Concrete prices per yard, with a source on every number
Most pages that rank for this question print a range somebody invented and call it a day. We hold no price data of our own, so we do the opposite: every figure below names its publisher and the date we pulled it, and anything we could not source is simply absent. Then we show you the fee structure that decides your actual number, and show you NRMCA-certified plants serving your ZIP, with direct numbers to call for a quote.
The short answer, and its limits
Source: Concrete Prices guide, ConcreteNetwork.com (updated 14 July 2026). Retrieved 31 July 2026. Reported figures, not our own measurement and not a price we quote.
Read that as an order of magnitude, not a quote. A national average has no opinion about your ZIP, your mix, your yardage, or your pour date, and those four things routinely move a real quote well outside the band above. The rest of this page is about which of them move it and by how much.
What ready-mix producer prices have actually done
Ready-mix producer prices are tracked every month by the federal government, for the United States. The figures below are that index, which measures the direction and size of price movement at the plant. It is not a dollar price per yard, and we do not convert it into one.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index series PCU327320327320 (Producer Price Index by Industry: Ready-Mix Concrete Manufacturing), not seasonally adjusted. Retrieved 31 July 2026 via the public BLS API.
What the per-yard number covers, and what it does not
- Cement, aggregate, sand and water, batched to the specified strength
- The batching itself, and the mix design behind it
- Whatever unloading time the supplier includes with the load
- Delivery per load, and distance beyond the base service zone
- Short-load fees and minimum charges on small pours
- Standby time once the included unloading window runs out
- Saturday and Sunday delivery
- Admixtures: accelerator, retarder, fiber, integral colour
- Pumping, when the truck cannot reach the pour by chute
- Sales tax, where it applies
Placement is a different bill again. Forming, reinforcement, pumping labour, and finishing come from your concrete contractor, not the ready-mix supplier, and none of it is inside a per-yard mix price. The delivery-side fees have their own page: concrete delivery cost.
Cost driver 1: strength, which is really cement content
Compressive strength is bought with cement, measured in sacks per cubic yard, and cement is the expensive part of the mix. Below is a full published price list from a supplier who posts one, which is rare. Because it is one supplier, one market, one date, the useful part is the spacing between the rows: what a strength step actually costs when everything else is held still.
Figures below: Published ready-mix price list, Townsend Concrete, Vacaville, California (updated 12 April 2026). Retrieved 31 July 2026.
- 5 sack, 3,000 PSI$162$152 contractor rate
- 5.5 sack, 3,500 PSI$166$156 contractor rate
- 6 sack, 4,000 PSI$170$160 contractor rate
- 6.5 sack, 4,500 PSI$174$164 contractor rate
- 7 sack, 5,000 PSI$178$168 contractor rate
- 8 sack, 6,000 PSI$186$176 contractor rate
- 9 sack, 7,000 PSI$194$184 contractor rate
- 10 sack, 8,000 PSI$199$189 contractor rate
List price and, in the second column, that supplier's contractor rate (its stated condition: an average of four or more deliveries per month).
Source: Published ready-mix price list, Townsend Concrete, Vacaville, California (updated 12 April 2026). Retrieved 31 July 2026. Reported figures, not our own measurement and not a price we quote. Per cubic yard, before delivery, fees and tax.
Two things to take from it. First, specifying more strength than the job needs is a real line item, so get the spec from your engineer or your local code rather than rounding up for comfort. Second, the same supplier posts a lower rate for repeat volume, which is why a contractor and a homeowner calling the same plant on the same morning can be told different numbers, both honestly.
Cost driver 2: how much of the truck you fill
A mixer truck costs the same to send whether it carries 3 yards or 10. Suppliers close that gap with a short-load fee, a minimum charge, or both, and on a small pour those can move the effective per-yard cost more than the mix choice does. This is the single most common reason a real quote lands far above a national average: the average is quoted on full loads.
The published thresholds, fees and minimums, with their source, are on the concrete delivery cost page, where they belong with the rest of the delivery side.
Cost driver 3: distance from the batch plant
Ready-mix is mixed wet and starts hydrating immediately, which caps a practical haul at roughly 90 minutes. Inside that limit, suppliers price by service zone: the further out you are, the higher the per-load delivery fee, and past the outer zone the answer is often that they will not serve you at all. This is why the nearest certified plant matters more to your price than anything you can read online, and why our directory is organised by plant location rather than by a national number.
Cost driver 4: when you pour
Suppliers publish standard delivery hours and charge for anything outside them, weekends included. Cold-weather pours often need an accelerator and hot-weather pours often need a retarder, both billed per yard. And once the truck is on site, the clock on unloading is real money: the included window is short, and standby past it is billed in minutes. Having crew, forms and access ready before the truck arrives is a genuine line item, not just good practice.
