Every page answering this question is written by one shop quoting its own price list, which is why no two of them agree.
The numbers on this page are not our estimates and not one shop's price list. They are read out of the prices that film installers have published on their own listings in our directory, and they move as more shops publish theirs. One caveat, stated up front: a shop publishes what a package starts at, so read every figure here as the bottom of a quote rather than the top.
What film costs next to correction and coating
| Service | Typical | Range | Shops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paint Correction | $365 | $200 - $699 | 95 |
| Ceramic Coating | $699 | $365 - $1,199 | 147 |
| Paint Protection Film | $1,150 | $699 - $2,095 | 17 |
The table is the whole argument about film pricing. Paint correction is the preparation bracket - machine polishing that removes swirl marks before anything is laid on top, and film seals in whatever it covers. A ceramic coating is the surface bracket. Film sits above both, because it is cut to the panel and wrapped around its edges, and that is hours of skilled labor per panel rather than a product applied over a whole car in one pass.
What each coverage tier buys
Shops sell film in kits, and the ladder is roughly the same everywhere.
Partial front. The bumper, the leading strip of the hood, the mirrors - the panels that take stone chips first. The cheapest entry into film, and the one that leaves a visible line across the hood where the film stops.
Full front. The whole hood and both front fenders as well, so there is no line to see. This is the tier most people mean when they say they filmed the front of the car, and it is a large step up from a partial because the hood is the biggest single panel on most cars.
Track pack. Adds rocker panels, the roof edge and the A-pillars - the places that get hit by what the front tires throw up at speed.
Full body. Every painted panel. It is the top of every price list and the one tier shops rarely publish at all, because the labor scales with the panel count and every complex curve is slower than the last - it is quoted on the car, not off a list.
High-wear extras are sold on top of any of these: door cups, door edges, the loading lip of the trunk. They are cheap next to a tier and they cover the damage owners actually complain about.
Why one quote is double another
Four things account for almost every gap, and each of them is hours on a clock rather than film off a roll.
Panel count. Two quotes for "the front" can differ by three panels, which is the largest and the easiest swing to check: ask both shops to name what is in the price.
Edge work. Finishing the film around a panel instead of at its edge means taking parts off the car and putting them back, and that labor lands on the invoice. It is also the single thing most visible two years later.
The condition of the paint. Film seals whatever is beneath it, so a used car buys correction hours before any film is cut. This is why a quote on a three-year-old daily driver is not comparable to one on a car off the truck.
The size of the car. The same tier is more film and more hours on a three-row SUV than on a sedan, so it sits a bracket or two higher at the very same shop - as every other line of a detailing price list does.
The workmanship behind those hours - how the film is cut, how the edges are finished, what the shop does to the paint first - is what our guide to choosing an installer covers.
Where the installers are
Film prices are published by fewer shops than coating prices, so no single city has enough of them yet to quote a local figure. What the city pages do carry is the shops themselves, with whatever each one has published:
- PPF installers in Houston, TX - 31 shops
- PPF installers in San Antonio, TX - 25 shops
- PPF installers in Jacksonville, FL - 11 shops
- PPF installers in Los Angeles, CA - 10 shops
- PPF installers in San Jose, CA - 10 shops
- PPF installers in Austin, TX - 8 shops
- PPF installers in Dallas, TX - 8 shops
- PPF installers in Miami, FL - 8 shops
Film or a ceramic coating for the money?
They are not alternatives, and the comparison people make on price is usually the wrong one. Film is armor: it absorbs the stone chip that would otherwise reach the paint, and on published packages it runs about twice a coating because every panel is cut and wrapped by hand. A coating is a surface: easier washing, held gloss, and no protection at all from a stone off a truck. Read both published figures as starting prices - full-body film has no entry in a price list, and that is where the gap between the two becomes large.
The pairing shops recommend when pressed is film on the impact zones - hood, bumper, mirrors - with a coating over everything else, including over the film itself. What the coating side costs on its own is in our ceramic coating cost guide.
Find an installer
Start from the full directory of paint protection film installers and pick your state, or open the city nearest you from the list above - each page carries the shops themselves, with hours, ratings and whatever prices they have published.