Fence cost is driven mostly by material and installed linear footage, but posts, concrete, and gates add up fast on a real project. The inputs below account for height, post spacing, install method, and your region so the number you see reflects a real fence line, not a textbook average.
| Line item | Low | Mid | High |
|---|
| Material | Low | Mid | High |
|---|
Enter your email and we’ll save it. We’re building the newsletter now. No spam, cancel any time.
This calculator starts with a per-linear-foot cost range for your chosen fence material, blended from two 2025/2026 national cost guides, then builds out separate line items for the fence run itself, posts, post-hole concrete, and gates. Materials and labor are shown separately for contractor installs; DIY mode shows materials only, since that is roughly what you would spend supplying your own labor. Posts scale with your fence length and post spacing, and concrete bags scale with the number of posts and your fence height. Region applies a labor-cost multiplier only; concrete and gate pricing are treated as nationally consistent retail costs.
Material is the single biggest lever on total cost. Chain link is the least expensive option per linear foot installed. Wood pressure-treated and vinyl sit in the middle. Wrought iron runs highest, both in material cost and typical labor intensity per linear foot.
A fence priced only per linear foot misses real cost. Every 8 feet (the standard prefab panel width) needs a post, and every post needs a properly sized concrete footing. This calculator uses Quikrete's own published post-hole sizing rule (hole diameter three times the post width, depth one-third to one-half of the above-ground post height plus 6 inches) to scale concrete bags with fence height, and adds gate cost per the number of gates you enter.
The region input adjusts labor cost only. Concrete and gate pricing in this calculator assume national-average retail pricing regardless of region; real material pricing does vary somewhat by region due to transport and local supply, which this tool does not model separately.
Per-material pricing: Fixr, "Cost to Install Fence" (updated January 31, 2025), and HomeGuide, "How Much Does Fence Installation Cost? (2026)" (written February 3, 2026). Panel width and standard 8 ft post spacing: Home Depot product page. Concrete bags per post: Quikrete's own Fast-Setting Concrete Mix data sheet (revised November 2025), which states two 50 lb bags set a 3 in square post in a 9 in diameter hole 30 in deep, at a yield of approximately 0.375 cu ft per bag. Concrete bag price: Home Depot product page, $7.97/bag, a typical price checked live at one Home Depot store in September 2026, not confirmed as a fixed national price. Post-hole sizing rule: Quikrete, "Setting Posts in Concrete". Region labor multiplier reused from this site's bathroom remodel cost calculator, calibrated against the JLC/Zonda 2025 Cost vs Value report.
HomeGuide's own page states two different figures for chain link: its cost table says $9 to $30 per linear foot installed, while a prose sentence on the same page says $10 to $40. This calculator uses the table figure, since it is the source's own structured, consistently-formatted dataset used for every material on that page; using the wider prose figure instead would raise the chain-link total shown here.
Building more than one thing at once? See also the Deck Cost Calculator, the Landscaping Material Calculator, and the House Material Cost Calculator for other DIY material estimates.