Oil change cost: synthetic oil, the filter and a few minutes of labor
Choose a vehicle type and a state. The estimator adds a full synthetic oil and filter listing to the short labor time automakers pay, at the shop rate of that state.
Oil change, sedan, national: typical cost
$97
Range $76 to $125 · oil and filter · before sales tax
| Labor time, sedan | 0.3 h to 0.4 h |
| Shop rate, national | $114 to $159 per hour |
| Labor, typical | $47 |
| Parts, typical listing | $50 |
No sedan in the bulletins read for this repair: hours of all vehicle types.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How costs are estimated · automaker labor times, BLS technician wages, parts read October 20, 2026 · not a quote
A shop oil change with full synthetic oil and a new filter comes to about $97 on a sedan at the national median shop rate of $134 an hour, in a range of $76 to $125 before sales tax and any disposal fee. An SUV is about $101, a pickup $95 and a luxury car $102. The materials are about half the bill: oil and filter for the two reference sedans list at a median of $50, about 51 % of the typical sedan figure, in the catalog read on October 20, 2026. Labor is minutes, not hours. The 2 automaker operations kept pay 0.3 h to 0.4 h to drain the oil, change the filter and refill, and 3 other entries were set aside because they covered less or more than a plain oil change. By state, the sedan figure moves only from about $86 in West Virginia to $106 in the District of Columbia.
Where the money goes on an oil change
An oil change is among the few repairs on this site where the hourly rate hardly matters. The technician drains the old oil, removes the filter, fits a new one, refills the engine to the right level and resets the maintenance reminder if the car has one. That takes a fraction of an hour. A large share of what you pay is the oil itself, and full synthetic oil costs more than conventional oil. On the typical sedan figure, oil and filter are about $50 of $97, the labor $47.
Many shops do not bill an oil change by the hour at all. They post a flat price, and some fold a quick inspection, a top up of fluids or a tire pressure check into it. The estimate here is the arithmetic of a plain oil change, labor at your state rate plus catalog oil and filter, so you can see what that flat price is made of. A flat price well above it may include extras worth asking about; one well below it may assume conventional oil.
Bulletin times kept and set aside
An oil change is normally paid by the owner, so automakers rarely list it in warranty documents. Only a handful of usable entries turned up in the bulletins filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of these, 2 describe a complete oil and filter change and were kept: a General Motors service update for a turbocharged SUV and a BMW instruction for a V8 sedan.
| Type | Vehicle and engine | Bulletin filed with NHTSA | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury | 2016-2017 (produced 01/2015-08/2016) BMW 750i (G12), 4.4L twin-turbo V8 (N63R) | BMW SI B11 06 17, March 2017 | 0.3 h |
| SUV | 2024 Chevrolet Traverse / GMC Acadia, 2.5L turbo I4 (LK0) | GM Service Update N242441680, April 2024 | 0.4 h |
The BMW document gives its time in flat rate units, which BMW counts as tenths of an hour; the document itself does not state that conversion, so treat that line with some care. The 3 others were left out. The Honda and Acura lines drain and refill the oil without changing the filter, and they can only be claimed on top of another job. A Ford line adds a leak inspection and a new PCV valve, so it is longer than an oil change. The method page lists every exclusion with its reason. With no usable time for the sedan or the pickup type, the estimator falls back on both times kept.
What the oil and filter cost by vehicle
For each reference vehicle the catalog was searched for the oil filter that fits the engine and for full synthetic oil sold in a single jug. The two prices were added, low with low, median with median, high with high. For the two sedans the sum runs from $41 to $62. SUVs have a median of $47 and pickups $48. The luxury median, $62, is pulled up by the 2016 BMW 328i 2.0L turbo, for which only metric jugs of synthetic oil were listed.
| Type | Reference vehicle | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan | 2016 Honda Accord 2.4L L4 | $41 | $48 | $54 |
| Sedan | 2017 Toyota Camry 2.5L L4 | $44 | $51 | $62 |
| SUV | 2016 Ford Explorer 3.5L V6 | $41 | $46 | $52 |
| SUV | 2017 Honda CR-V 2.4L L4 | $41 | $48 | $54 |
| Pickup | 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 5.3L V8 | $44 | $48 | $55 |
| Pickup | 2017 Ford F-150 5.0L V8 | $41 | $47 | $55 |
| Luxury | 2016 BMW 328i 2.0L L4 Turbo | $59 | $73 | $88 |
| Luxury | 2016 Mercedes-Benz C300 2.0L L4 Turbo | $45 | $51 | $73 |
One jug is not the full fill on every engine. Some engines, large V8s among them, hold more oil than one jug, and the extra quarts are not in these figures. The owner's manual gives the capacity and the oil grade your engine needs, and a quote should show the quantity used.
Oil change for each vehicle type
Oil change nationally: from pickup to luxury car
$95 to $102
| Sedan, 0.3 h to 0.4 h | $97 |
| SUV, 0.4 h | $101 |
| Pickup, 0.3 h to 0.4 h | $95 |
| Luxury, 0.3 h | $102 |
How often, and who decides
This page gives no change interval. It depends on the engine, the oil and how the car is driven, and the automaker sets it. Many recent cars have an oil life monitor that tells the driver when a change is due; others list a schedule in the owner's manual, sometimes with a shorter one for severe use. A shop sticker on the windshield is a reminder, not the automaker's rule.
Small job, small state gap
The shop rate in each state is a national survey of posted rates scaled by the mean technician wage the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports there. Across the states, that wage runs from $21.19 to $32.65 an hour. On a job this short, the wage gap shows up as only about $20 between West Virginia and the District of Columbia on a sedan. The shop rate guide matters more for longer repairs.
When an oil change visit comes with a list of recommended work, price each item on its own. The quote checker compares the hours, the rate and the parts on a written quote with the reference for that repair, and the brake pad page prices a wear item that is often checked at the same visit.