How Much Does a Gravel Driveway Cost?

The short answer: a gravel driveway costs $2.50 to $6.00 per square foot installed. For the most common size — a 60 ft by 12 ft single-car drive — that works out to roughly $1,800 to $4,300.

Doing it yourself drops that to about $850 to $1,800, because material and delivery are only a fraction of a contractor's bill. The rest is excavation, compaction, and labor.

Run your own numbers with the gravel driveway cost calculator, which breaks the estimate into the same line items a contractor would quote.

Cost by driveway size

These are full installs — excavation, geotextile fabric, three compacted stone layers, and labor — at 2026 national average pricing.

Where the money actually goes

Here is a real breakdown for a 720 sq ft driveway built properly, with three compacted layers over fabric. Material is under half the total — which is why DIY saves so much.

Note how delivery is charged per load, not per ton. Ordering 13 tons when a truck carries 12 means paying a second full haul fee for one ton of stone. The delivery calculator flags exactly this.

Cost per ton by stone type

A driveway uses different stone in each layer, and they are not priced alike. These are 2026 delivered bulk prices.

What drives the price up

• Haul distance. Aggregate is heavy and cheap, so freight dominates. Outside a supplier's normal radius, delivery can cost more than the stone itself.
• Soft or clay subgrade. Wet clay needs a deeper base or a geogrid, which can add 30% to the stone bill.
• Slope. Anything above about 8% needs coarser stone, edge containment, and often cross-drains to stop washout.
• Access. If a tandem dump cannot reach the site, material gets moved by smaller vehicle or by hand, and labor climbs fast.
• Removing an old surface. Breaking out and hauling away old concrete or asphalt adds $1.50 to $4.00 per square foot before a single stone is delivered.

Ongoing cost

This is the part people forget when comparing gravel to concrete. A gravel driveway needs about 2 inches of fresh top stone every two to four years — roughly $350 to $600 for a 720 sq ft drive each time, delivery included.

Over twenty years that is five or six top-ups, so $1,750 to $3,600 in maintenance. Our gravel vs concrete comparison runs that math against concrete and asphalt over any time horizon you choose.

How to spend less

1. Order in full truck loads. The haul fee is the same whether the truck is full or half empty. Sizing an order to fill loads is the single easiest saving.
2. Pick up small quantities yourself. Under about 2 tons, a trailer trip beats a delivery fee — but check your payload first with the gravel weight calculator.
3. Use local stone. Whatever the nearest quarry produces will always be cheapest. In limestone country, do not pay to import granite.
4. Do not skip the fabric. At roughly $0.45 per square foot it is the cheapest line on the quote, and it prevents the stone sinking into the subgrade — which is what forces early, expensive re-builds.
5. Rent a compactor. About $70–$110 a day. Skipping compaction is the most common reason a new gravel driveway ruts within its first year.

Next steps

Size the job with the gravel driveway calculator, price it with the driveway cost calculator, and check the step-by-step build guide before you order.