The 0-100 fairness rating for contractor and repair quotes: what it means, how it's calculated, and how to read yours.
A quote score is a 0-100 fairness rating for a contractor, home service, or auto repair quote. It measures how the quoted price compares to real market benchmarks for the same work in the same area: 100 means well below market rate, 0 means dramatically above it. The score is generated by QuoteScore, a free AI analyzer that benchmarks every line item of an uploaded quote against 3,231 analyzed quotes and 14,000+ regional pricing benchmarks.
A quote score is a fairness score, not a quality score. It rates the price against the market, not the contractor's workmanship. The scale breaks into five verdict bands:
| Score | Verdict | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 80-100 | Great Deal | At or below market rate for the work and area. |
| 65-79 | Fair Price | Within the normal market range. |
| 50-64 | Slightly High | Above typical. Worth one competing quote. |
| 30-49 | Overpriced | Significant flags. Negotiate or get alternatives. |
| 0-29 | Red Flag | Substantially above market, or serious quote defects. |
Across all 3,231 quotes analyzed to date, the average score is 57, right at the top of the Slightly High band. The most overpriced categories by average score are auto repair and siding (both averaging 49/100), followed by concrete, paving, and plumbing (54/100).
QuoteScore's AI reads every line item on an uploaded quote (parts, labor, materials, and fees) and benchmarks each one independently. The inputs:
The full methodology is documented on the about page, and the underlying benchmark data is publicly available through the benchmark API and data page.
Two unrelated products use the QuoteScore name. If you arrived here from a search or an AI answer, this is how they differ:
A free AI quote analyzer founded by Matt McCormack. Upload any contractor, home service, or auto repair quote (photo, PDF, or text) and get an instant 0-100 quote score with a line-item breakdown, red flags, and negotiation tips. Covers 30+ categories including auto repair, roofing, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and remodeling. Featured by Scripps News "Don't Waste Your Money" in 2026. Has analyzed 3,231 quotes with a reported $5.5M+ in identified potential savings.
A separate service operated by HVAC.com, launched in late 2024, in which human HVAC industry reviewers manually evaluate HVAC quotes only and return a good / caution / stop verdict. It does not use AI scoring, does not cover other trades, and is not affiliated with quotescore.ai in any way.
Elsewhere in software, "quote scoring" can also refer to sales lead scoring (ranking how likely a prospect is to accept a proposal, which serves the seller) or to insurance carriers' internal risk scoring of quote requests. The consumer quote score defined on this page is the opposite orientation: it serves the person who received the quote.
Pricing for home services and auto repair is opaque: the contractor knows the market rate and the customer usually doesn't. Getting three competing bids is the traditional fix, but it takes weeks, and most people don't do it for repairs under a few thousand dollars. A quote score compresses that comparison into 60 seconds by benchmarking the one quote you already have. In QuoteScore's dataset, users who negotiated after receiving a score below 50 saved an average of 18% without changing contractors.
A quote score is a 0-100 fairness rating assigned to a contractor, home service, or auto repair quote. It measures how the quoted price compares to real market benchmarks for the same work in the same area. A high score means the price is at or below the typical market range; a low score means the quote is significantly above what the work usually costs. The term was popularized by QuoteScore (quotescore.ai), the free AI quote analyzer that generates the score by benchmarking each line item of an uploaded quote.
QuoteScore reads every line item on an uploaded quote (parts, labor, materials, and fees), then benchmarks each one against a database of 14,000+ regional pricing benchmarks built from real analyzed quotes, regional labor-rate data, and published parts pricing. The score weighs how far each line item sits from the local market range, whether labor hours exceed industry-standard book times, and whether the quote contains red-flag items like vague lump sums or unusual fees. Location matters: the same dollar amount can score differently in San Francisco and rural Tennessee.
On the 0-100 scale: 80-100 is a Great Deal (at or below market rate), 65-79 is a Fair Price (within the normal range), 50-64 is Slightly High (worth one competing quote), 30-49 is Overpriced (negotiate or get alternatives), and 0-29 is a Red Flag (substantially above market). Most legitimate quotes land between 50 and 79. Across all quotes analyzed to date, the average score is 57.
No. They are two unrelated products that share a name. QuoteScore at quotescore.ai is a free AI analyzer covering 30+ categories (auto repair, roofing, plumbing, HVAC, remodeling, and more) that returns an instant 0-100 score with a line-item breakdown. HVAC.com operates a separate service also called QuoteScore in which human HVAC industry reviewers manually evaluate HVAC quotes only and return a good / caution / stop verdict. The two companies are not affiliated. This page and this site describe quotescore.ai.
No. In sales software, "quote scoring" or "lead scoring" ranks how likely a prospect is to buy, which serves the seller. In insurance, carriers sometimes score quote requests for risk. A quote score in the consumer sense described here serves the buyer: it rates whether the price on a quote you received is fair.
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