By Nick at HighIntentPPC · October 24, 2026
Short answer: in 2026, shared solar leads cost about $20-150, exclusive leads about $100-300, and booked appointments about $120-500. Aged leads go for pennies to a few dollars. Leads from your own ads range from about $25 on Meta instant forms to $400 on Google Search in competitive metros.
Almost all of those numbers come from lead vendors and agencies. Very few vendors publish a rate card. So treat every range below as a starting point, then check it against your own close rate.
Solar lead prices by type
| Lead type | Price range | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| Aged lead | $0.10-10 | ActiveProspect |
| Shared lead | $20-150 | RGR, Modernize, SolarReviews, ActiveProspect |
| Real-time lead | $40-120 | ActiveProspect |
| Exclusive lead | $100-300 | ActiveProspect, SolarReviews |
| Pay-per-call | $55-110 per billable call | Elevarus |
| Inbound call | $100-300+ | ActiveProspect |
| Booked appointment | $120-500 | ActiveProspect, RGR, Modernize |
Each row has a story behind it.
Shared leads: $20-150
A shared lead is one form fill sold to several installers. RGR Marketing is reported at $20-60 for leads sold to two or three buyers. Modernize is reported at $40-80, sometimes over $100, with prices that aren't published. SolarReviews states $80-150 for its shared high-intent leads.
SolarReviews also says its average lead goes to 2.3 buyers. You are racing at least one other company to the phone on most of them.
Exclusive leads: $100-300
Exclusive means one buyer. ActiveProspect gives $100-250 as a market range. SolarReviews states $150-300. Modernize exclusive is reported at about 1.5 to 2 times its shared price.
Aged leads: $0.10-10
Aged leads are old form fills resold in bulk. ActiveProspect puts them anywhere from $0.10 to $10. Invention Solar publishes $2.00 for 1-30 days old down to $0.50 for 180-365 days old. They are cheap because most people stopped answering long ago.
Calls: $55-300+
Elevarus estimates $55-110 per billable pay-per-call call. ActiveProspect puts inbound calls at $100-300 or more. We found no public price for US solar live transfers.
Appointments: $120-500
A vendor books the homeowner onto your calendar. ActiveProspect gives $150-500. RGR is reported at $250-450, Modernize at $120-250.
The sticker price isn't what you pay per sit. Elevarus works through an example where a $225 appointment ends up around $310-340 per appointment that actually happens, once no-shows are counted.
What leads from your own ads cost
If you run ads in your own account, you pay the platform for clicks and the leads go to you only. Agency estimates for 2025-2026:
- Google Search: $80-400 per lead, depending on the source and the metro. Elevarus puts competitive metros at $140-220.
- Meta instant forms: $25-70.
- Meta to a landing page: $80-120.
- Local Services Ads: $40-100.
- Performance Max: $90-160.
We compare these in more detail in Google Ads vs Facebook ads for solar and on the solar lead cost data page.
The number that matters: cost per sat appointment
A cheap lead that never picks up is expensive. A pricey lead that sits and signs is cheap. So compare channels and vendors on cost per sat appointment, and if you can, cost per signed deal.
Elevarus estimates cost per sat appointment at roughly:
- $170-300 for Meta instant forms
- $230-370 for Google Search
- $310-340 for bought appointment-set leads
Those ranges overlap a lot. The winner in your market depends on how fast you call, how good your setters are and what you sell.
Elevarus also reports that since the homeowner tax credit ended, set-to-sit fell from about 75% to about 55%, and installers now need about 3.6 leads per sit instead of 2.4. No dataset backs that up, but if it's close, 2025 benchmarks understate 2026 costs.
Cost per closed deal
SolarReviews puts lead spend per closed job near $1,400, and says its target is under $1,500. That table is about two years old. Close-rate claims vary widely: SolarReviews says 3-7% of its leads close, while RGR is reported at 0.5-1% for shared leads, 1-3% for exclusive and 5-10% for appointments.
Run your own math. If you pay $60 for a shared lead and close 1 in 50, that's $3,000 per deal. If you pay $200 for an exclusive lead and close 1 in 12, that's $2,400. Those are made-up inputs to show the method. Plug in your real ones.
Compare that to what a customer is worth
Wood Mackenzie puts residential customer acquisition cost at $0.60 per watt in 2025 and forecasts $0.84 per watt for 2026, a 40% jump. EnergySage's median price was $2.49 per watt in H2 2025, on an average system of 11.8 kW.
Our math on those numbers: an 11.8 kW system at $2.49/W is about $29,400. At $0.84/W, acquiring that customer costs about $9,900. That's all-in acquisition, including sales labor, not just leads.
So a few hundred dollars per sat appointment is normal. What isn't normal is paying it for leads that three other installers are also calling.
How to cut what you pay
- Track every lead to a sit and a sale. Without that, you can't tell a good vendor or campaign from a bad one.
- Call in minutes. Shared leads go to whoever calls first.
- Own the source. Leads from your own ad account aren't resold. Read buying solar leads vs running your own ads.
- Push quality back to the platform. Send sat appointments and signed deals back to Google so it bids for more people like them.
That last step is what we build for clients. We run Google Search ads for solar installers in your own account, and the monthly fee only starts after your first signed contract from the ads. See pricing, or check your market.