The short version: Industry breakdowns put contractor lead prices at $5–$150+ each (typically $20–$60), charged whether or not you win the work. Angi’s own FY2024 10-K shows ads and leads produced 81% of its revenue — the platform gets paid on friction, not completion. Before you buy leads, do the cost-per-won-job math below. On AllBetter, jobs are escrow-funded before you start and you only pay when you win.
Looking for more jobs? Stop paying for leads. On AllBetter, homeowners post jobs and you bid direct — $0 lead fees, ever.
Get jobs on AllBetter →Every contractor forum has the same thread. Someone new to a lead app asks whether it’s worth it; someone else posts a screenshot of a month of charges and a season’s worth of frustration. The replies argue in anecdotes because the platforms publish medians and success stories, never the arithmetic.
This post is the arithmetic. Every number in it is either pulled from a public filing, a federal consent order, or an attributed industry source — and where the honest answer is “run your own numbers,” we give you the formula instead of a fake statistic. If you’d rather skip the lead treadmill entirely and bid on escrow-funded jobs, see how AllBetter works for pros — you only pay when you win.
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Quick answer: What do contractor leads really cost in 2026?
Reported lead prices: $5–$150+ per lead, typically $20–$60 (industry breakdowns); Angi programs are contractor-reported at roughly $300/yr plus $15–$85+ per lead. The real number is cost per won job: divide lead price by your close rate. A $40 lead closed 1-in-5 is $200 of acquisition cost per job won — before you’ve bought a single material.
How much do contractor leads cost in 2026?
Industry breakdowns report lead prices of $5 to $150+ per lead, with $20–$60 typical for most trades; Angi’s programs are contractor-reported at roughly $300 per year plus $15–$85+ per lead, since the company publishes no rate card. Prices vary by trade, metro, and job size — a bathroom remodel lead costs far more than a faucet repair lead.
Two structural details matter more than the sticker price. First, on lead-fee platforms, pros pay per lead whether or not they’re hired — that is how the model works, per the platforms’ own help documentation and public filings. Second, industry sources report that the same lead is commonly sold to multiple pros — reports range from three to eight — which means most buyers of any given lead are, by construction, paying for a customer they will never get.
| Reported cost item | Range (attributed) | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Per-lead price, most trades | $5–$150+ (typical $20–$60) | Industry breakdowns, 2026 |
| Angi programs | ~$300/yr + $15–$85+ per lead | Contractor-reported (no published rate card) |
| Pros sent the same lead | 3–8 (reported) | Industry sources |
| Cost per WON job | Lead price ÷ your close rate | Arithmetic — run your own numbers |
Why lead sellers get paid whether you win or not
Because that is the revenue model, in the seller’s own words. Angi’s FY2024 Form 10-K reports that its Ads & Leads segment produced $962.6 million of $1,185.1 million in total revenue — 81 cents of every revenue dollar came from selling access to homeowners, not from completed work. The money is booked when the pro is charged, win or lose.
Follow that math one step further. Take the middle of the reported price range: a $40 lead sold to five pros is $200 of platform revenue on a single homeowner request — collected before anyone wins the job. If one pro wins, four just paid for a customer they never got. The platform’s best quarter is the one where the most pros compete hardest for the same doorbell.
Here is the telling part: the incumbent is backing away from its own model. In its January 2025 pivot to “homeowner choice,” Angi intentionally walked away from more than $270 million of network-lead revenue — its own filings show network-lead volume down 74% in FY2025. When the company that built the category retreats from multi-sold leads, that is the market conceding what contractors have said for years. We track the ownership side of this consolidation story in the franchise-markup study, and you can see how the four big home-service platforms compare on the homeowner side of the same coin.
What did the FTC find when it looked at sold leads?
Ready to fill your schedule? Join AllBetter and pick up local jobs near you — no lead fees, payment protection built in.
Get jobs on AllBetter →In 2023, the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor — affiliated with Angi and doing business as Angi Leads — to pay up to $7.2 million over what the FTC alleged were deceptive claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold to pros. The order was finalized in April 2023, and more than $3 million was later returned to affected service providers. HomeAdvisor settled by consent order without admitting the allegations.
Whatever you conclude from it, the case established one thing on the federal record: lead quality complaints are not just contractor grumbling. A regulator investigated the category’s biggest seller and extracted a multi-million-dollar settlement over the leads themselves.
What is the true cost of a lead per won job?
The only number that matters is cost per won job: your lead price divided by your close rate on that platform. Nobody can tell you your close rate — but you can bracket it honestly in thirty seconds:
- Close 1 in 3 leads at $40 each → $120 of acquisition cost per won job.
- Close 1 in 5 → $200 per won job.
- Close 1 in 10 → $400 per won job — on a $600 repair, two-thirds of the ticket is gone before materials.
