Geothermal Heat Pump Cost Calculator

Home size
2,000 sq ft
Which ground loop
What it feeds
The ground and the access
Your ZIP code

Showing the national average. Enter your ZIP code for local cost estimates.

Low $20,550
Typical $25,075
High $31,075

National average

System size: — tons Roughly one ton per 500 square feet, which is a starting point rather than an answer. Geothermal is the one system where a room-by-room load calculation is not optional — the loop is sized from it, the loop is the most expensive part of the job, and it cannot be changed afterwards without digging the yard up again.

Where these figures come from
  • Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors, United States: $42.44/hour, August 2026 (BLS CES CES2023822003)
  • Water-to-air geothermal heat pump: $1,500.00 per ton (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)
  • Horizontal ground loop, installed: $1,900.00 per ton (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)
  • Flow center, circulators and purge: $700.00 per installation (price recorded October 2026, not index-adjusted)

Geothermal Heat Pump costs $20,550 to $31,075 for a typical 2,000 sq ft job in 2026, against a national benchmark of $25,075. Labor runs 60 crew hours at $42.44 an hour. Enter a ZIP code to apply that area's measured wages for this work and its regional price level.

Get in touch with a geothermal heat pump contractor

Talk to a geothermal heat pump contractor serving your area. Give them a call or request an estimate, and connect with a local firm that fits your project.

We are still adding geothermal heat pump contractors. Call the number below to talk to a contractor about your project.

Call (800) 152-1235

What makes up the price

Labor $3,565 60 hours at $42.44/hour, 40% burden, 1.00x regional
Water-to-air geothermal heat pump $6,000 4 ton at $1,500.00 each
Horizontal ground loop, installed $7,600 4 ton at $1,900.00 each
Flow center, circulators and purge $700 1 installation at $700.00 each
Permits, loop registration and commissioning $700
Contractor overhead and profit $6,498 35% applied to the work above
Typical total $25,075 $20,550 to $31,075 depending on contractor

Cost by size

National averages, before any local adjustment. Computed from the same model as the calculator above, so the two always agree.

Home size Tons Typical Range
1,100 sq ft 2.2 $16,075 $13,175 to $19,950
1,600 sq ft 3.2 $21,075 $17,275 to $26,125
2,000 sq ft 4 $25,075 $20,550 to $31,075
2,700 sq ft 5.4 $32,050 $26,275 to $39,750
3,400 sq ft 6.8 $39,050 $32,000 to $48,400

The 30% federal tax credit is gone

Start here, because it is worth more than anything else on this page and most cost guides have not caught up.

Section 25D — the Residential Clean Energy Credit, which paid 30% of the cost of a geothermal heat pump with no cap — terminated for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025. On a $25,075 installation that is about $7,500 a reader may be budgeting for and will not receive.

Two things remain true:

If a contractor's proposal still shows a 30% federal credit in the payback arithmetic, the arithmetic is wrong and so is anything built on it.

The ground costs more than the machine

This is the fact that reorders everybody's expectations. For a four-ton system:

Part Horizontal Vertical Pond
Ground loop $7,600 $13,600 $3,600
Heat pump itself $6,000 $6,000 $6,000
Installed total $25,075 $33,475 $19,500

The heat pump is the same cabinet in all three cases. Everything that varies is a hole in the ground, which is why the loop choice is the whole decision and why it is usually made by your site rather than by your budget.

Per ton that is $6,269 horizontal and $8,369 vertical, against reported figures of $5,500 to $7,500 and $7,000 to $9,500.

Which loop your site allows

The load calculation is not optional here

On most systems an oversized unit is a comfort problem and some wasted fuel. On geothermal it is thousands of dollars buried in the yard that cannot be dug up and corrected.

The loop is sized from the load. Get the load wrong and you either pay for capacity you never use, or you under-size the loop and the system runs out of ground on the coldest days — which shows up as rising entering water temperatures in summer and falling ones in winter, and a system that quietly stops making its rated output.

Insist on a written Manual J load calculation, room by room, from the actual construction of your house. Any contractor sizing a geothermal loop from square footage or from the old furnace is guessing with your money.

Your ducts were probably sized for a furnace

A geothermal unit delivers supply air at around 100°F where a furnace delivers 140°F. To move the same heat it has to move considerably more air, and ducts sized for the furnace are frequently too small for it.

The symptom is a system that is noisy, that cannot hold temperature on design days, and that never reaches the efficiency on the sticker. The fix after the fact is expensive — see ductwork installation — so have the existing ductwork measured against the required airflow before the loop is priced. Adding 35% for new ducts to a $25,000 job is a different conversation than discovering it in week three.

Radiant floor is the happiest match, because geothermal is at its best making warm water rather than hot water, and it needs a water-to-water unit and a buffer tank.

The comparison that matters is an air-source heat pump

Not a furnace. A modern cold-climate air-source heat pump for the same house is about $14,075 against $25,075 here — an $11,000 premium — and it does the same job to a slightly lower standard.

What the premium buys:

What it does not buy: a short payback. Against electric resistance or propane the running saving is real and can be $1,000 or more a year, so the premium returns in roughly a decade. Against natural gas at current prices, and without the 30% credit, the arithmetic frequently does not close inside the life of the equipment. That is a straight answer rather than a discouraging one — the case for geothermal is the fifty-year loop and the comfort, and if somebody is selling it to you on payback alone, check their numbers for a tax credit that expired.

