Movers from San Antonio to Austin

How much does a San Antonio to Austin move cost?

A one-bedroom apartment on this corridor averages $1,200. The table is our published guide by home size; your own figure is confirmed at the estimate, because the hourly clock, not the row you fit into, is what produces the final total.

Those are typical totals for a move that size, not a rate card.

Where the number comes from

Local jobs are charged by the hour. There is a three-hour minimum, the clock then runs in 15-minute increments, and a $50 equipment charge covers the blankets, dollies and tools the crew brings. Inside the hourly fee sit the movers themselves, the truck, the fuel, any tolls the driver pays and the transport between the two addresses, along with basic released-value protection.

The flip side is worth saying out loud: on a job priced by time, anything that slows the crew is money. A third-floor walk-up, a truck parked two hundred feet from the lobby, an elevator shared with three other tenants, or boxes still open when we arrive all lengthen the day. Better access usually means a more efficient move, and on a job charged by the hour that shows up in the total.

On payment, a card carries a 3.5% processing fee and our pricing page lists a 5% discount for paying cash. Plans change, so it is worth knowing the cancellation rule early: a deposit refund on a local move needs seven days' notice, and if the crew arrives on a day you turn out not to be able to move, the minimum charge may still apply.

What move day looks like

If you are packing yourself, everything should be boxed, taped and labeled before the crew walks in, because on an hourly job a room that is still half-packed is billable time. Our movers from San Antonio to Austin walk the home with you first, agree what travels and what does not, then pad and shrink-wrap furniture, protect floors and doorframes, take apart the pieces agreed in your estimate, and load. Be there while that happens if you possibly can — it is the cheapest hour you will ever spend on quality control. Boxes you packed yourself go on as they are; boxes we packed are labeled by room so the Austin end is not a guessing game.

If the pickup sits behind a gate, whether that is an HOA community or any property that keeps a visitor list, get the crew added to the list before the day. A truck idling at a gate is billed the same as a truck being loaded.

The truck then runs north on I-35, roughly 80 miles, under two hours by car when traffic behaves and longer with a load behind it. At the Austin address the crew places furniture where you want it, reassembles the pieces we agreed to take apart, and takes away the pads and wrapping it brought. Most one- and two-bedroom homes load and deliver the same day. Larger houses and office moves are scheduled across a longer window — nobody does careful work unloading a family home at eleven at night — and timing on any job depends on inventory, packing readiness, access, parking, building rules, traffic and weather, so we do not promise an arrival time.

We do not promise damage-free moving. If something is damaged, tell the crew before they leave so they can complete a damage report on site. If you find it later, call the office within 96 hours so we can act on it quickly. Texas gives you a claim window measured in months rather than hours, so that 96-hour call is how we move fast, not a deadline that ends your rights.

What the price covers, and what is quoted separately

Covered by the hourly fee: the crew, the truck, fuel, tolls, the transport between addresses, and basic released-value protection, which limits liability to 60 cents per pound per article. That is protection rather than full insurance — it is not the same thing as being made whole. Full Value Protection is available for an extra charge, and it is the right conversation to have before the truck is loaded rather than after. Items you packed yourself are treated differently from items our crew packed unless Full Value Protection is purchased, so if a box of glassware matters, say so at the estimate.

Quoted separately and confirmed during the estimate: packing labor, which is billed by the hour, and packing materials, which are bought separately rather than thrown in; unpacking; storage; extra stops; furniture disassembly and reassembly beyond the ordinary; certificates of insurance; and specialty handling. Booking at short notice belongs on the same list — whether we can start a job that soon depends on the schedule and the crews free that week, and it is never automatic. That is about how soon we can get to you, not how long the move takes once we are there. Some of those carry published rates we can tell you in advance: an upright piano at $160 and a baby grand at $240, items over 200 lbs that may carry a charge starting at $60, and hoisting at $40 per item per flight of stairs. Treat that as a sample of what we publish, not a complete schedule; anything not listed is priced at the estimate and written down before you agree to it. None of these is automatic. If you want one of them, ask us to put it in your written proposal before the crew starts, so the price is agreed rather than discovered.

Two limits worth knowing before the truck arrives. Our movers are not permitted to disconnect water or gas lines, so washers, dryers, refrigerators with ice makers and gas ranges need to be prepared and disconnected before we get there. And there are things we cannot carry: flammable liquids, propane and gasoline containers, explosives and firearms stay with you. On the commercial side we handle offices, small businesses and corporate relocations through our commercial moving service; heavy industrial machinery, warehouse plant and laboratory equipment are outside what we take on.

