How much does it cost to drill a well?
Drilling a water well is priced a lot like drilling itself — by the foot, into ground nobody can fully see beforehand. That uncertainty is exactly why a good estimate is built from line items and your own quotes, not a national average.
The anchor: depth × price per foot
The single biggest driver of a well’s cost is how deep the driller has to go to reach a reliable water supply, multiplied by the price per foot. The catch is that nobody knows the final depth until the well is drilled — it depends on your local geology and where the water sits. Drillers quote a price per foot and often a minimum, and the depth is an estimate until the bit finds water.
drilling = depth (ft) × price per foot ($/ft)
At 200 ft and $35/ft, the drilling itself is 200 × 35 = $7,000. But drilling is only part of a working well.
The full line-item build-up
A complete, usable private well system is a stack of parts. The well drilling cost tool adds them all and applies a contingency:
total = (depth×$/ft + casing_LF×$/ft + pump + pressure tank + wiring + trenching + permit) × (1 + contingency%)
- Casing — the pipe that lines the borehole (steel or PVC), priced per foot of cased depth; see the casing cost tool.
- Pump — usually a submersible pump sized to the depth and demand (see how to size a well pump).
- Pressure tank — stores water and smooths pump cycling.
- Wiring and controls — power to the pump and the pressure switch.
- Trenching — the line from the wellhead to the house, below frost depth.
- Permit — local, and often required before drilling.
Worked example
Put real quotes into the formula: 200 ft × $35 = $7,000 drilling, 60 ft of casing × $15 = $900, a $900 pump, a $400 pressure tank, $300 wiring, $600 trenching and a $200 permit. That subtotal is $10,300. Carry a 10% contingency and the planning total is $11,330. Because you entered every price, the estimate reflects your market, not a stale table.
Normalizing quotes: the cost per foot
Drillers bundle things differently — one may fold casing and the pump into a headline $/ft, another may list them separately. To compare apples to apples, divide a total by the depth with the cost per foot normalizer: a $10,300 job over 200 ft is $51.50/ft all-in, which you can hold up against a “$35/ft” quote that excludes half the system.
Building the whole system
If you would rather assemble the estimate from the major components instead of the raw drilling math, the complete well system tool sums drilling, pump, pressure tank, wiring, trenching and treatment from your figures. And if you are weighing well types, the drilled vs driven vs dug comparison shows the deltas — though geology usually decides what your site allows (see how deep should a water well be).
Drilled, driven and dug: what your ground allows
Not every well is drilled, and the type your site allows changes the cost dramatically. A drilled well is bored deep with a rig, cased and sealed, and can reach protected water hundreds of feet down — the most capable and, foot for foot, the most expensive option, but often the only one that reaches a reliable, safe supply. A driven (or sand-point) well pushes a small-diameter pipe into shallow, loose soil where the water table is high and near the surface; it is cheap but limited to shallow, less-protected water and low yield. A dug well is a wide, shallow excavation, largely a relic today, vulnerable to surface contamination and seasonal drops.
The point is that geology, not budget, usually picks the type. Where the water table is deep or the ground is rock, a driven or dug well is not an option at any price, and a drilled well is the answer. The drilled vs driven vs dug tool shows the cost deltas once you know which types your site supports — useful for understanding the tradeoff, but never a reason to choose a shallower, less-protected well against a driller’s judgment about what your ground actually offers.
What a quote should spell out
Because so much of a well’s cost hinges on unknowns, a good written quote makes its assumptions explicit — and reading for those assumptions is how you avoid a nasty surprise. Look for the price per foot and exactly what it includes (drilling only, or casing and grouting too); an estimated depth with a clear statement of what happens, and at what rate, if the driller has to go deeper; whether casing, pump, pressure tank, wiring, trenching and the permit are in the number or listed separately; and any minimum charge or fee for a dry or low-yield hole. Two quotes are only comparable once you have normalized them to the same scope — a headline “$28 a foot” that excludes the pump, tank and trenching is not competing with an all-in bid, and the cost-per-foot normalizer is the quickest way to see that on a single number.
Why the estimate is a range, and who owns the risk
Because final depth is unknown until drilling, a well estimate is inherently a range. A good driller explains their price per foot, their minimum, and what happens if they have to go deeper or hit a low-yield zone and need to try again. That uncertainty is normal — and it is why you use a licensed, professional well driller, pull the required permit, and confirm siting and setbacks with your local health department. These tools give you a planning estimate to budget and to read a driller’s quote critically; they are not a bid.