Rekey Locks Cost in Canada: When Replacing Is Cheaper

You have the keys the last person handed over. What you do not have is any idea how many other copies exist, who is holding them, or whether a tenant three leases ago cut a spare and never gave it back. That is the position almost everyone is in the first time they look up what it costs to rekey a lock.

This page covers what rekeying actually changes on a door, what companies that publish their rates in Canada advertise for the job, the point at which replacing the lock outright costs about the same or less, and what the rules are when the door is not yours to alter. Every figure below comes from a company’s own published rate page, with the date it was read.

What rekeying changes, and what it leaves alone

A rekey rearranges the pins inside the existing cylinder so that a new key operates it and the old key stops working. The lock body stays on the door. The deadbolt, the strike plate, the finish and the holes bored through the door all stay exactly as they are. Nobody carries a new lock into your house.

That has a consequence people are often surprised by. Rekeying does not make the lock better. A builder-grade deadbolt that a previous owner installed in 2011 is the same builder-grade deadbolt after a rekey, holding a different key. It does not fix a cylinder that already sticks, it does not help a latch that no longer seats in a swollen frame, and it does not upgrade the grade of the hardware. Rekeying solves exactly one problem, which is that keys you cannot account for are still in circulation.

Rekeying multiple doors to one key is possible and is often the real reason people book the job, but it has a condition attached. The cylinders have to accept the same keyway. A back door with a different brand of lock than the front door may need one of the two replaced before a single key can run the house, and that is a hardware cost rather than a labour cost. Ask about it on the phone rather than on the day. The service categories on this site separate rekeying from lock changes for that reason.

What Canadian companies advertise for a rekey

There is no national average worth quoting here, and any page that gives you one has usually made it up. What can be quoted is what individual companies publish on their own rate pages. Four Canadian companies, read on 7 September 2026:

Figures as advertised by each company on its own rate page, retrieved 7 September 2026: Safe & Secure Locksmith, Matrix Locksmith (page updated 3 September 2026), 24 Hour Locksmith Vancouver, The Lock Doc. Locksmiths Canada does not verify prices. As our published methodology states, fee ranges are entered by the business and published with a date attached, and they are a guide for the phone call rather than a quote.

Every one of those pages carries its own caution, and the wording is worth reading rather than skipping. Safe & Secure writes that if a job “sits outside a range because the hardware is worn, restricted-keyway or an unusual door prep, we tell you that on the call, not on the driveway.” Matrix says the exact price is “calculated according to several factors such as service area, service time (working hours or after-hours), complexity of the issue, lock model, and so on.” The 24 Hour Locksmith Vancouver page states plainly that “this cost is a minimum estimate for the respective job. The final cost will vary.”

The Lock Doc publishes no numbers at all, and explains why in a sentence that is the most useful line on any of the four pages: “A firm total is not always possible before inspection; ask what is included and approve any change in scope before added work.” That is a legitimate position, not an evasion. A company that names service call, labour, hardware, programming and after-hours as the variables and declines to pretend they resolve into one number before anyone has seen the door is being more honest than a headline price that quietly excludes three of them.

When replacing the lock costs about the same as rekeying it

Run the single-door arithmetic and the picture changes from what the per-cylinder price suggests. In Vancouver, one standard cylinder rekeyed at $25 to $45 sits on top of a $75 standard-hours service call, so the visit lands somewhere near $100 to $120. Replacing that same lock, installed, is advertised at $80 to $160. In Toronto the residential rekey is advertised at $70 to $120 with a service call from $35, and a regular lock replacement at $90 to $260. For one door, the two options overlap heavily.

Rekeying pulls ahead the moment there is more than one lock. Six standard cylinders at $25 to $45 each is one service call and six small line items. Six replacement locks is one service call and six pieces of hardware, and the hardware is the expensive part. A house or a small commercial unit changing hands is the case where rekeying is not close.

Replacement wins in three situations that have nothing to do with arithmetic. The first is worn hardware, where you would be paying labour to re-pin a cylinder that is already on its way out. The second is mismatched keyways across doors, where a new key running the whole property means at least one lock has to change anyway. The third is the upgrade you were going to make regardless, since paying for a rekey in March and a new deadbolt in June is two service calls for one outcome.

High-security cylinders reverse the comparison sharply. A high-security rekey is advertised at $60 to $120 per cylinder in Vancouver, while high-security lock installation in Toronto is advertised at $190 to $390. If the hardware is sound, rekeying restricted or high-security cylinders is the clear saving, and it is the case where the gap is wide enough that the service call barely matters.

