Sitework
Asphalt Driveway Cost Calculator
Paving quotes are quoted by the square foot, but the price per square foot falls as the driveway gets bigger — a crew and its machines cost the same for a day whether they lay 600 feet or 2,000. This works out both the tonnage you need and what the job should cost.
What to order
- Crushed stone base, 6 in 20.6 tons
- Hot-mix asphalt 11 tons
| Line item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Break out the old driveway Crew and machine time. Hauling it away is the next line. | $415 | $1,100 |
| Haul away and dispose of the old asphalt Nothing at all where a contractor recycles it — plants buy clean millings back. | $0 | $300 |
| Excavate and grade the subgrade | $495 | $945 |
| Crushed stone base, 6 in Delivered. Picked up at the quarry it is cheaper; hauling roughly doubles it. | $245 | $595 |
| Place and compact the base | $250 | $540 |
| Hot-mix asphalt Delivered hot. Driveway loads are small, so they price above the per-ton rate a highway contract gets. | $935 | $1,550 |
| Paving crew — paver, rakes and rollers A driveway is one visit for a small crew whatever its size, which is the minimum built in here. | $775 | $1,200 |
| Driveway approach permit A right-of-way permit, not a building permit — driveways are exempt from that. | $95 | $210 |
| Total | $3,200 | $6,450 |
Compare real quotes near you
This is a research estimate. Actual pricing depends on your site conditions, so get at least three quotes from licensed pros and ask each to itemize against the line items above — that is the fastest way to see why two bids differ.
What drives the price
A small driveway costs more per square foot, and that is not a markup
One Minnesota contractor publishes its own price table: removing and repaving 720 square feet costs $7.92 a square foot, 1,440 square feet costs $6.39, and 4,320 square feet costs $4.17. Nothing about the work changed — the paver, the rollers, the trucks and the crew cost the same for the day, and on a small job that day is divided by fewer square feet. Fitting a line through those three prices gives roughly $3,000 fixed plus $3.40 to $4.70 a square foot, which is why paving companies quote minimum charges of about $2,000 and why this calculator applies minimum crew hours instead of a flat rate per foot.
How the tonnage is worked out
Compacted hot-mix asphalt weighs 110 pounds per square yard for every inch of thickness — that is the Texas DOT specification, and Illinois DOT uses 112. So a square foot at 3 inches is 0.0183 tons, and one ton covers about 55 square feet at that thickness. Be careful with the coverage tables on the large cost-estimate sites: at least one of them says a ton covers 70 square feet at 3 inches, which is 27% short. Order to that number and the crew runs out of mix with the driveway half done.
Thickness and base do more for the life of a driveway than the asphalt does
The Asphalt Institute puts a residential driveway at about 3 inches of compacted asphalt over 4 inches of aggregate, with 4 to 8 inches of base depending on the soil. Going from 2 to 3 inches adds roughly a dollar to a dollar fifty a square foot and is worth it if trucks, trailers or an RV will sit on it. Asphalt laid thin over a failed base cracks in the same places within a few seasons, so a cheap quote that skips the base work is not the same job.
You probably do not need a building permit — but you may need a right-of-way permit
A driveway no more than 30 inches above grade is exempt from the building permit under the residential code, and Ohio writes that exemption into its own code. What a paving job usually needs instead is a right-of-way or driveway-approach permit for the part that meets the public street, which runs about $80 to $210 in the four cities researched here. A contractor who tells you a driveway needs a $400 building permit is quoting the wrong fee schedule.
Asphalt is cheaper than concrete up front and needs more attention afterwards
Every source compared here puts concrete at 1.4 to 2 times the price of asphalt for the same driveway, against a service life of 30 to 40 years versus 15 to 30. The gap is maintenance: sealcoating runs about $0.15 to $0.50 a square foot from contractors who publish a rate, with a minimum charge of $150 to $300 that makes a small driveway cost more per foot than that. Asphalt also flexes with freeze-thaw and shrugs off road salt, which is why it is the default surface in Michigan and Ohio, while concrete dominates in Texas and Florida where asphalt softens in summer heat.
Sources
- Wisconsin DOT Production Rate Table; Arizona DOT Typical Production Rates · WisDOT December 2022; ADOT October 2018 Tons per day for machine and hand-placed asphalt, aggregate base and pavement removal. Hand placement runs about a sixth of machine speed, which is why a tight driveway costs more than an open one.
- County solid-waste fee schedules (Del Norte CA, Madison NY, Larimer CO); recycled-asphalt bid prices · 2025–2026 schedules Landfill rates for inert rubble run from $40 a cubic yard to $62 a ton. But asphalt plants buy clean millings back at $9–12 a ton, so a contractor with a recycling outlet may pay nothing to dispose of your old driveway.
