How much does daycare cost?

Daycare costs about $13,184 a year in 2026. What changes your price is below.

Child Care Aware of America's report, released May 13, 2026, puts the national average annual price of child care at $13,184 in 2025, about $1,099 a month. That is 10 percent of median income for a two parent household and 33 percent for a single parent. Infant care in a center costs more.

Estimate your daycare cost

Pick what you need and add your ZIP. The price updates as you go. Got a price already? Check it in the last step.

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A fair price is $13,175.

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Low$13,175High

Your estimateUS average

$13.2Kto$13.2K

Middle of the range: $13,175

$0$8,900$17,800

Normal range Middle

What you are paying for

National averageOne child. US range for this job.$13,175

Full timeSchedule.Base price

US averageLocal prices not added yet.US price

Middle of rangeHalfway between low and high.$13,175

How we calculate this

Prices are for the United States in 2026 from published cost guides, checked September 2026. This is an estimate, not a quote.

Middle $13,175$13.2K

Cost by type and place

National average, 2025	$13,184 a year (CCAoA, May 2026).
Per month	About $1,099.
Infant, center, New Hampshire	$16,462 a year.
Toddler, center, New Hampshire	$15,262 a year.
Infant plus 4 year old, New Hampshire	About $30,000 a year.
2023 national average	$11,582.

What pushes a quote up

Child's age	Infants cost the most.
Center or home	Family child care homes often cost less.
State	Prices vary widely.
Hours	Full time vs part time.
Number of children	Sibling discounts vary.

Daycare cost by region

Lower cost states	$10,500 to $13,200. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia and most rural areas.
Average cost states	$13,184 to $16,462. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and most mid size cities.
Higher cost states	$17,100 to $21,400. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington, plus big metros such as Chicago, Denver and Washington DC.

These rows are our estimate. We took the typical national range and adjusted it for local labor costs, which run about 20 percent lower in the cheapest states and about 30 percent higher in the dearest ones. Prices vary a lot by state. Check your state's figures in the Child Care Aware report.

How it compares with your budget

The federal Department of Health and Human Services recommends child care cost no more than 7 percent of a family's income. The national average is well above that for most families, according to Child Care Aware of America.

From 2021 to 2025, child care prices rose 23 percent, close to overall inflation of 24 percent over the same period.

Ways families lower the bill

Check state child care subsidies, a dependent care flexible spending account through your employer, and the federal child and dependent care tax credit.

How to judge the quote in your hand

Ask the full time and part time rates.
Ask about registration and supply fees.
Ask about sibling discounts.
Ask about late pickup fees.
Ask how often rates rise.

Ways to pay less

Use a dependent care FSA.
Claim the child care tax credit.
Check state subsidies.
Compare a licensed home daycare.

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What parents pay each week

Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care report puts infant daycare at $332 a week, down 3 percent from $343.

Toddler daycare runs $308 a week. A family care center, often run from a home, is $323 a week for an infant.

A nanny costs far more, about $870 a week for one child.

A worked example

At $332 a week for 50 weeks, infant daycare costs about $16,600 a year.

A family earning $80,000 a year would spend about 21 percent of its income on that one child. The federal guide for affordable child care is 7 percent.

The dependent care FSA through many employers lets you pay up to $7,500 of care costs with pre tax money in 2026. Ask your HR team.