See certified plants serving your ZIP
Everything above is the shape of the price. The amount is set by a specific plant, on a specific day, for your spec. See NRMCA-certified plants serving your ZIP, with direct numbers to call for a quote. Give us the job ZIP, phone, strength, rough size and pour date, and the matching plants appear on this page straight away. We keep your request on file, we do not pass it to any plant, there is no signup, and we never charge you.
How much prices vary between markets
The same guide that publishes the national range also reports individual markets. The spread between them, and the width of each market's own range, is the honest argument against trusting any single national figure.
Figures below: Concrete Prices guide, ConcreteNetwork.com (updated 14 July 2026). Retrieved 31 July 2026.
- Chicago$183reported range $170 to $210
- Los Angeles$182reported range $170 to $200
- Lynchburg, Virginia$165reported range $150 to $180
Source: Concrete Prices guide, ConcreteNetwork.com (updated 14 July 2026). Retrieved 31 July 2026. Reported figures, not our own measurement and not a price we quote. Per cubic yard. Some of those supplier quotes included delivery or short-load fees, per the source.
Concrete prices per yard by state
We publish a state page only where we hold enough NRMCA-certified plants to give a reader a real list inside that state. 29 states clear that bar today. If yours is not here, the form above still works, and the directory still lists certified plants near you.
Common questions
How much is a yard of concrete?
Published guides put the national figure at $160 to $195 per cubic yard, with a reported 2025 average of $179.95 per cubic yard (ConcreteNetwork.com, updated 14 July 2026, retrieved 31 July 2026). That is a reported range compiled from supplier and contractor reports, not a measured census, and it is a starting point rather than your price. Your number depends on the mix, how many yards you take, how far the truck drives, and when you pour.
Why will nobody give me a concrete price per yard online?
Because the price is set per plant, per day. It moves with cement content, aggregate, admixtures, haul distance from the batch plant, how much of the truck you fill, the day of the week, and how long the truck waits at your site. A plant can quote it in a phone call. A web page cannot, and any page that prints one number for your job is guessing.
Does higher PSI concrete cost more per yard?
Yes, and the step is measurable. On the one published price list we cite, 3,000 PSI (5 sack) is $162 per yard and 4,000 PSI (6 sack) is $170 per yard, from the same supplier on the same date (Townsend Concrete, price list updated 12 April 2026, retrieved 31 July 2026). Strength comes mostly from cement content, and cement is the expensive ingredient. Those are that supplier's prices in that market, so use the gap between the mixes rather than the amounts.
Is the per-yard price the whole cost of my pour?
No. The per-yard mix price is the material. Delivery fees, short-load fees, minimum charges, standby time past the included unloading window, weekend surcharges, and admixtures are billed separately by most suppliers. Placement, forming, reinforcement, and finishing are a separate contractor cost and are not in the per-yard number at all.
Are concrete prices going up in 2026?
We report the federal producer price index for ready-mix concrete manufacturing (BLS series PCU327320327320) on this page, with its latest month and retrieval date shown. It measures price movement at the plant, so it tells you the direction and the size of the move. We do not convert it into dollars per yard, because that conversion would be a number we made up.
Do you sell concrete or quote prices?
No. We run a directory of NRMCA-certified ready-mix plants. Tell us your job ZIP and we will show you the certified plants serving that ZIP area, with their direct phone numbers, so you can call for a quote. We do not send your spec to plants, we do not collect quotes on your behalf, and the price comes from the plant, not from us.
Where these numbers come from
We hold no price data of our own. We run a directory of NRMCA-certified plants, and certification is not pricing. So every figure on this page is somebody else's published number, named and dated below. Anything we could not source, we left off the page.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index series PCU327320327320, Producer Price Index by Industry: Ready-Mix Concrete Manufacturing, not seasonally adjusted, monthly, covering the United States. Latest observation June 2026. Retrieved 31 July 2026. An index of producer price movement, not a dollar price. We never convert it into dollars per yard.
- Concrete Prices guide, ConcreteNetwork.com (updated 14 July 2026). https://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete-prices.html. Retrieved 31 July 2026. third-party reported range, compiled from supplier and contractor reports. A national aggregation of what suppliers and contractors reported, not a measured census of transactions. Treat it as a sanity check on the order of magnitude, not as the price you will be quoted.
- Published ready-mix price list, Townsend Concrete, Vacaville, California (updated 12 April 2026). https://www.townsendconcrete.com/prices. Retrieved 31 July 2026. one supplier's own published price list. One supplier, one service area (Solano and Yolo counties, California), and a volumetric mixed-on-site operation rather than a drum-truck batch plant. We cite it because it publishes its actual fee schedule, which most suppliers do not. The fee STRUCTURE is what generalises. The dollar amounts are that company's, in that market, on that date.
Readers do send us their job details through this site, and we keep those on file. We are deliberately not publishing any aggregate of that data yet, because we do not have enough of it for the average to mean anything. When we do, it will be labelled as ours and dated like everything else.