Topsoil prices · 2026

What a yard of topsoil
actually costs.

Screened topsoil runs $20–40 per cubic yard for material alone, or $25–50 delivered. Blends with compost run $40–80. But the number that decides your bill is usually delivery, not material — and that depends on how many yards compete near you.

$20–50per yard, delivered
$50–150typical delivery fee
100 sq ftcovered by 1 yard at 3″
18,806suppliers we track

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How much do you need, and what should it cost?

Enter your area and depth. Everything below updates instantly — volume, weight, how many trips it takes, and a realistic delivered price range.

Area: 1,000 sq ft

9.3 cubic yards needed
Weight
12.5 tons
Pickup loads
10 (1 yd each)
Dump truck loads
1 (10 yd tandem)
Equivalent bags
334 (0.75 cu ft)

Estimated delivered cost

$285 – $615

Material $186–$372 + delivery $100–$150. Order slightly over — coming up short means a second trip fee.

Find suppliers near you

Estimates use published 2026 national price ranges from HomeGuide, Angi and Lawn Love, cross-checked against each other. Bulk pricing is rarely published because it moves with stock and season, so treat this as a sanity check on a quote — not a quote. Supplier counts and market competition figures are our own, drawn from the Topsoil.com directory.

By material

Not all "topsoil" is priced alike

The single biggest pricing mistake is quoting the wrong product. Fill dirt and blended garden soil are both called topsoil in conversation, and they differ by 10×.

MaterialPer yard (pickup)Per yard (delivered)What it's for
Fill dirt$5–25$8–15Unscreened. Structural filling and grade changes only — nothing grows well in it.
Screened topsoil$20–40$25–50The standard. Rocks and roots removed, usually to ½" or ⅜".
Blended topsoil/compost$40–80$45–90Soil cut with compost. The right choice for beds and new lawns.
Garden / raised-bed mix$50–120$60–130Heavily amended. Sold for containers and raised beds.

Price check

Am I getting ripped off on my topsoil delivery?

Enter what you were quoted. We'll work out your real per-yard rate and compare it against published ranges for your region — plus how much competition you actually have locally, which is usually the reason a price is high.

Your delivered rate

$80 per cubic yard

Above typical for your region

$20$45

A high per-yard rate on a small order is usually delivery, not gouging — a flat $120 trip fee on 3 yards adds $40/yd before any material. Compare like for like, and if it still looks steep, call two more yards.

Soil & price by region

What's under your feet, and what it costs to fix

Native soil varies enormously across the country, and it decides what you actually need to buy. Someone in the Carolina Piedmont fighting red clay has a different problem from someone on Florida sand — and they should be buying different products.

Northeast & New England

$40–80/yd

Native soil. Glacial till and outwash across northern New York and Pennsylvania; silt loams through the Piedmont. Stony, acidic and shallow in much of New England — the rocks in your beds were left by ice sheets.

What to buy. Screened topsoil and compost blends do the heavy lifting here. Native soil is often too stony to plant into directly, and acidic enough that lime is a routine amendment.

Highest prices in the country. NYC metro and Boston run $40–80/yd on limited local supply and expensive trucking; screened topsoil in New Jersey has been quoted at $65–85/yd material-only.

  • 4,401suppliers
  • 143competitive towns
  • 9states

Midwest & Great Lakes

$20–45/yd

Native soil. Prairie-derived loams and clay loams — among the best native agricultural soil anywhere. Glacial influence across the Great Lakes states adds till and sandy outwash pockets.

What to buy. You are often amending decent soil rather than replacing bad soil. Screened topsoil for grading and a compost blend for beds usually covers it.

Good local supply and strong competition keep prices near the national floor.

  • 3,772suppliers
  • 133competitive towns
  • 8states

Mid-Atlantic & Piedmont

$40–60/yd

Native soil. Ultisols dominate — the red clay the Piedmont is known for. Cecil sandy loam is North Carolina’s state soil and covers more ground there than any other. Naturally acidic, typically pH 5.0–5.5.

What to buy. Clay drains badly and compacts hard. Most projects need a soil-compost blend rather than straight topsoil, plus lime to lift pH.

Virginia runs $40–60/yd for screened topsoil with delivery adding $75–100 on top.

  • 3,629suppliers
  • 132competitive towns
  • 9states

Southwest & Desert

$40–70/yd

Native soil. Alkaline, sandy and very low in organic matter, often with caliche layers that block roots and drainage.

What to buy. Almost everything is imported or amended. Expect to buy blended soil rather than native screened topsoil, and budget for sulphur or gypsum to bring pH down.

High prices because most usable topsoil is trucked in or manufactured from imported material.

  • 2,144suppliers
  • 85competitive towns
  • 5states

Southeast Coastal Plain

$25–50/yd

Native soil. Sandy, well-drained and low in organic matter. Water and nutrients pass straight through — good for sweet potatoes, hard on lawns.

What to buy. Compost and blended soil matter more than volume here. Sand alone will not hold moisture; the goal is adding organic matter that stays put.

Local sand is cheap and abundant, so the premium sits on blended and organic products rather than base material.

  • 1,776suppliers
  • 75competitive towns
  • 4states

California & Hawaii

$30–65/yd

Native soil. Extremely varied — alluvial valley soils in the Central Valley, clay in the coast ranges, volcanic in Hawaii. There is no single California soil.

What to buy. Test before you buy. Salinity is a real issue in parts of the Central Valley, and what works in Sacramento is wrong in San Diego.

Large, competitive metro markets sit alongside rural areas with almost no local supply.

  • 1,416suppliers
  • 69competitive towns
  • 2states

Pacific Northwest

$25–55/yd

Native soil. Volcanic-derived, naturally acidic and high in organic matter west of the Cascades. Genuinely good soil, but wet.

