Definition
Unit-price analysis is the line-by-line review a general contractor runs across the subcontractor bids it receives, comparing what each sub charges per unit — per linear foot, per cubic yard, per ton — for the same pay item. Instead of trusting a single bottom-line total, you line up every bidder's number for "12-inch RCP" or "Class A concrete" and look at how far each one sits from the group. The reference point is the peer median: the middle price among the subs who actually bid that item on this package.
Prices that land far above or far below that median are the ones worth a second look. A number that is much too high inflates the total and can signal a misread quantity; a number that is much too low can mean the sub missed scope, plans to make it back on change orders, or has front-loaded the work. Unit-price analysis is how you separate honest variation from the lines that will cost you later.
A worked example
You receive five bids on a drainage package, each pricing 12-inch RCP per linear foot. Four of the subs land in a tight band: $78, $82, $86, and $94/LF, and the median across all five bids is $86/LF. The fifth sub prices the same pipe at $210/LF — about 2.4 times the median. That single line gets flagged as a peer outlier, because it sits above the 2x threshold. On 4,000 LF of pipe, the difference between the median and that outlier is roughly $496,000 — far too large to wave through without an explanation from the sub.
Why it matters when you evaluate sub bids
On a heavy-civil package with 5 to 15 bidders, the cover-sheet total tells you who is cheapest overall, but it hides where the money is. Unit-price analysis is what makes the leveled bid tab trustworthy: it confirms the low bidder is low because of real efficiency, not because of a typo, a missing line, or a deliberately distorted price you will pay for in change orders. When you score price across the field and defend an award to an owner, a clean per-unit comparison is the evidence that your ranking reflects the full scope rather than one bad number dragging a total up or down. It is also where unbalanced bids surface — the sub who prices early-paid items high and late items at a penny.
How Bid Reasoner handles it
Bid Reasoner normalizes every bid to your scope of work, then computes the peer median for each pay item that three or more bids price — taken from the bids themselves, with no government data required, in any US state. Two of the four deterministic pricing rules run directly on the per-unit numbers: the peer-outlier rule flags any price at 2x or more, or 0.5x or less, of the peer median, and the unbalanced rule flags any unit price at or under $1.00. Each pricing-rule flag shows the numbers that tripped it — a peer outlier shows the unit price against the peer median — so the $210/LF line shows up with its numbers, not just a warning. Those flags add to the bidder's risk score on the Compare page, and pair with the two-way scope-coverage gap analysis so a low unit price tied to missing scope does not slip through.