Quick Answer: Ready mix concrete typically runs $120 to $200 per cubic yard (CY) for common 3000 to 4000 psi mixes as of 2026, with high strength specialty mixes reaching $225 to $260 per CY. Bag mix for small pours runs $4 to $6 per 80 lb bag. Your real cost depends on mix design, psi, additives, delivery distance, load size, and the local ready mix market, so price every bid from current supplier quotes, not a list price.
What Drives the Price
Concrete is not one product. The number on your quote moves with five variables, and a good estimator knows each one cold before picking a unit price.
- Mix design and psi: 3000 psi is the default for flatwork and footings. 4000 psi is typical for driveways, garage slabs, and structural walls. 5000 to 6000 psi shows up in high rise columns, bridge decks, and heavy industrial floors. Each 1000 psi step up typically adds $8 to $18 per CY in cement content alone.
- Additives and admixtures: Fibers (macro or micro synthetic, steel) add $4 to $12 per CY. Accelerators (calcium chloride or non chloride) for cold weather add $3 to $8 per CY. Retarders, water reducers, superplasticizers, air entrainment for freeze thaw climates, and integral color each tack on $2 to $15 per CY depending on dose. Silica fume and fly ash blends for high strength or sulfate resistance run higher still.
- Delivery distance and short load fees: Ready mix plants charge a loaded mileage rate past a base radius, commonly 8 to 12 miles. Beyond that you pay $3 to $10 per loaded mile. Loads under roughly 8 CY carry a short load fee of $40 to $120, and under 3 CY the fee can exceed the cost of the concrete itself. At that point bag mix or a trailer pump starts to win.
- Volume discounts: A single driveway pour of 20 CY pays close to list. A 500 CY slab on grade pulls a 5% to 12% volume discount. A 5000 CY continuous pour on a big box retail job can negotiate 12% to 20% off with a primary supplier plus a guaranteed plant assignment.
- Commodity index and fuel: Cement, sand, aggregate, and diesel all move with the market. Cement is the dominant input and trades off global capacity and energy costs. Most ready mix suppliers hold a quote for 30 to 60 days, then reprice. Bid a job that starts in 4 months off a stale quote and you eat the difference.
Typical Price Ranges by Type
Use these as a typical range for planning in most US markets as of 2026. Your local plant will land higher or lower. Always confirm.
- Ready mix, 3000 psi (footings, flatwork): $120 to $160 per CY delivered.
- Ready mix, 4000 psi (driveways, slabs, walls): $135 to $185 per CY delivered.
- Ready mix, 5000 to 6000 psi (columns, decks, industrial): $175 to $260 per CY delivered.
- Lightweight or cellular mix (deck fills, topping): $160 to $230 per CY.
- High early strength, sulfate resistant, or self consolidating: $190 to $275 per CY.
- Bag mix (Sakrete, Quikrete 80 lb): $4 to $6 per bag retail. One 80 lb bag yields about 0.6 CF, so roughly 45 bags per CY. That puts bag mix at $180 to $270 per CY before mixing labor, which is why it only wins on small pours, post holes, and repairs.
- Decorative and colored mix: integral color adds $15 to $40 per CY, stamped overlays and exposed aggregate finishes add $6 to $15 per SF on top of the base pour.
For pumping, add a concrete pump truck at $800 to $1,400 per day or $4 to $7 per CY on larger pours. A line pump runs $600 to $1,000. Retaining walls, tall slabs, and hard to reach pours need a pump in the bid, not as an afterthought.
How to Buy Smarter
Price the pour, not just the cubic yard. The unit price is the headline, the loaded cost is what kills margin.
- Get three quotes dated within the bid week. Ready mix prices vary 10% to 30% between plants in the same metro. A quote older than 30 days is a guess.
- Consolidate pours. Two 8 CY loads on consecutive days cost more than one 16 CY pour. Combine adjacent pours to clear the short load threshold and grab the volume break.
- Specify the mix tightly. A vague "4000 psi concrete" line item lets the supplier bid the cheapest compliant design. If you need air entrainment, low alkali cement, a specific slump, or a maximum aggregate size, write it into the spec and the quote request so every supplier prices the same thing.
- Lock the quote for the pour window. On bids with a pour 60 to 120 days out, ask the supplier to hold price or to quote with a fuel and cement escalator spelled out. Vague "subject to market" language is where estimates leak.
- Price the pump and finishing separately. Suppliers quote concrete, pump, and finishing as separate line items. Bundle them in your head for the buyout number, but keep them separate in the bid so you can see where the dollars sit.
Where Estimators Get It Wrong
The classic mistake is pricing cubic yards and forgetting the rest of the pour. You bid 50 CY at $150 and feel smart, then the short load fee, the pump, the finishers, the curing compound, and the saw cuts add 30% to 45% to the installed cost. Concrete is cheap per CY and expensive per square foot installed once you load it.
The second mistake is using last quarter's ready mix quote on a job that starts next quarter. Cement and fuel move, and a 60 day hold is not a 120 day hold. Refresh quotes within 30 days of the pour.
The third is ignoring psi upgrades in the field. The inspector or the engineer asks for a higher psi mix after a low break, and you absorb the upgrade without a change order because the spec allowed it. Lock the mix design in writing and price any upgrade as a documented change.
The fourth is underestimating waste. A 5% waste factor is the minimum for flatwork. Odd shapes, deep pours, slope conditions, and bad form tolerances push it to 8% or 10%. A cheap unit price with a tight waste factor loses money. A slightly higher unit price with an honest waste factor makes money.
Putting It Together
Build your concrete line item from the ground up: measured CY from the takeoff, plus a 5% to 10% waste factor rounded up to the next load size, times the current delivered unit price for the exact psi and mix you specified, plus the pump, plus finishing, plus curing and joints. That is your installed concrete cost per square foot, and it is the only number that matters on buyout day. Get three quotes dated this week, specify the mix, lock the pour window, and refresh before every pour. Do that and your concrete budget holds.