Guide
Security guard rates for sites and events
Security guard rates make sense once you see the unit behind each one: guard-hours for posts, events and fire watch, and visits for patrol. This guide sets out the ranges, works through common schedules and shows how to read a quote.
Rates at a glance
Security pricing comes in two units. Posts, events and fire watch are billed by the guard-hour, so the total follows the number of guards and the hours each one works. Mobile patrol is billed by the visit, so the total follows how many stops the route makes. The figures below come from 2026 published market data for Northern California.
An on-site security guard starts around $30 an hour for a simple post, most often lands between $37 and $55, and reaches $68 for demanding posts. Event security sits higher, with a usual band of $46 to $66 a guard-hour, a starting point near $44 and a top end of $82. Fire watch commonly falls between $40 and $64 per hour, from about $35 up to $87. Mobile patrol visits usually cost $30 to $70 each, with a single gate check or lock-up at the bottom of that range and long routes with many checkpoints climbing to $115.
Executive protection is priced by the hour for each person on the detail, and the itinerary sets the total. The rate on your own quote comes from your post, hours, routes and dates, the details you send with your request.
How rates shift from Watsonville to San Francisco
Labor is most of a guard’s rate, so local pay moves the number more than anything else. Our service area runs from Watsonville to San Francisco, and those two ends mark the low and high sides of each band. San Francisco sits at the top. The Peninsula cities, along with Gilroy and Morgan Hill, where guard pay follows the Santa Clara County market, sit just below it. Monterey, Santa Cruz, Salinas and Watsonville sit lower.
In practice, an on-site post in Watsonville usually runs $37 to $50 an hour, while the same post in San Francisco falls between $41 and $55. Peninsula cities such as San Mateo, Burlingame and Redwood City, along with Gilroy and Morgan Hill, run about $40 to $54, and Monterey posts commonly price at $38 to $51. Patrol visits follow the same pattern: $30 to $64 a visit in Watsonville against $33 to $70 in San Francisco.
Worked examples for common schedules
A 40-hour week at a San Mateo office lobby. One guard covers the front entrance Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. At $40 to $54 an hour, the week comes to $1,600 to $2,160, or about $6,920 to $9,340 across a month of roughly 173 hours.
A Watsonville distribution gate that never closes. Covering the gate every hour makes it a 24-hour post (about 730 hours a month), shared across several guards and shifts. At $37 to $50 an hour, the month totals about $27,010 to $36,500, with shift handoffs and incident notes carried through every one of those hours.
A weekend event at a Monterey venue. Four event guards work two ten-hour days covering setup, guest entry, the main program and load-out, for 80 guard-hours in all. Inside the usual event band of $46 to $66 a guard-hour, the weekend totals $3,680 to $5,280.
Nightly patrol visits in Redwood City. A route with two visits a night, every night, adds up to about 60 visits a month. At $32 to $69 a visit, the month runs $1,920 to $4,140, and a longer route with more checkpoints moves toward the top of that band.
A five-night fire watch in Palo Alto. Twelve-hour overnight watches for five nights come to 60 guard-hours. Using the fire watch band of $40 to $64 an hour, that is $2,400 to $3,840.
What moves a rate up or down
Hours carry the most weight. Overnight, weekend and holiday hours price above weekday daytime, and short-notice requests, such as an event booked a few days out or a fire watch needed right away, push the rate up as well.
The post itself comes next. A quiet lobby with a sign-in sheet sits toward the bottom of the band, while a post that combines visitor check-in, delivery access, interior rounds and detailed incident notes sits toward the top. For patrol, the price of each visit follows route length, the number of checkpoints, time spent at each stop and whether closing checks are part of the visit.
Events price by phase. Setup and load-out need fewer guards than doors-open, so matching guard numbers to each phase keeps the total tied to the work, and our guide to crowd control at events shows which posts each phase needs. Fire watch follows the interval between rounds and the size of the watch area.
Reading and comparing quotes
Put quotes side by side on the same basis. Convert each one to a rate per guard-hour or per visit, then multiply by the same schedule. A low hourly figure on fewer hours can look like the better deal until both quotes cover the same posts and times.
Check what each quote spells out: the posts and routes by name, the hours for each, how holidays are billed, what the guard records in incident and patrol notes, and how shift handoffs work. A quote that skips any of these is harder to compare.
If you are still weighing posts against patrols, security consulting reviews entrances, routes and hours before you ask for pricing, and our guide to choosing a patrol or an on-site guard shows how the two split the work. When the picture is clear, send the post, hours and dates through the quote request, and your quote follows from those details.
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A few useful answers
Quick answers.
What is the typical hourly rate for an on-site security guard?
Most on-site posts fall between $37 and $55 per guard-hour as of 2026, starting near $30 for a simple post and reaching $68 for demanding ones.
Why does event security cost more per hour than a regular post?
Event hours fall in short, busy windows with more guests, more entrances and more changes through the day, so event work commonly runs $46 to $66 a guard-hour.
How are mobile patrol visits priced?
Each visit carries its own price, usually $30 to $70, set by route length, checkpoint count and time at each stop. The monthly total is that price times the visits on your schedule.
What does a guard post that never closes cost each month?
At about 730 hours a month and an on-site rate of $37 to $55 an hour, a continuous post comes to roughly $27,010 to $40,150 a month, with Watsonville toward the low side and San Francisco toward the high side.
How much do local wages change the hourly rate?
Local wages set the floor. San Francisco posts usually run $41 to $55 an hour against $37 to $50 in Watsonville, with Peninsula cities such as San Mateo in between.