50 to $200 where the opening size changes. Upgrades such as Low-E coating, which adds 10 to 20 percent, soundproofing at $500 to $2,000 and screens at $100 to $350. Cutting a new opening rather than replacing an existing one runs $500 to $2,000 a window on its own.