Well drilling is priced by the foot, at $25 to $80 per foot depending on who you ask and what the drill hits, and a finished residential well most often lands between $3,000 and $16,000. The spread is not vagueness. It is depth, rock, and what the quote includes: a number that covers only the hole in the ground is roughly a third of the number that covers a working tap. This guide separates the two so a quote can be read against the right benchmark.
| Figure | Amount | Source (date) |
|---|---|---|
| Complete well, national average | $5,500 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Complete well, national average | $10,500 | HomeGuide (accessed Sep 2026) |
| Complete well, typical range | $3,000-$9,000 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Cost per foot, standard conditions | $25-$65 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Cost per foot, complete installation | $30-$80+ | HomeGuide (accessed Sep 2026) |
| Cost per foot, drilling only | $20-$30 | HomeGuide (accessed Sep 2026) |
| Cost per foot, rocky or remote sites | $50-$75 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Texas, cost per foot | $28-$62 | Angi state table (Sep 2026) |
Those two national averages are $5,000 apart, and neither publisher states a project count for the well-drilling figure. Both are printed here because averaging them would produce a number no source stands behind. Treat Angi’s $5,500 as the low read and HomeGuide’s $10,500 as the high read, and expect a real quote to sit between them.
Per-foot pricing is the industry’s unit, and the single biggest reason two quotes differ is whether the price per foot buys a hole or a water supply.
HomeGuide splits the two explicitly: $20 to $30 per foot for drilling alone, against $30 to $80 or more per foot for a complete installation. Angi’s standard band is $25 to $65 per foot and rises to $50 to $75 per foot on rocky or remote sites, where the rig works more slowly, and the crew travels farther.
Well type moves the rate as much as geology does. Angi’s per-foot figures by use:
| Well type | Cost per foot | Source (date) |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | $25-$65 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Irrigation | $25-$110 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Artesian | $35-$90 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| High-yield commercial | $25-$80 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| Geothermal | $15-$40 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
The construction method matters too, and it mostly determines how deep the well can go. Angi prices a drilled well at $5,500, a driven well at $4,000, and a dug well at $2,500. A dug or driven well is cheaper because it is shallow, and shallow wells are more exposed to surface contamination and more likely to run short in a dry year. The cheapest well on the quote sheet is not always the one that still produces water in August.
Depth is the multiplier, and the two national guides bracket the same well at roughly two-to-one.
| Depth | Angi, 4-inch PVC | Angi, 6-inch steel | HomeGuide, complete |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 ft | $1,775 | $3,060 | $1,500-$4,000+ |
| 100 ft | $3,550 | $6,120 | $3,000-$8,000+ |
| 150 ft | $5,325 | $9,180 | $4,500-$12,000+ |
| 200 ft | $7,100 | $12,240 | $6,000-$16,000+ |
| 250 ft | $8,875 | $15,300 | not published |
| 300 ft | $10,650 | $18,360 | $9,000-$24,000+ |
| 350 ft | $12,425 | $21,420 | $10,500-$28,000 |
| 400 ft | $14,200 | $24,480 | $12,000-$32,000 |
| 500 ft | not published | not published | $15,000-$40,000 |
Read the table across, not down. At 200 feet, the same well is $7,100 in PVC and $12,240 in steel, a $5,140 difference decided entirely by casing material. That single choice moves more money than most of the line items further down the quote.
Nobody knows the final depth before the rig starts. A driller quotes a per-foot rate and an estimated depth from nearby wells, then bills the footage actually drilled. Ask for the estimate in writing, include the address of the neighboring well it came from, and ask what happens if the first hole is dry. In Texas, nearby well depths are public: the Texas Water Development Board’s Submitted Drillers Reports Database holds every well report filed since 2003, searchable by street address, owner name, or driller, and TCEQ’s Water Well Report Viewer includes scanned pre-2003 paper reports.