If you rent, the lock may not be yours to change

This is where a rekey quote most often turns out to be the wrong question. In British Columbia, the province’s tenancy guidance states that new tenants “can request the landlord to rekey the locks for free,” that where “the landlord has not changed the locks after the last tenant moved out, the tenant can request that they be changed,” and that “the landlord can’t charge the tenant for changing the locks.” The same page states that a tenant may only change locks with “written permission from the landlord or an order from the Residential Tenancy Branch,” and that doing it without permission could lead to eviction. Landlords may charge for extra or replacement keys, but only at actual cost. (Province of British Columbia, Rental unit locks and keys, last updated 4 March 2026.)

That is British Columbia. Tenancy rules are provincial, they differ, and nothing above should be read as describing the law where you live. Before booking anything on a door you rent, check your own province’s tenancy authority and ask the landlord in writing. If you own the place, none of this applies and the decision is entirely yours. Our own checking methodology explains which provincial registers this site consults and, just as importantly, which claims it does not stand behind.

The questions that decide what the invoice says

The gap between a quoted price and a final bill is a documented consumer-protection issue in Canada, not a suspicion. The Competition Bureau defines drip pricing as a practice that “involves offering a product or service at a price that is unattainable because consumers must also pay additional charges or fees to buy the product or service,” and states that it “is considered to be false or misleading under the law, unless the additional charges or fees are imposed by the government, such as sales tax.” (Competition Bureau Canada, Drip pricing, page modified 24 August 2026.)

Six questions, asked on the phone before anyone is dispatched, close most of that gap:

• Is the number you just gave me the total, including the call-out fee and any after-hours rate?
• How many cylinders does that cover, and what happens if my doors do not all take the same key?
• When does the after-hours rate start, and what time do you expect to arrive?
• If the hardware turns out to be worn, do you stop and re-quote before doing any further work?
• Are you licensed to do this work in my province, and can I see the card when you get here?
• What is the total if you decide on site that the lock has to be replaced instead of rekeyed?

The fifth question has a concrete answer in some provinces. Alberta requires a locksmith to be “licensed” and “a certified journeyperson,” and requires the worker to “carry the original with you while you are working,” which means the card is on the person standing at your door and can simply be asked for (Government of Alberta, Locksmith licence, published 30 April 2026). Quebec runs a public register of private security licence holders that lets you check in real time whether an agency holds a valid licence (Bureau de la sécurité privée, Registre des titulaires de permis, retrieved 7 September 2026). Requirements elsewhere differ by province, so do not assume either rule travels. If a listing on this site turns out to be wrong about any of it, report the listing and it gets checked.

Rekeying is a door lock job, not a car key job

The word gets used for vehicles too, and the two jobs share almost nothing. A house rekey is mechanical work on a pin cylinder. Getting a vehicle back on the road usually involves cutting a key to the vehicle’s code and programming a transponder or a proximity fob to the car’s immobiliser, which is a different skill set, different equipment and a different price band entirely. If that is the actual problem, the key fob replacement guide covers what dealers and locksmiths advertise for it, and if you are standing beside the car right now, start here instead.

Common questions

How long does rekeying a lock take?

None of the four rate pages read for this guide publishes a duration, so any number given here would be invented. Ask the company when you call, and ask it as part of the same question as the after-hours threshold, since arrival time and hourly rates are what actually move the bill.

Can I rekey a lock myself?

Rekey kits are sold for some consumer lock brands and are keyed to the brand, not to your lock in particular. Whether that is sensible depends on the hardware you have, and it does nothing for the case most people are in, which is doors that do not share a keyway. This site does not publish procedures for working on locks, and a kit bought for the wrong brand is money spent before the locksmith is called anyway.

Is rekeying cheaper than changing the locks?

Per cylinder, yes, on every rate page read for this guide. Per visit, not necessarily. One door with the service call included lands in a similar range either way, and rekeying only becomes the obviously cheaper answer once several doors are done on the same visit.

Do I need to rekey after buying a house?

Nobody can tell you how many keys are in circulation for a house that has changed hands, which is the whole reason the job exists. It is a judgement call about unaccounted-for copies rather than a technical necessity, and it costs the same in March as it does the week you move in.

What to do next

Decide first whether the door is yours to change. If you rent, that question comes before any quote and may end with the landlord paying. If you own it, count the doors, because one lock and six locks are genuinely different decisions and the per-cylinder price on its own will mislead you about which way to go.

Then get the total, not the headline. Ask the six questions above, and write down what you were told before anyone drives out. More guides on locks, keys and what this work costs in Canada are collected in the guides section.