How much water does my lawn use?

About 623 gallons for each inch over 1,000 square feet. A 5,000 sq ft lawn at one inch a week uses about 3,117 gallons a week, or 13,500 a month.

How much does it cost to water a lawn?

Gallons divided by your billing unit, times your rate. At an example $4.50 per CCF, one inch on 5,000 sq ft (4.2 CCF) costs about $19, before sewer. HyreYard publishes no water price.

What is a CCF on my water bill?

One hundred cubic feet of water. EPA WaterSense: “One CCF is equal to 748 gallons.”

Why is my real cost higher than the rate?

Two reasons. Under tiered rates, lawn water lands in your highest tier. And where sewer is billed on the water meter, lawn water is charged as sewage too.

Which rate should I type?

The volume rate per unit, not the bill total divided by use. If your rates are tiered, use the highest tier you reach in a watering month.

HyreYard tools

Lawn water cost calculator

Type the watered area, the inches you apply each week and the rate from your water bill. You get gallons, dollars and the sewer share.

623 gal for one inch over 1,000 sq ft From the NIST Handbook 133 definitions: 1,728 cubic inches to a cubic foot and 231 to a gallon. EPA WaterSense: one CCF is 748 gallons.

Lawn water cost = (square feet ÷ 1,000) × inches a week × 623 gallons, priced at the rate on your bill. A 5,000 sq ft lawn at EPA’s one inch a week uses 3,117 gallons, or 4.2 CCF. At an example rate of $4.50 per CCF, that is about $19 a week before sewer.

Work out your lawn’s water cost

Volume from area and depth, money from your bill. Nothing is stored or emailed.

— Water the lawn uses

— What it costs at your rate

— One inch across the lawn

— Sewer

— If half is wasted

— Check on your bill

What this assumed —

An estimate of metered volume at your rate, not a bill.

Start here

Where 623 gallons comes from

One inch of water over 1,000 square feet is 623 gallons. It follows from two unit definitions, so you can check it on a calculator.

The definitions. NIST Handbook 133: “1 728 cubic inches (in3) = 1 cubic foot (ft3)” and “1 gallon (gal) = 231 cubic inches”. So a cubic foot is 1,728 ÷ 231 = 7.4805 gallons.

The arithmetic. 1,000 sq ft × 1/12 ft = 83.33 cubic feet. 83.33 × 7.4805 = 623.4 gallons.

Check against EPA. EPA WaterSense: “One CCF is equal to 748 gallons.” Our figure is 748.05, which agrees.

Gallons for one inch, by lawn size

HyreYard arithmetic from the definitions above.

Lawn area	Gallons for 1 in	CCF for 1 in
1,000 sq ft	623	0.8
2,500 sq ft	1,558	2.1
5,000 sq ft	3,117	4.2
10,000 sq ft	6,234	8.3
20,000 sq ft	12,468	16.7

Multiply by the inches you apply in a week, then by your rate.

How to read your rate off the water bill

1
Find the billing unit
EPA: “The most common units are centum cubic feet (CCF) and the gallon.” A CCF is 100 cubic feet, 748 gallons. Pick the matching unit above.
2
Find the volume rate
The price per unit, not the total bill divided by use. Fixed charges do not change when you water.
3
Find the tier you reach
Under increasing block rates, EPA says “the unit price of each succeeding block of usage is charged at a higher unit rate than the previous block(s).” Irrigation sits on top of indoor use, so use the highest tier you reach in a watering month.
4
Find the sewer line
EPA: “some utilities measure both water entering the house and waste leaving to the sewer, but many utilities have only one meter on location and will charge both volumes based on water entering the house.” If sewer is charged per unit of water, type it in the sewer box.
5
Check for seasonal rates
EPA describes seasonal rates as “rates that cover a specific time period. They are established to encourage conservation during peak use periods.”

Two things that raise the real cost

The tier. With increasing block rates, the last gallons cost the most, and lawn water is the last gallons. The first-block price on the bill can understate it.

Sewer on the water meter. Where a utility bills sewer from the water meter, lawn water is charged as sewage too. Some utilities offer an irrigation meter or a summer sewer cap; ask yours.

The billing units, converted

Unit on the bill	Gallons
CCF or HCF (100 cubic feet)	748.05
1,000 gallons	1,000
Cubic foot	7.48
Gallon	1

From NIST Handbook 133 definitions. A bill that shows “12” could mean 12 CCF (8,977 gallons) or 12,000 gallons.

Why this page has no water price

Rates are set utility by utility. EPA describes uniform, increasing-block, declining-block, seasonal and budget-based rates. One national average would be wrong for many readers.

The scale is national. EPA WaterSense: residential outdoor use is “nearly 8 billion gallons of water each day, mainly for landscape irrigation”, and “as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems”.

If the number is bigger than you expected

Measure what you actually apply
The six-can test on the sprinkler run time calculator gives your real rate.
Check that rain is credited
A rain sensor, or a controller that skips after rain, stops paying for water the sky supplied.
Ask the utility about sewer
Is sewer billed on the water meter, and is there an irrigation meter or summer cap?
Ask about rebates
Many utilities that run turf rebates also rebate controllers.
Check the watering rules
Watering days and drought stages can limit any schedule.

What this calculator cannot see

Your bill. The rate, the tier and the sewer basis are yours to read. It is an estimate of metered volume, not a bill.

What your system applies. The inches per week you type are the lever you control; measure them.

Your plants. HyreYard does not install irrigation or sell water. Figures checked 5 September 2026.

Questions this calculator answers

How much water does my lawn use?: About 623 gallons for each inch over 1,000 square feet. A 5,000 sq ft lawn at one inch a week uses about 3,117 gallons a week, or 13,500 a month.
How much does it cost to water a lawn?: Gallons divided by your billing unit, times your rate. At an example $4.50 per CCF, one inch on 5,000 sq ft (4.2 CCF) costs about $19, before sewer. HyreYard publishes no water price.
What is a CCF on my water bill?: One hundred cubic feet of water. EPA WaterSense: “One CCF is equal to 748 gallons.”
Why is my real cost higher than the rate?: Two reasons. Under tiered rates, lawn water lands in your highest tier. And where sewer is billed on the water meter, lawn water is charged as sewage too.
Which rate should I type?: The volume rate per unit, not the bill total divided by use. If your rates are tiered, use the highest tier you reach in a watering month.
How much lawn water is wasted?: EPA WaterSense: “as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems.” The six-can test on the run time calculator shows what your system actually applies.

Sources and methodology

Figures dated September 5, 2026. Last reviewed September 18, 2026.

Understanding Your Water Bill (US Environmental Protection Agency, WaterSense, retrieved September 5, 2026). Billing units, CCF = 748 gallons, rate structures, and sewer billed on the water meter.
NIST Handbook 133 (2026), Appendix E: General Tables of Units of Measurement (National Institute of Standards and Technology, retrieved September 5, 2026). The cubic foot and gallon definitions behind 623.38 gallons per inch per 1,000 sq ft.
Watering Tips (US Environmental Protection Agency, WaterSense, retrieved September 5, 2026). One inch a week including rainfall as a starting point.
WaterSense labeled controllers (US Environmental Protection Agency, retrieved September 5, 2026). Outdoor water use and the share wasted through overwatering.

Sprinkler run time calculator Turn the weekly depth into minutes per zone.
Turf rebate calculator What your utility pays to replace lawn.
Watering restrictions tracker Watering-day rules by utility.
Irrigation Zoning, controllers and what an irrigation bid should include.
Lawn care What lawn care includes and how to compare plans.

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