Casing is the pipe that holds the hole open and keeps surface water out of the aquifer, and it is the widest-swinging line item on the quote.
| Casing material | Cost per foot | Source (date) |
|---|---|---|
| PVC | $6-$10 | Angi (Sep 2026) |
| PVC | $7-$11 | HomeGuide (accessed Sep 2026) |
| Steel | $30-$130+ | Angi and HomeGuide (2026) |
Both guides list steel at up to $130 or more per foot, an order of magnitude above PVC. Steel is used where the formation is unstable, where the casing must be driven through rock, or where local rules require it. PVC is the default for ordinary residential wells in stable ground.
Grouting, the cement seal in the annular space between the casing and the borehole wall, is the part of a well that does the most to keep contamination out and the part that neither cost guide prices. No dollar figure for grouting appears in either source read for this guide, so none is printed here. Ask for it as a named line on the estimate, because a quote that omits it is either bundling it invisibly or not doing it.
A drilled hole is not a water supply. The pump, the tank, the wiring, and the trench are a second project, and they are where a “well” quote and a “water” quote diverge.
| Component | Angi (Sep 2026) | HomeGuide (accessed Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Well pump | $900-$2,500 | $400-$2,500 |
| Pressure tank | $300-$500 typical ($200-$1,100 range) | $800-$1,500 |
| Electrical work | $50-$150/ft plus $160-$500 labor | $1,000-$3,000 |
| Water filtration or purification | $1,000-$15,000 plus $200-$400 labor | $800-$4,000 |
| Water testing | $100 DIY kit; $50-$600 professional lab | $100-$350 |
| Well inspection | $250-$550 | $250-$550 |
| Supply line | $50-$150/ft | not published |
| Permits | $200-$500 | $350-$700+ |
| Contractor labor | $45-$150/hour, $250-$1,000 per project | not published |
| Annual maintenance | $200-$900 | not published |
| Annual electricity to run the pump | $100-$400 | not published |
Add the midpoints of the pump, tank, electrical, and permits to a 200-foot PVC well, and the $7,100 hole becomes closer to $11,000 before anybody tests the water. That gap is the most common surprise in a well project, and you can avoid it by asking one question: does this price end at the wellhead or at the kitchen faucet?
The pressure tank is worth a second look, because the two guides disagree by a factor of three and they are pricing different things. Angi’s $300 to $500 is the tank. HomeGuide’s $800 to $1,500 reads as tank plus installation. A tank that is sized or pre-charged incorrectly makes the pump short-cycle, which is the failure that shortens a pump’s life fastest.
Texas does not charge a homeowner a statewide drilling permit fee for an ordinary domestic well. Still, it imposes licensing, reporting, and district registration, and each can go wrong after the driller leaves.
Three rules decide the paperwork.
A licensed driller. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation licenses water well drillers and pump installers. Occupations Code §1901.001(15) defines a water well driller as “a person who drills, bores, cores, or constructs a water well in this state,” a term that “includes the owner or operator of a well or the contractor or drilling supervisor” but “does not include a person who” drills “on the person’s own property for the person’s own use.” Verify the license before signing, the same way we tell homeowners to verify a septic installer’s.
A State of Texas Well Report, filed within 60 days. Under 16 TAC §76.70(1), the driller files the report with TDLR, with the groundwater conservation district if one covers the property, and with “the owner of the well or the person for whom the well was drilled.” Our well water hub sets out that duty in full. The cost consequence is the one to hold on to here: that report is the document a future buyer’s inspector, a lender, or a pump contractor will ask for, and the homeowner is entitled to a copy by rule. If it never arrives, the driller has missed a deadline, not a courtesy, and replacing a missing report later is not always possible.
The matching duty at the other end of a well’s life: a State of Texas Plugging Report is due “within thirty (30) days after plugging is complete” under §76.70(3). An abandoned well left unplugged is a direct pipe from the surface into the aquifer.
District registration, even when no permit is required. Texas Water Code §36.117 requires a groundwater conservation district to exempt from permitting a well used solely for domestic use or for livestock or poultry, on a tract larger than 10 acres, drilled or equipped so that it cannot produce more than 25,000 gallons a day. Most rural household wells qualify. Subsection (h) is the part people miss: the district may still require that exempt well to be registered under district rules and to be cased, piped, and fitted to prevent the escape of groundwater or pollution. Exempt from a permit is not exempt from the district.