What to buy. Drainage is the usual problem rather than fertility. Sandy loam blends and bark amendments are common; lime for pH.

Strong local supply of bark and compost keeps blended products competitive.

  • 720suppliers
  • 31competitive towns
  • 2states

Great Plains

$20–45/yd

Native soil. Deep loess and silt loams, high in native fertility but prone to wind erosion where cover is thin.

What to buy. Volume is rarely the problem. Organic matter and moisture retention are, so compost blends outperform straight fill.

Long haul distances between towns make delivery a larger share of the bill than material.

  • 511suppliers
  • 24competitive towns
  • 6states

Mountain West

$30–60/yd

Native soil. Thin, rocky and young. Short growing seasons and low rainfall mean organic matter never accumulates the way it does further east.

What to buy. Blended soil with heavy compost content. Straight native topsoil is usually too thin and stony to be worth hauling.

Thin supplier networks across huge distances. In several states there are only a handful of yards, so shopping around often is not an option.

  • 411suppliers
  • 20competitive towns
  • 4states

Alaska

$35–75/yd

Native soil. Shallow soils over permafrost in much of the interior, with better silt loams in the Matanuska and Tanana valleys.

What to buy. Local screened soil where available. Freight makes importing material prohibitive.

Very limited supplier network and high freight costs.

  • 25suppliers
  • 2competitive towns
  • 1states

Our data · 18,806 suppliers

Where you have negotiating room

Bulk pricing is set locally, and competition is the main thing that moves it. This is every state ranked by how many suppliers we track and how many sit in genuinely competitive markets — places with five or more yards in one town.

Most competitive markets

Buyers here can realistically price three or more yards against each other.

  1. Arizona 89% of suppliers in competitive towns
  2. Florida 73% of suppliers in competitive towns
  3. South Carolina 72% of suppliers in competitive towns
  4. Oklahoma 69% of suppliers in competitive towns
  5. California 67% of suppliers in competitive towns

Thinnest markets

Few or no alternatives. Expect to pay closer to asking, and to travel.

  1. Wyoming 1 supplier statewide
  2. Hawaii 5 suppliers statewide
  3. Mississippi 20 suppliers statewide
  4. South Dakota 22 suppliers statewide
  5. Vermont 23 suppliers statewide
StateSuppliersTowns covered Avg per townCompetitive townsAvg rating
Pennsylvania 1,464 485 3 44 4.56
California 1,411 365 3.9 69 4.57
Florida 1,391 260 5.3 60 4.52
Texas 1,358 316 4.3 49 4.46
Ohio 1,069 311 3.4 42 4.49
New York 1,058 383 2.8 31 4.45
North Carolina 977 241 4.1 36 4.55
Michigan 898 285 3.2 32 4.48
Georgia 679 190 3.6 23 4.53
Massachusetts 660 212 3.1 26 4.54
Illinois 658 229 2.9 21 4.53
Virginia 658 163 4 24 4.52
New Jersey 577 272 2.1 14 4.43
South Carolina 546 115 4.7 31 4.57
Wisconsin 491 197 2.5 18 4.51
Washington 485 132 3.7 21 4.54
Connecticut 439 124 3.5 25 4.47
Arizona 424 54 7.9 20 4.52
Indiana 399 133 3 13 4.54
Tennessee 356 113 3.2 11 4.51
Colorado 275 69 4 14 4.49
Oregon 235 76 3.1 10 4.51
Alabama 212 94 2.3 9 4.52
Utah 201 61 3.3 8 4.51
Kentucky 168 76 2.2 4 4.51
Oklahoma 160 41 3.9 6 4.52
Louisiana 153 57 2.7 6 4.62
Iowa 128 67 1.9 4 4.51
Maryland 128 91 1.4 1 4.58
Arkansas 126 43 2.9 8 4.47
New Hampshire 105 62 1.7 1 4.55
Idaho 93 43 2.2 4 4.6
Nevada 90 14 6.4 6 4.39
Kansas 88 44 2 5 4.55
Nebraska 87 33 2.6 2 4.49
New Mexico 71 25 2.8 2 4.57
Minnesota 70 47 1.5 2 4.52
Delaware 62 24 2.6 1 4.49
Missouri 59 36 1.6 1 4.46
West Virginia 55 34 1.6 1 4.5
Rhode Island 50 24 2.1 2 4.12
Montana 42 17 2.5 2 4.74
North Dakota 28 10 2.8 2 4.62
Alaska 25 8 3.1 2 4.37
Maine 25 21 1.2 0 4.53
Vermont 23 17 1.4 0 4.32
South Dakota 22 13 1.7 1 4.54
Mississippi 20 17 1.2 0 4.51
Hawaii 5 3 1.7 0 4.88
Wyoming 1 1 1 0 5

What moves the number

Four things decide your bill

Delivery distance

Trucking is the largest variable cost in bulk material. Most yards charge a flat trip fee of $50–150 for up to roughly 15 yards, then add mileage beyond a set radius. A yard 8 miles away at $40/yd usually beats one 30 miles away at $32.

Order size

Because the trip fee is flat, small orders carry a brutal effective rate. Three yards with a $120 delivery is $40/yd of pure haulage on top of material. Ten yards on the same truck drops that to $12.

Season

Spring through early summer is peak — longest queues and firmest prices. Late summer and autumn bring shorter waits and more negotiating room, particularly on larger loads.

Moisture

Wet soil weighs more and spreads worse. If you're buying by the ton rather than the yard, buying after heavy rain means paying for water.

Get a real quote, not an estimate

We list 18,806 bulk suppliers across all 50 states with hours, ratings and phone numbers. Call two or three near you — that's the only way to get a firm delivered price.

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