When is it cheaper to rent a Mini Excavator by the week than by the day?

From day 5. 5 days at the $160 day rate would be $800, but the weekly rate caps it at $700.

When is it cheaper to rent a Mini Excavator on the 28-day rate?

From day 15. At that point the week-and-day composition reaches the $1,500 28-day rate, and the price stops climbing for the rest of the cycle.

Break-even duration

Equipment rents on three rates — a day rate, a week rate and a 28-day rate — and the cheapest one changes as the job runs long. This finds the two days where it changes, on a real listing’s real published rates.

Mini Excavator

See the listing →

Riley conrad · Excavators - Mini

Day: $160
Week: $700
28 days: $1,500

Daily stops winning on

day 5

5 days at the day rate would be $800. On the week rate it is $700.

Weekly stops winning on

day 15

15 days at the day rate would be $2,400. On the 28-day rate it is $1,500.

The working

Whole weeks bill at the week rate; the leftover days bill at the day rate but never add up to more than one extra week; and a whole 28-day cycle never costs more than the 28-day rate. That is the rule, applied one day at a time.

Rental price by duration for Mini Excavator, days 1 to 35
Days	At the day rate	On the ladder	Difference	Rate in play
1	$160	$160	—	day
2	$320	$320	—	day
3	$480	$480	—	day
4	$640	$640	—	day
5	$800	$700	you save $100	week
6	$960	$700	you save $260	week
7	$1,120	$700	you save $420	week
8	$1,280	$860	you save $420	week
9	$1,440	$1,020	you save $420	week
10	$1,600	$1,180	you save $420	week
11	$1,760	$1,340	you save $420	week
12	$1,920	$1,400	you save $520	week
13	$2,080	$1,400	you save $680	week
14	$2,240	$1,400	you save $840	week
15	$2,400	$1,500	you save $900	28-day
16	$2,560	$1,500	you save $1,060	28-day
17	$2,720	$1,500	you save $1,220	28-day
18	$2,880	$1,500	you save $1,380	28-day
19	$3,040	$1,500	you save $1,540	28-day
20	$3,200	$1,500	you save $1,700	28-day
21	$3,360	$1,500	you save $1,860	28-day
22	$3,520	$1,500	you save $2,020	28-day
23	$3,680	$1,500	you save $2,180	28-day
24	$3,840	$1,500	you save $2,340	28-day
25	$4,000	$1,500	you save $2,500	28-day
26	$4,160	$1,500	you save $2,660	28-day
27	$4,320	$1,500	you save $2,820	28-day
28	$4,480	$1,500	you save $2,980	28-day
29	$4,640	$1,660	you save $2,980	day
30	$4,800	$1,820	you save $2,980	day
31	$4,960	$1,980	you save $2,980	day
32	$5,120	$2,140	you save $2,980	day
33	$5,280	$2,200	you save $3,080	week
34	$5,440	$2,200	you save $3,240	week
35	$5,600	$2,200	you save $3,400	week

Rental rates only. Protection and the marketplace service fee are added on top — see the checkout figure below.

What checkout will quote you

Our pricing service couldn’t be reached just now, so there’s no checkout figure to show. The rate table above is unaffected — it’s the operator’s published card.

Pick a listing

The numbers come from one operator’s published rates, so the tool needs to know whose.

Where these numbers come from

The rates are the operator’s own, read live from their listing. The arithmetic is the same best-price billing engine that produces 2Quip invoices — not a second copy written for this page — run on the industry-standard terms: a 28-day cycle, whole weeks at the week rate, leftover days at the day rate capped at one more week.

An operator can agree different terms on an individual rental, and a long rental bills per 28-day cycle rather than in one lump. So treat this as what the rate card says, and the operator’s quote as what you are agreeing to.