How our prices are compiled
Every price range on this site is a compiled estimate built from real installation quotes, published as a range rather than a single number, and reviewed monthly. This page explains the pipeline, and the rules we hold ourselves to.
Where the data comes from
Our ranges start from installer pricing across each metro area and are corrected continuously by real quotes: when homeowners request quotes through this site, the prices that come back feed the dataset. Suburb-level pages apply local modifiers based on the factors that genuinely move installation cost, housing stock, access, strata prevalence, climate load and installer density and those modifiers are themselves corrected as local quote volume accumulates.
What "installed" means on this site
Every price is a supply-and-install figure: the unit, standard installation (back-to-back for splits, standard roof runs for ducted), and GST. Where a suburb's typical conditions add cost cranage in apartment areas, marine-grade units on the coast, the suburb page says so explicitly rather than hiding it in the range.
Rules we don't break
- Ranges, not bait prices. A single low number is marketing. The range is what fair actually looks like.
- No fabricated counts. Quote counts and review numbers appear only when they are real. If a page doesn't show one, we don't have one yet.
- No pay-to-rank. Installers cannot pay to appear cheaper, better or more recommended in our data.
- Dated reviews. Every cost page carries its "Prices reviewed August 2026" stamp, and it means what it says.
- Max 3 installers per lead. Your job is sent to at most three licensed installers, never sold to a call list.
Why we publish this at all
The air conditioning market prices opaquely because it can: most buyers get one or two quotes with no reference point. Publishing the reference point changes the negotiation. Installers who price fairly do well out of informed customers; the ones who rely on information asymmetry don't. We're comfortable with that trade.