Neither cost guide prices Texas registration specifically. The permit figures above, $200 to $500 (Angi) and $350 to $700 or more (HomeGuide), are national and should be treated as a placeholder until the district covering the property publishes its own fee.
On a property with both, the septic side of the rule is the one that is published as a table, and it sets 50 feet from a well to a septic tank and 100 feet from a well to a soil absorption system.
Those are the Texas figures in Table X of 30 TAC §285.91(10), which we reproduce in full in our Texas septic setback guide. They bind the septic system’s location, and in practice they bind the well’s too, because the two have to coexist on one lot. On a small tract, they can decide whether a conventional drain field fits at all, which is as much a cost question as a siting one.
The well-side rule, 16 TAC §76.100, says the same thing from the driller’s side: a well at least 100 feet from an existing or proposed septic absorption field or spray area and 50 feet from a watertight sewage tank, with the 100 feet reducible to 50 where the well is pressure-cemented to 100 feet, except inside the Edwards Aquifer. The two rules agree, but they are two rules; ask the driller which distances the design uses and get the answer in writing before the rig is positioned, because moving a well after it is drilled means drilling another one.
Five questions turn a one-line price into something comparable.
A written estimate that answers all five is comparable to another written estimate that answers all five. Two verbal numbers are not comparable to anything.
Angi prices a 200-foot well at $7,100 with 4-inch PVC casing and $12,240 with 6-inch steel. HomeGuide puts the same depth at $6,000 to $16,000 or more for a complete installation. The casing material and what the quote includes account for most of the difference.
Angi’s state table gives Texas $28 to $62 per foot, slightly below its national $25 to $65 band at the top end. That table is published without a stated method or sample size, so treat it as an indication rather than a measured Texas market rate.
For an ordinary domestic well, Texas generally has no statewide drilling permit, and Texas Water Code §36.117 requires groundwater conservation districts to exempt domestic and livestock wells on tracts larger than 10 acres that cannot produce more than 25,000 gallons a day. The district may still require the well to be registered. The driller must be TDLR-licensed and must file a State of Texas Well Report within 60 days.
Under 16 TAC §76.70(1), the driller files it with TDLR, gives a copy to the well owner or the person the well was drilled for, and files it with the groundwater conservation district if one exists. If a copy never reaches the owner, the rule has been missed.
Angi puts annual maintenance at $200 to $900 and the electricity to run the pump at $100 to $400 a year. Testing is on top: CDC and EPA both recommend an annual test, and lab costs run $50 to $600 depending on the panel.
On your own property for your own use, yes: Occupations Code §1901.001(15)(A) excludes that person from the definition of a water well driller, so you don’t need a TDLR license. The construction standards in 16 TAC §76.100, the well report, and any district registration still apply, and drilling for anyone else requires the license. None of the cost figures above assume an owner-drilled well.
Cost figures come from two national cost guides, Angi (updated 2026-09-18, reviewed by a water treatment contractor) and HomeGuide (written 2025-07-30, carrying a 2026 cost-guide label). They are reported separately rather than blended, because they disagree by roughly a factor of two on the all-in average and neither publishes a project count for the well-drilling figure. Where only one publishes a line, the table says so.
Regulatory statements come from the rule text, not from summaries of it: 16 TAC §76.70 and Texas Water Code §36.117 were read at the cited sources on 2026-09-24, and Occupations Code §1901.001(15) supplied the driller definition. The well-report database description comes from the Texas Water Development Board.
One thing is deliberately absent: no grouting price appears, because neither cost guide publishes one. The well-side setback in 16 TAC §76.100 and the owner-drilling exclusion in Occupations Code §1901.001(15) were read on 2026-09-24 and added the same day; an earlier draft cited the rule by its pre-2013 number, §76.1000, and said it had not been retrieved.
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