How much does a new driveway cost?
The surface you choose sets most of the price. In national 2026 cost guides, gravel typically runs $1–$4.75 per square foot installed, asphalt $7–$12.75 and concrete $6.50–$13.25. Each range is the middle half of the published figures. The full spread is wider: $1–$10 for gravel, $5–$15 for asphalt and $5–$20 for concrete. The calculator above prices any of the three for your own length and width, and adds a tear-out if an old driveway has to come out first.
A driveway price covers more than the surface. Underneath every paved driveway is a layer of compacted stone, and the job usually starts with digging out soil and grading so water runs off. County Materials, which points readers to the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association, calls for 6–12 inches of compacted gravel or crushed stone under a concrete driveway. That base, the excavation for it and the distance the crew hauls soil away account for much of the gap between a low and a high quote for the same surface.
Prices for common driveway sizes
The table prices five sizes, from a short single-car pad to a long rural drive, in each surface. A 20 × 24 ft two-car driveway and a 40 × 12 ft single-car one have the same 480 square feet, so they cost the same.
| Size | Gravel | Asphalt | Concrete |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 × 10 ft · 200 sq ft | $200–$950 | $1,400–$2,550 | $1,300–$2,650 |
| 40 × 12 ft · 480 sq ft | $480–$2,280 | $3,360–$6,120 | $3,120–$6,360 |
| 24 × 24 ft two-car · 576 sq ft | $575–$2,740 | $4,030–$7,340 | $3,740–$7,630 |
| 50 × 20 ft · 1,000 sq ft | $1,000–$4,750 | $7,000–$12,750 | $6,500–$13,250 |
| 100 × 12 ft · 1,200 sq ft | $1,200–$5,700 | $8,400–$15,300 | $7,800–$15,900 |
National typical ranges, 2026 sources. Gravel figures disagree widely and run from $1 to $10 per sq ft. Gravel: $1–$4.75 per sq ft; Asphalt: $7–$12.75 per sq ft; Concrete: $6.50–$13.25 per sq ft.
Long driveways are easier to budget by the foot. At 12 ft wide, every foot of length typically adds $12–$57 in gravel, $84–$153 in asphalt and $78–$159 in concrete. Width matters as much as length: going from 10 to 12 ft adds a fifth to the area and so to the price.
Is concrete cheaper than asphalt?
Not by much, nationally. Asphalt’s typical range of $7–$12.75 per square foot and concrete’s $6.50–$13.25 overlap almost entirely, and both center on about $10 a square foot. On a 20 × 24 ft driveway the two come out at $3,360–$6,120 and $3,120–$6,360.
NerdWallet prices both in the same 2026 comparison, which takes away the differences between sources. It gives $7–$13 per square foot for a new asphalt driveway and $8–$20 for concrete. Concrete’s top end is higher, and in that one guide concrete is the more expensive choice.
Thickness and order size push concrete up on small jobs. County Materials gives 4 inches of concrete for cars and 5 inches or more for heavier vehicles. At 4 inches the 480 sq ft driveway needs 6.52 cubic yards with 10% extra, less than a full ready-mix truck of 9–11 cubic yards, so the plant adds a short-load fee of typically $42.25–$54.75 a yard. Our survey has no equivalent minimum-order fee for asphalt.
Because the installed prices overlap, the cheaper of the two depends on your area and your contractors. Get one quote for each surface on the same size, base depth and thickness, and compare those.
What is the cheapest driveway material?
Gravel, by a wide margin. The top of the gravel range, $4.75 per square foot, is below the bottom of the asphalt and concrete ranges. A 20 × 24 ft gravel driveway typically costs $480–$2,280 installed, while the lowest typical paved price for the same size is $3,120.
The low end of the gravel range assumes firm, level ground where stone can be spread and rolled. South Dakota’s gravel roads manual, written for the Federal Highway Administration, puts the compacted surface at 4.5–6.5 inches; soft ground needs a base layer of coarse stone under that, which moves a quote toward the top of the range. Gravel also costs money later. Stone gets pushed aside and pressed into the soil, so the surface needs regrading and an occasional delivery to top it up. The gravel driveway cost guide prices the layers, the tons and the upkeep.
If you want something closer to a paved surface for less, asphalt millings are ground-up old pavement that packs hard when rolled. HomeGuide puts them at $10–$20 a ton. The asphalt driveway cost guide covers millings and tar-and-chip, the other budget option.
How much does it cost to replace a driveway?
