Quick answer: Ready-mix concrete costs about $125โ$165 per cubic yard, or roughly $4โ$8 per square foot installed. Enter your slab dimensions below for exact cubic yards and cost.
Find exactly how many cubic yards of concrete you need for any slab, footing, or pad โ plus a ready-mix delivery and fully-installed cost estimate.
Concrete is ordered by the cubic yard, not by the bag, once a project gets bigger than a few post holes. The formula is straightforward: Length (ft) ร Width (ft) ร Thickness (ft) รท 27 = Cubic Yards. The trickiest part is the thickness โ it's always listed in inches but the formula needs feet, so divide your thickness in inches by 12 first. A 20ร10 ft pad at 6 inches thick works out to 20 ร 10 ร 0.5 รท 27 = 3.7 cubic yards.
Always add a 5โ10% waste buffer on top of the raw math โ sub-base isn't perfectly flat, forms shift slightly, and ready-mix trucks round up to the nearest quarter yard anyway. This calculator builds that 10% buffer in automatically.
| Pricing Method | Typical Cost | What's Included |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-Mix Delivered | $150 โ $200 / cubic yard | Truck delivery of mixed concrete only. You supply forms, rebar/mesh, and labor. |
| Fully Installed | $6 โ $12 / sq ft | Excavation, forms, rebar/mesh, pour, finishing, and cleanup โ typical for a standard 4"โ6" slab. |
Decorative finishes (stamped, colored, exposed aggregate) typically add $2โ$6 per sq ft on top of installed pricing. Figures are national averages and vary by region โ always confirm with local suppliers.
Ready-mix concrete typically runs $125 to $165 per cubic yard delivered, before any short-load or delivery fees. Prices vary by region and mix strength.
Installed, a concrete slab usually costs $4 to $8 per square foot including labor, or about $1.50 to $3 per square foot for materials only if you pour it yourself.
Multiply length ร width ร thickness (all in feet) and divide by 27 to convert cubic feet to cubic yards. For a 4-inch slab, thickness in feet is 4 รท 12 = 0.33 ft.
Ready-mix delivered concrete typically costs $150โ$200 per cubic yard as of 2026, before any pump truck, labor, or finishing costs are added.
A fully installed standard slab (excavation, forms, rebar, pour, and finish) typically runs $6โ$12 per square foot, so a 200 sq ft patio runs roughly $1,200โ$2,400 installed.
As a rule of thumb, anything under 1 cubic yard (about 45 bags of 80lb mix) is usually cheaper and easier to mix yourself with bags. Use our Concrete Bag Calculator for the exact bag count. Beyond 1 yard, ready-mix delivery is almost always faster and more cost-effective.
4 inches is the minimum for passenger vehicles; 5โ6 inches is recommended for driveways that will see trucks, RVs, or heavy regular use.
Every constant this calculator uses and where it comes from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Local codes amend the model IRC and adopt different cycles — your building department governs. Manufacturers revise yields; where your product's data sheet disagrees with a default here, use the product's number. See our full methodology.