Now add the second lever most pros forget: response-time decay. When several pros receive the same lead, the first to call wins disproportionately often — which is why the model quietly converts your evenings into a speed-dial contest. The AllBetter Lead-Gen Tax Calculator walks through this same math at three realistic operator profiles if you want the worked scenarios.
When a slow month makes those numbers ugly, AllBetter pros typically flip the equation: instead of paying upfront for cold contacts, they browse posted jobs and send bids — and the first cost lands only when a homeowner picks their bid.
The escrow alternative: only pay when you win
AllBetter runs the opposite revenue model. Homeowners post real jobs with a scope and budget. Pros browse those jobs in the JobPro app and bid on the ones worth their time (our top handyman apps for 2026 roundup covers the wider field). You only pay when you win — the platform earns nothing from you losing.
The part lead apps cannot copy: every job is funded and held in escrow before you start. You are not bidding on a maybe — the money exists, it is committed, and it is released when the homeowner approves the work. You can be paid in as little as 30 minutes after approval. Compare that with the invoice economy: Rabbet’s 2024 construction payments report found 82% of contractors waiting 30+ days to get paid, and a January 2025 QuickBooks survey of 2,487 small businesses found 56% carrying unpaid work at an average of $17,500 outstanding (the full picture is in contractor payment delays in 2026).
Old way vs. the AllBetter way
| Decision point | Lead-fee model | AllBetter (JobPro) |
|---|---|---|
| When you pay | Per lead, win or lose | Only when you win |
| Who else got the contact | Reportedly 3–8 pros | You see the job and choose to bid |
| Is the customer real? | FTC alleged quality problems at the biggest seller | Job posted by the homeowner, scope attached |
| Is the money real? | Find out at invoice time | Escrow-funded before you start |
| Getting paid | 82% wait 30+ days (Rabbet, 2024) | As little as ~30 minutes after approval |
| Platform’s incentive | Sell more contacts | Completed jobs — we earn when you do |
Why AllBetter beats the lead treadmill
| Feature | What it’s worth |
|---|---|
| Stripe Identity verification — every pro is ID-verified before payout | Credibility that wins bids |
| Escrow-funded jobs before you start | Payment certainty |
| Bid on posted jobs with scope and budget attached | No cold contacts |
| Only pay when you win | Zero losing-bid drag |
Total value: acquisition cost that only exists on jobs you actually won.
Frequently asked questions
How much do contractor leads cost in 2026?
Industry breakdowns report $5–$150+ per lead, with $20–$60 typical for most trades. Angi’s programs are contractor-reported at roughly $300/yr plus $15–$85+ per lead; the company publishes no rate card. Charges apply whether or not you win the work.
What is cost per won job and how do I calculate it?
Divide the lead price by your close rate on that platform. A $40 lead closed 1-in-5 equals $200 of acquisition cost per won job; at 1-in-10 it is $400. Compare that number with your margin on a typical ticket before buying.
Did the FTC really take action over sold contractor leads?
Yes. In 2023 the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor — affiliated with Angi, d/b/a Angi Leads — to pay up to $7.2 million over what the FTC alleged were deceptive claims about the leads it sold to pros. The consent order was finalized in April 2023, and over $3 million was later returned to service providers.
Do I buy leads on AllBetter?
No. Homeowners post jobs; you browse them in the JobPro app and bid on the ones you want. You only pay when you win. Every job is escrow-funded before work starts.
How fast do pros get paid on AllBetter?
Jobs are funded into escrow before you start, and after the homeowner approves the completed work you can be paid in as little as 30 minutes. For context, Rabbet’s 2024 report found 82% of contractors wait 30+ days to get paid on traditional invoicing.
Is buying contractor leads ever worth it?
It can be — if your close rate is high enough that cost per won job stays inside your margin, and you can answer leads within minutes. The honest move is to compute that number monthly and compare it against channels where you pay on outcomes instead of contacts. Our roundup of alternatives to the big lead-gen sites compares the models side by side.
Stop paying for other people’s customers
Bid on real, escrow-funded jobs — and only pay when you win.
- Jobs posted by homeowners, with scope and budget attached
- Escrow-funded before you start — the money is real and committed
- You can be paid in as little as 30 minutes after approval
- Stripe Identity verification — every pro is ID-verified before payout
Get the JobPro app and see the jobs near you.
Sources
- Angi Inc., FY2024 Form 10-K (Ads & Leads segment revenue) — SEC EDGAR
- Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Order Requires HomeAdvisor to Pay Up to $7.2 Million for Deceptive Marketing Tactics” (final order April 2023) — ftc.gov
- Rabbet, 2024 State of Construction Payments Report (82% of contractors wait 30+ days) — rabbet.com
- QuickBooks/Intuit, small business payments survey, January 2025 (n=2,487; 56% owed money, average $17.5K unpaid) — quickbooks.intuit.com
By Tarik Khribech, Founder of AllBetter. MS in Computer Science (Elmhurst University); previously at Citi and Discover; founded ChoreRelief in 2016 and relaunched it as AllBetter in 2020.