Replacing a driveway costs the new surface plus tearing out the old one and hauling it away. Three national guides put concrete removal at typically $2.25–$6.75 per square foot; the one guide that prices asphalt removal gives $3–$7. Added to the installed price, a replacement costs this much per square foot, removal included:
| Replacing | Per sq ft |
|---|---|
| Concrete → concrete | $8.75–$20 |
| Asphalt → asphalt | $10–$19.75 |
| Asphalt → concrete | $9.50–$20 |
| Concrete → asphalt | $9.25–$19.50 |
On a 20 × 24 ft driveway that’s $4,200–$9,600 to replace concrete with concrete and $4,800–$9,480 to replace asphalt with asphalt. Switching surfaces lands in between: $4,560–$9,720 from asphalt to concrete and $4,440–$9,360 from concrete to asphalt. The tear-out alone on that driveway is $1,080–$3,240 for concrete and $1,440–$3,360 for asphalt. NerdWallet’s 2026 figures show the same pattern for asphalt: $7–$13 per square foot for a new driveway and $8–$15 for a replacement.
An asphalt driveway with a sound base doesn’t always need replacing. An overlay, a new layer of asphalt paved over the old one, typically costs $1.50–$4 per square foot, or $720–$1,920 for 480 square feet. NerdWallet lists overlays on existing asphalt or concrete at $3–$7. An overlay keeps whatever is underneath, so ask the contractor whether the old surface and base are solid enough to pave over. Our survey has no national price for resurfacing concrete with new concrete.
What makes one driveway quote higher than another
Two quotes for the same size can differ by thousands of dollars. These are the lines that usually explain it:
- Tear-out and haul-away of the old driveway: $2.25–$7 per square foot on top of the new surface, depending on what comes out.
- The stone base: 6–12 inches under concrete, per County Materials. A paver driveway needs 6–12 inches of base; Belgard sets a 6 inch minimum and Unilock calls for 8–12, against 4–6 inches under a patio.
- Thickness: 4 inches of concrete for cars, 5 or more for heavier vehicles; the Michigan Concrete Association sets the thicker figure where delivery vehicles use the driveway.
- The apron where the driveway meets the street. Ohio’s ready-mix association notes that codes usually require 6 inches of concrete for that stretch, and your town may require a permit for work there.
- Digging and grading: how much soil comes out, how far it’s hauled and whether the slope needs reshaping for drainage.
- Crew time. Cement masons and concrete finishers earned a national median of $27.41 an hour in May 2025, and paving equipment operators $25.64, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A contractor’s rate covers those wages plus machines, insurance and overhead.
Paver driveways are missing from the table above: our price survey has no national installed rate for them. The paver installation cost guide builds an estimate from the patio rate and the deeper base.
Doing part of the work yourself: a 20 × 24 ft budget
How much you save by doing the work yourself depends on the surface:
- Gravel is the realistic do-it-yourself driveway. For a 4.5 inch compacted surface of crusher run, order 11.3–14.0 tons, which includes a third extra for compaction and 5% for spillage. At $24–$34 a ton that’s $270–$475, or $320–$625 with a $50–$150 delivery fee. Hired out, the same driveway typically costs $480–$2,280.
- Concrete you can order yourself, but all 480 square feet has to be placed and finished before it sets, which takes a crew. The concrete alone is 6.52 cubic yards with 10% extra, which costs $1,180–$1,510 delivered once the short-load and delivery fees are added. Installed, the driveway typically costs $3,120–$6,360.
- Asphalt has to be spread by a paving machine and rolled while it’s hot, so it’s a contractor job. The hot mix for 3 compacted inches, with 5% extra, would be 8.95–9.45 tons, $935–$1,050 at plant prices of $105–$111 a ton, before the base or any paving.
The gravel calculator and the concrete calculator work out the tons and yards for other sizes and depths.
Questions to ask when comparing driveway bids
- Is this a quote for the same size, base depth and thickness as the others I’ve received?
- What’s under the surface: how many inches of base, of which stone, and is it compacted in layers?
- Does the price include tearing out the old driveway and hauling it away?
- Who handles the permit, and does the price include the apron at the street?
- How will water drain off the finished driveway?
- For concrete: how thick, and is there reinforcement and control joints? For asphalt: how many inches after rolling? For gravel: how many tons of each stone?
Checking a driveway quote
Divide the quote by the driveway’s area and compare the result with the typical range for that surface. Say you’re quoted $7,500 for a 20 × 24 ft concrete driveway. That’s $7,500 ÷ 480 = $15.63 a square foot, above the typical $6.50–$13.25 for a new concrete driveway but inside the full $5–$20 spread. If the quote includes tearing out an old driveway, the typical range with removal is $8.75–$20, and $15.63 sits inside it. If it’s a new driveway on bare ground, ask what pushes it up: a thicker slab, a deeper base, the apron or difficult access.
The quote box under the calculator above runs this check for you. Pick the surface first, enter the size and the total, and it shows where your price per square foot falls. The concrete driveway, asphalt driveway and gravel driveway cost guides go deeper on each surface.