What to ask before signing

Common questions

How much does a geothermal heat pump cost?

About $25,075 for a 2,000 square foot house with a trenched horizontal loop, which is $6,269 a ton for a four-ton system. A drilled vertical loop for the same house is $33,475 and a pond loop $19,500. A three-ton system runs $20,075 horizontal and $26,475 vertical. Reported figures are $5,500 to $7,500 a ton for horizontal and $7,000 to $9,500 for vertical, with most whole-house projects landing between $20,000 and $27,000.

Is there still a 30% federal tax credit for geothermal?

No, not for systems installed now. Section 25D, the Residential Clean Energy Credit, paid 30% of the cost of a geothermal heat pump with no cap, and it terminated for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025. On a $25,075 installation that is about $7,500 that no longer exists. A system installed and commissioned on or before that date still claims it. State, utility and electric co-op incentives are entirely separate and many still run — some co-ops subsidize the loop directly because geothermal flattens their summer peak — so those are worth researching locally. If a contractor's payback arithmetic still shows a 30% federal credit, the arithmetic is wrong.

Why is geothermal so much more expensive than a regular heat pump?

Because of the hole in the ground rather than the machine. For a four-ton system the heat pump itself is about $6,000 in either case; the geothermal ground loop adds $7,600 trenched or $13,600 drilled, plus the excavation or drilling labor that goes with it. That is why the loop choice is the whole decision. A modern cold-climate air-source heat pump for the same house is about $14,075 against $25,075 here, so the premium is roughly $11,000.

Which ground loop should I choose?

Usually your site decides rather than your budget. A horizontal loop is trenched six to eight feet down and needs roughly a quarter to half an acre of diggable ground with no septic field, mature trees or buried services — it is the cheapest loop most people can have. A vertical loop is drilled in bores 150 to 250 feet deep, needs almost no land, and suits a small lot, mature landscaping or shallow rock, at $8,000 to $15,000 more than horizontal. A pond loop is cheapest of all and almost nobody qualifies: the water has to be eight feet deep over the coils at its lowest, large enough not to freeze solid or warm through, on your property, and permitted.

Does geothermal pay for itself?

Against electric resistance heat or propane, usually — the running saving can be $1,000 or more a year and the premium returns in roughly a decade. Against natural gas at current prices, and now without the 30% federal credit, the arithmetic frequently does not close inside the life of the equipment. The honest case for geothermal is not payback: it is that the loop is rated for 50 years or more while the heat pump is a 20 to 25 year machine, so the second heat pump costs only the cabinet, with the expensive half of the job already paid for. That argument works if you expect the house to stay in the family, and not otherwise.

How long does a geothermal system last?

The two halves have very different lives. The pipe in the ground is rated for 50 years or more and is the part you are really buying — once it is in, it is in. The heat pump itself is a 20 to 25 year machine, longer than an air-source unit because it lives indoors and never sees weather or defrost cycles. That split is the whole long-term argument: replacing the heat pump in year 22 costs the price of the cabinet rather than the price of the system.

Will my existing ductwork work with geothermal?

Often not without changes, and finding out late is expensive. A geothermal unit delivers supply air at around 100°F where a furnace delivers 140°F, so it has to move considerably more air to deliver the same heat, and ducts sized for a furnace are frequently too small. The symptoms are a noisy system that cannot hold temperature on design days and never reaches its rated efficiency. Have the existing ducts measured against the required airflow before the loop is priced — adding 35% for new ductwork to a $25,000 job is a very different conversation in week one than in week three.

What size geothermal system do I need?

Roughly one ton per 500 square feet as a starting point, so four tons for a 2,000 square foot house — but this is the one page where you should not rely on a rule of thumb. The loop is sized from the load and the loop is most of the price, so oversizing means thousands of dollars buried in the yard that cannot be dug up and corrected, and undersizing means a system that runs out of ground on the coldest days. Insist on a written Manual J calculation, room by room, from the actual construction of the house. Any contractor sizing a loop from square footage or from the old furnace is guessing with your money.

What does geothermal do to my yard?

A horizontal loop disturbs a large area — several trenches across a quarter to half an acre, which is most of a typical back yard — and a vertical loop is much gentler, needing a working pad for the rig, a route in and a header trench back to the house. Either way, ask specifically who restores the ground and whether it is seed or sod, because it is routinely left vague and seed on a trench line in midsummer is a visible stripe for a year. A pond loop disturbs only the trench from the house to the water.

Does geothermal work in cold climates?

Better than anything else, and that is its strongest technical argument. The ground a few feet down stays close to the local annual average temperature all year, so a geothermal unit does not lose capacity on the coldest night, does not need defrost cycles, and does not fall back on electric resistance strips the way an air-source heat pump can. Cold-climate air-source units have narrowed the gap considerably and are much cheaper to install, but in a genuinely severe climate geothermal still holds capacity where they are working hardest.

Where these numbers come from

Nothing here is copied from a contractor directory. Labor is priced from what the trades are actually paid, materials from published producer prices, and both are adjusted to your area using federal cost-of-living data.