Arriving in Austin: docks, elevators and curb space

Austin is the end of this route that generates the paperwork. If you are moving into a managed apartment or condo building, the move usually runs through a booked loading dock and a reserved freight elevator, and some property managers ask for a certificate of insurance before the truck arrives. An older single-family street closer in is a simpler building on a tighter street, and further out in the northern suburbs it is usually a driveway. Tell us which of the three you are moving into and we will size the crew and the truck to it.

We can issue a COI when a building asks for one, but not every building does, so check with your property manager early and send us exactly what they want, early and complete: the building name, the property manager's contact, the exact certificate holder wording, any additional insured wording, the coverage limits required, your move date, both addresses, and the email address the certificate has to be submitted to. A COI that comes back for rewording on the morning of the move is the single most avoidable delay on this route.

Most managed buildings in Austin also want the freight lift reserved and the dock booked in advance, and those windows are usually issued to the resident rather than to us. Book yours as soon as your date is firm, then send us the window. Two things matter more than people expect. First, the length of the slot: if the building gives you two hours and your inventory needs four, we will be running the job around a lift that other people also want, and that shows up on an hourly bill. Second, the distance from the dock to your door, because in a large building that walk can be longer than the entire carry at the San Antonio end.

Street space is different in each city, and in both of them it is the customer who secures it. In San Antonio a reserved curb space means a Parking Restriction Permit from the city's Right-of-Way Management Division at Public Works; the city asks for the application at least seven calendar days ahead and charges a published per-day fee for each space you reserve, so check its current rate when you apply. Austin routes its right-of-way permits through Austin Transportation and Public Works' online portal, under categories and fees that are not comparable to San Antonio's, and a temporary-use permit there carries bond and insurance requirements — part of why most residential moves in Austin work the building's dock instead. Check the city's current permit list before you fix a date. We do not pull these permits for you. We will tell you which one to ask for and how much curb a truck of that size needs, and if it does not come through, the crew parks further out, carries longer or waits, and on an hourly job that lands on your total.

Two local details that catch people out. Some Austin-area suburbs limit overnight street parking of oversized vehicles, so a move that runs across two days needs the truck parked somewhere legal before you assume the curb will do. And if you are moving a student into UT housing, plan around the university's move-in weekend just before classes start in late August: residence-hall unloading zones are permitted by the hour and ticketed past the limit, and vehicles with trailers will not fit the campus garages. Check UT Housing's current calendar for this year's dates before you fix yours.

The I-35 corridor, and when to book

The route runs north out of Bexar County and up past New Braunfels, San Marcos and Kyle, and the last sixteen miles are the whole story of the drive. On the Texas A&M Transportation Institute's 2025 ranking of the state's most congested road segments, three consecutive stretches of I-35 in Travis County sit inside the top ten for truck delay, which is the plainest reason we will not guarantee an arrival time on this corridor. TxDOT's I-35 Capital Express program also has the road through Austin under long-term reconstruction, and the lane closures and detours change often enough that it is worth a look at the project page before you settle on a date.

When I-35 is genuinely backed up, SH 130 is a toll alternative that trades about twenty extra miles for a clearer run. The toll is our cost, not a line on your bill, and whether the crew takes it is a call made on the morning with the traffic in front of them. Heat is the other scheduling variable: NOAA's 1991-2020 normals put Austin at about 29 days at or above 90°F in August and 13 at or above 100°F; San Antonio matches it at 90°F but sees about 9 days at or above 100°F. Heat is not an inconvenience on a loading day, it is a pace limit, and on a job charged by the hour that is a real argument for an early start or a spring date.

If you are moving the other way

This corridor runs both ways, and not by a little. IRS county-to-county migration data for the 2022-2023 filing years records 2,736 people moving from Bexar County to Travis County against 2,719 going the other way — a net of seventeen people toward Austin, which is close enough to even that the story about everyone leaving for Austin does not survive contact with the numbers. So this corridor is worth planning in both directions, and the reverse trip is as ordinary as this one. If San Antonio is the destination rather than the origin, our movers from Austin to San Antonio page covers that direction, and you can read more about each end on our movers in Austin and local movers in San Antonio pages. It is the same road, the same two Texas branches and the same moving company whichever way you are pointing.