When is it cheaper to rent a mini excavator by the week than by the day?

From day 4. 4 days at the $280 day rate would be $1,120, but the weekly rate caps it at $900.

When is it cheaper to rent a mini excavator on the 28-day rate?

From day 17. At that point the week-and-day composition reaches the $2,400 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 →

Adrian Corral · Excavators - Mini

Day: $280
Week: $900
28 days: $2,400

Daily stops winning on

day 4

4 days at the day rate would be $1,120. On the week rate it is $900.

Weekly stops winning on

day 17

17 days at the day rate would be $4,760. On the 28-day rate it is $2,400.

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	$280	$280	—	day
2	$560	$560	—	day
3	$840	$840	—	day
4	$1,120	$900	you save $220	week
5	$1,400	$900	you save $500	week
6	$1,680	$900	you save $780	week
7	$1,960	$900	you save $1,060	week
8	$2,240	$1,180	you save $1,060	week
9	$2,520	$1,460	you save $1,060	week
10	$2,800	$1,740	you save $1,060	week
11	$3,080	$1,800	you save $1,280	week
12	$3,360	$1,800	you save $1,560	week
13	$3,640	$1,800	you save $1,840	week
14	$3,920	$1,800	you save $2,120	week
15	$4,200	$2,080	you save $2,120	week
16	$4,480	$2,360	you save $2,120	week
17	$4,760	$2,400	you save $2,360	28-day
18	$5,040	$2,400	you save $2,640	28-day
19	$5,320	$2,400	you save $2,920	28-day
20	$5,600	$2,400	you save $3,200	28-day
21	$5,880	$2,400	you save $3,480	28-day
22	$6,160	$2,400	you save $3,760	28-day
23	$6,440	$2,400	you save $4,040	28-day
24	$6,720	$2,400	you save $4,320	28-day
25	$7,000	$2,400	you save $4,600	28-day
26	$7,280	$2,400	you save $4,880	28-day
27	$7,560	$2,400	you save $5,160	28-day
28	$7,840	$2,400	you save $5,440	28-day
29	$8,120	$2,680	you save $5,440	day
30	$8,400	$2,960	you save $5,440	day
31	$8,680	$3,240	you save $5,440	day
32	$8,960	$3,300	you save $5,660	week
33	$9,240	$3,300	you save $5,940	week
34	$9,520	$3,300	you save $6,220	week
35	$9,800	$3,300	you save $6,500	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.