Per linear foot of footing — not per foot of bar, which is the unit everyone quotes but nobody can use
← Back to the calculatorThose are steel only. The reason the number is not just the bar's price per foot is that a footing is not one bar: it takes several lines across its width and one bar every few inches along its run, so a foot of footing carries 2.5 to 5.5 ft of bar. The cost per foot of footing is the bar's price per foot times that multiplier.
This page is about that conversion, the offcut premium on top of it, and why a "$0.60 per foot" quote answers a different question than "what does a foot of footing cost".
Search "rebar cost per foot" and you get a range like $0.18 to $9.00, or $0.60 to $1.30 for #4. Every one of those numbers is per foot of bar — the price of one bar, one foot long. It is a fair way to compare suppliers, because a bar is a bar. It is a useless way to price a footing, because a footing is not one bar.
A foot of footing contains several feet of bar. A 24 in wide footing with four #5 lines and #5 transverse bars at 12 in carries 5.5 ft of bar in every foot of its length. At $0.937 per foot for #5, that foot of footing is $5.15 — even though no guide will ever quote "#5 rebar: $5.15 per foot". The per-foot-of-bar price is right; it is just answering a question one level below the one a footing buyer is asking.
One line does the whole conversion, and every number on the rest of this page is that line applied to a layout:
The two terms are the two directions. The longitudinal bars contribute one foot of bar for every foot of run, multiplied by the number of lines. The transverse bars contribute their count per foot of run, each one as long as the footing is wide. Add the two, and you have how many feet of bar hide inside one foot of footing — the multiplier that turns a per-foot-of-bar price into a per-foot-of-footing cost.
Four continuous-footing layouts, each a 40 ft run, 3 in earth cover, 20 ft stock, priced at the 2026 working figure of $0.60 per foot for #4 and $0.937 per foot for #5 (that is $12.00 and $18.74 per 20 ft stick). Material only.
| Footing | Layout | Bar per ft of run (net) | Net steel | Buy weight | Material, 40 ft | Cost per foot priced on buy weight, offcut included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 in wide | 2×#4, #4@12 | 2.5 ft | 66.8 lb | 66.8 lb | $60.00 | $1.50 |
| 16 in wide | 3×#4, #4@16 | 3.6 ft (buy 4.0 ft) | 96.9 lb | 106.9 lb | $96.00 | $2.40 |
| 24 in wide | 4×#4, #4@12 | 5.5 ft | 147.0 lb | 147.0 lb | $132.00 | $3.30 |
| 24 in wide | 4×#5, #5@12 | 5.5 ft | 229.5 lb | 229.5 lb | $206.14 | $5.15 |
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Read the first and last rows together. Both put 5.5 ft of bar in every foot of footing, so the cost is set entirely by the bar: #4 at $0.60 and #5 at $0.937, and $3.30 against $5.15. The 12 in and 24 in #4 rows share a bar and differ only in the multiplier, 2.5 against 5.5 — which is why doubling the footing width more than doubles the cost. Width and bar are two separate levers, and the table shows each one moving on its own.
You do not buy the steel in the footing; you buy whole bars, and the bar lengths you buy rarely divide the bar lengths you need. The leftover is offcut, and it is a real cost line that a per-foot-of-bar quote never shows.
Take the 16 in wide layout. Its 30 transverse bars total 25 ft, and a bar comes in 20 ft lengths, so 25 ft rounds up to two sticks, 40 ft, 15 ft of offcut. That 15 ft is 10.02 lb, and at $0.898 per pound it is about $9 — 10.3% on top of the $87 of net steel, for steel that never goes in the ground.
| 16 in layout, 40 ft run | Weight | Material | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net steel in the footing | 96.9 lb | $87.00 | What the concrete holds |
| Offcut from 20 ft stock | 10.0 lb | $9.00 | 15 ft of transverse bar, scrapped |
| Buy weight / order cost | 106.9 lb | $96.00 | What the counter charges |
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Everything above is material: the bar as it sits on the rack. Two more layers sit on top of it, and this page only does the first.
That last point is why a "footing costs $7 to $9 per linear foot" guide is not comparable to the $1.50 to $5.15 here: the guide is pricing a finished footing, concrete, excavation, forming, steel and labor together, and the steel in it is a fraction. If you want the steel cost alone, price it per foot of footing as above; if you want the whole footing, that is a different estimate.
The published ranges are all per foot of bar, and they are worth knowing as a sanity check on the per-foot price you feed into the model — not as a footing cost.
| Source (2026) | Quoted range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| LatestCost, by size | #3 $0.40–0.90, #4 $0.60–1.30, #5 $0.90–1.80 | per foot of bar |
| HomeGuide, common sizes | $0.40–2.25 | per foot of bar |
| SMA Estimating | $0.40–1.00 | per foot of bar |
| Construct Estimates, all types | $0.18–9.00 | per foot of bar |
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The $0.60 per foot used throughout this page for #4 sits at the bottom of LatestCost's #4 range and inside every one of the others — it is the same 2026 working figure the rest of this site carries, not a survey average. To turn any of those per-foot-of-bar ranges into a per-foot-of-footing range for your own footing, multiply by the bar-per-foot multiplier from the table above: 2.5 to 5.5 depending on width and layout. A "$0.60 to $1.30 per foot" #4 bar is $1.50 to $3.30 per foot on a narrow footing and up to $7.15 on a heavy one.
Per linear foot of footing, in #4 and #5 bar at the 2026 working figure of $0.60 per foot of #4 and $0.937 per foot of #5, material only: a 12 in wide footing runs about $1.50 per foot, a 16 in about $2.40, a 24 in in #4 about $3.30, and a 24 in in #5 about $5.15 per foot. Those are the steel in the footing; delivery and placing are extra.
No, and the difference is the whole point. A rebar price per foot is for one bar, so it hides how many bars there are. A footing takes several bars across its width and a bar every few inches along its run, so the cost per foot of footing is the bar price per foot times the feet of bar per foot of run — between about 2.5 and 5.5. A $0.60 per foot #4 bar is $1.50 per foot of footing on a narrow footing and $3.30 on a wide one.
Between about 2.5 and 5.5 linear feet of bar per foot of footing. A 12 in wide footing with two #4 longitudinal bars and #4 transverse at 12 in uses about 2.5 ft per foot; a 16 in wide footing with three #4 and #4 at 16 in uses about 3.6 ft; a 24 in footing with four #5 and #5 at 12 in uses about 5.5 ft. Multiply by the bar's price per foot for the cost per foot of footing.
The gap between the steel in the footing and the steel you buy, because bars come in whole stock lengths. On a 16 in wide by 40 ft footing the transverse bars total 25 ft, which rounds up to two 20 ft sticks, leaving 15 ft of offcut — 10.0 lb, or about $9, or 10.3% on top of the net steel cost. A layout whose transverse bars divide evenly into 20 ft has no offcut premium at all.
No. Every figure here is material only — the cost of the bar itself. Placing, tying, chairs and tie wire, and delivery are not in it, and installed cost is a separate market. The point of this page is to isolate the steel cost per foot of footing so the material side of a quote can be checked on its own.
Two effects multiply. The transverse bar has to span twice the width, and a wider footing carries more longitudinal lines. Going from a 12 in wide #4 footing at $1.50 per foot to a 24 in wide #4 footing at $3.30 per foot is 2.2 times, from 2.5 ft of bar per foot of run to 5.5 ft — not 2 times, because both the width and the line count grow.