What an In-Ground Pool Costs in Los Angeles in 2026

Arnwood, an Akopi Builders pool, pergola and fire lounge build in Los Angeles: the new pool filled, deck still in progress.

An in-ground gunite pool in Los Angeles costs roughly $80,000 to $160,000 on an accessible lot across most of the city in 2026, and $150,000 to $300,000 or more in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu, where access, parking, traffic and hillside work raise the price. An engineered hillside or vanishing-edge pool runs $200,000 to $500,000 and up. Plan on 4 to 6 months from design to first swim, with an LADBS pool permit, and a soils report and grading review on a hillside lot. Akopi Builders (CSLB 1112420) builds pools as part of whole outdoor living projects in Los Angeles, like Arnwood.

You can picture the pool from the kitchen window. What the drawing does not show is where the excavator gets in, where the trucks wait, or how much of the patio has to come out. Those details move the budget before you pick a single tile. Here is what to plan for, what changes in the harder-to-build areas, and what to settle before you sign.

The tiers to plan against

These are 2026 market ranges published by Los Angeles pool builders, not Akopi quotes, and no two of them include exactly the same things.

• Basic gunite pool, most of LA: $80,000 to $160,000. Gunite is concrete sprayed over reinforcing steel to form the shell. This is a mid-size pool, standard plaster or a modest pebble finish, and a site an excavator can reach. Some builders quote a plain 15-by-30-foot pool from about $70,000.
• Pool with an attached spa and upgrades: $110,000 to $250,000. Raised spa, pebble or quartz interior, upgraded tile, lighting, automation and water features.
• Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu: $150,000 to $300,000 and up. Builders working in these areas start custom pools around $100,000 to $150,000 and regularly pass $300,000 on larger estate pools.
• Hillside, vanishing edge or complex site: $200,000 to $500,000 and up. Engineered support, retaining walls and a hard route into the yard turn a pool into structural work.

Before you compare two totals, ask each builder to mark what is excluded: engineering, permits, decking and site work especially. A low number means nothing without the scope beside it.

Why the Westside costs more

In the high-end areas, where parking and traffic are a problem, the same pool costs more than it would somewhere easier to work. Crews lose time getting in and out, trucks cannot stage on narrow streets, the excavated soil has to be hauled further, and concrete often has to be pumped a long way from the curb. On a hillside lot, the ground itself adds engineering.

That does not mean every Beverly Hills pool is $400,000. It means a flat, accessible lot and a narrow hillside street are not the same job, even when the two pool drawings look identical. Ask your builder to walk the route from the street to the pool and tell you what the price assumes: how the excavator gets in, where the soil goes, where the crew parks, and how far the concrete has to be pumped.

The route to the backyard belongs in the estimate.

Add-ons you can price early, and ground you cannot

Add-on budgets quoted by Los Angeles builders:

• Attached spa: $12,000 to $25,000. Ask whether the spa is already inside the price before you add it a second time.
• Equipment package: $6,000 to $15,000. Usually a variable-speed pump (a California energy rule for new pool pumps), a heater and automation. Ask for the list of the actual machines being supplied, not the words “premium equipment.”
• Hillside retaining walls and shoring: $20,000 to $80,000. Shoring holds an excavation open while the work goes in. This is not a price for the deeper structural support, such as caissons, that a steep site can need.

A soils or geology report, any caissons and an awkward delivery all get priced off your lot, not off a list. A number given before anyone has looked at the ground is a guess. If a proposal carries an allowance, a placeholder figure standing in for a price nobody has settled yet, ask what replaces it and when.

Settle the ground before you upgrade the tile.

A pool price is not a full-backyard price

The view from your kitchen takes in the patio, the steps and the planting edges, not just the water. A pool-only proposal can leave most of that view unpriced.

The Arnwood pool: glass tile waterline and pebble interior finish (Akopi Builders, under construction).

A mid-size pool deck is commonly quoted at $15,000 to $40,000. Add that to the pool tiers above and a pool with its deck and basic hardscape comes to roughly $125,000 to $250,000 across most of LA. A full outdoor living build, with a covered patio, an outdoor kitchen and a fire feature around the pool, commonly reaches $400,000 or more, and more again in the high-end areas and on hillside lots.

Demolition, drainage, retaining walls, steps, planting and any change to the house can all still sit outside a pool subtotal. Ask for one drawing with the boundary of the work marked on it, then a price that follows that line. Where new paving meets your existing terrace, who pays to make the junction look finished?

A finished yard needs a boundary drawn on it.

How long a pool takes in Los Angeles

Count from design to swimming, not from excavation. Los Angeles builders put a gunite pool at 4 to 6 months from design to first swim, and Beverly Hills builders at 4 to 7 months where design review or an HOA adds a round. Inside that:

• Permits: about 6 to 12 weeks for a standard pool through LADBS, and 8 to 16 weeks for a hillside pool or one with retaining walls, with rounds of corrections on top. These are builders’ reports; the city does not publish a turnaround for pools.
• Construction: about 10 to 20 weeks after the permit, longer for an engineered hillside pool.

Ask for a schedule that separates design, approvals and construction, and which of your own decisions holds each stage: where the pool sits, spa or no spa, where the equipment goes, the finish, the barrier layout.

The clock starts long before the digging.

Pool permits in the City of LA, including on a hillside

A new in-ground pool needs a permit. Inside the City of Los Angeles that means LADBS, the city’s building and safety department. Beverly Hills and Malibu run their own departments, and an LA mailing address does not tell you which process you are in.

Before you sign, ask your builder to put these in writing:

• The pool permit and the trade work. A new pool in the City of LA goes through plan check with engineered plans and calculations, and the gas, electrical and plumbing work is permitted with it. Ask who pulls each permit.
• The hillside review. On a hillside lot, expect a soils or geology report and a review by the LADBS Grading Division, plus checks on grading, retaining walls and how tall the pool structure can sit. LADBS requires a grading permit for the pool excavation on a lot in the hillside grading area, and the city’s pre-approved standard pool plans may not be usable on your site.
• The safety barrier. For a new home pool in the City of LA the barrier must be at least 60 inches high, measured on the side away from the pool, with no more than a 2 inch gap underneath. Gates, openings and the doors of the house are all part of it.
• Drowning prevention features. California law requires a new home pool to have at least two of the drowning prevention features it lists, such as an enclosure, a safety cover or door alarms, and some combinations no longer count as two. Have whoever draws your permit set confirm which ones you are using.

If the house itself forms part of the enclosure, settle the door hardware and alarms while you are still drawing the route from the kitchen to the terrace. On a coastal property, ask early whether a coastal approval applies on top of everything else. Get the permit fees for your project in writing rather than carrying an allowance picked off a blog.

The permit scope is part of the price.

How to use these numbers

Put the pool drawing and the proposal side by side and ask one question: what, between the street and a backyard we can actually use, is not in this number? Have the answer marked on the drawing, including anything still waiting on engineering or an approval. Before you sign with anyone, look at finished work. You can see the Arnwood pool, pergola and fire lounge build from the first trench to the finished patio in our portfolio.

The price ranges here are 2026 market ranges collected from Los Angeles pool builders and cost guides. They are a planning tool, not a quote for your lot.

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Planning a pool with a covered patio, an outdoor kitchen or a whole backyard? Contact Akopi Builders to walk the site and scope the whole yard, not just the water.