- FHWA Central Federal Lands Highway Division, Production Rates Guidelines · revised November 2016 Crew-day output for removal, excavation, base and hot-mix paving, including the separate, much slower rate for minor approach-road paving. Also the published adjustment factors this page uses for job setting and subgrade.
- Boone County, Indiana material bids; USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, crushed stone · USGS 2025 estimate; county bids 2026 season Crushed stone base: $10–15 a ton picked up, $26–29 delivered on county bid; the USGS national average value is $16.78 a short ton.
- Boone County, Indiana material bids; Montana DOT weighted average prices · 2026 season Asphalt emulsion tack coat is $2.50 a gallon picked up and $3.75 a gallon applied on state work, spread at roughly 0.1 gallon per square yard before an overlay.
- County material bid tabulations: Boone County, Indiana and Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota; state DOT unit-price reports (FDOT, VDOT, CDOT) · Indiana 2026 season; Minnesota 2025 season; DOT reports 2025 Hot-mix asphalt runs $63–79 a ton at the plant on public bid. Highway contracts average $115–144 a ton installed, and a small job pays more still — a 310-ton state job drew bids of $190–310 a ton. Driveway quantities are priced nearer the top of that spread.
- International Residential Code §105.2; Residential Code of Ohio §102.10; Florida Building Code §105.2 · adopted codes, 2026 A driveway no more than 30 inches above grade is exempt from the building permit. What a paving job usually needs instead is a right-of-way or driveway-approach permit from the city, which costs far less.
- City of Columbus Chapter 905 sidewalk and driveway rules; 2026 development fee schedule; city Driveways zoning page · fee rules 2013; fee schedule 2026 A driveway approach permit is $80, or $110 with an inspection. A new or widened driveway also needs a $100 zoning clearance — but the city states plainly that repaving an approved driveway without adding surface area does not.
- FHWA CFLHD production adjustment factors; Erickson Asphalt clay-soil pricing · CFLHD revised 2016; contractor prices September 2026 CFLHD cuts production to 85% in fair soil and 65% in poor soil, so hours rise by 18% and 54%. A Minnesota contractor charges about 23% more to build on clay, which points the same way.
- Texas DOT Standard Specification Item 341; Illinois DOT District 1 HMA Mix Selection Guide · TxDOT 2014 specification; IDOT 2023 guide Compacted hot-mix asphalt weighs 110 lb per square yard for each inch of thickness (IDOT uses 112). That is where the tonnage on this page comes from: area × thickness × 110 ÷ 2,000.
- Published price lists from US paving contractors (TX, FL, OH, MI, MN, WI) · retrieved September 2026 Installed driveway prices of $3–8 a square foot, and one Texas contractor’s own breakdown of a $5 job: asphalt $1.80–2.75, labor and equipment $1.30–2.50, base $0.75–1.50, mobilisation and overhead $0.25–0.75. Used to set the markup on labor.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics · May 2025 Hourly wages by state: 25th percentile (low), median (typical), 75th percentile (high).
Frequently asked questions
How many tons of asphalt does my driveway need?
Multiply the area in square yards by the thickness in inches, multiply by 110 pounds, and divide by 2,000. A 600 square foot driveway at 3 inches is 11 tons. The calculator above does this for you and shows the tonnage next to the price, because that is the number you hand to the plant.
What does an asphalt driveway cost per square foot?
Contractors who publish prices land between $3 and $8 a square foot installed, with resurfacing at the bottom and full tear-out with new base at the top. Treat any single per-square-foot figure with suspicion until you know the size it applies to — the same company charges nearly twice as much per foot on a small driveway as on a large one.
Can I resurface instead of replacing?
Only if the base is sound and the old surface is not badly broken up. An overlay is roughly half the cost because it skips demolition, disposal and base work, but laid over a failing base it will crack through in the same pattern within a few years. If the old driveway has potholes, alligator cracking or areas that move underfoot, the base is the problem.
How long does a driveway take, and when can I drive on it?
A typical residential driveway is one visit for a small crew. The surface is usually drivable within a day or two, but asphalt keeps curing for several months — keep it clear of sharp turns from parked wheels, jack stands and trailer jacks early on, and hold off sealcoating until it has cured, which most contractors put at six months to a year.
Does a new driveway change any of my bills?
It can. Several cities bill stormwater by how much hard surface a property has: Jacksonville charges single-family homes in tiers by impervious area, and Detroit bills $768.75 per impervious acre a month with a residential credit. A new 900 square foot driveway is enough to move a tier in some places. This is a monthly utility charge, not a permit fee, so it is not in the estimate above.
Is recycled asphalt worth considering?
Recycled asphalt pavement costs a fraction of virgin hot mix and is common for ranch roads and light-traffic drives. It does not bind as hard or look as uniform, and it is laid and compacted rather than hot-placed. For a driveway that has to look finished it is a compromise; for a long rural drive it is often the sensible choice.
Costs by state
The same job as above, priced with each state's wages, material price level and permit fees.