Child Care Cost Calculator

Child care is the second rent, except the rent builds no equity and the landlord is a waiting list. One infant in full-time center care costs $15,600 a year at the national benchmark rate of $300 a week, which is $1,300 a month, and which is 17.8 percent of the $87,460 median household income, against the 7 percent line the Department of Health and Human Services calls affordable. This ledger prices the care in front of you, by the week and by the year, checks it against that 7 percent line, counts the 2026 tax saving, and prices the alternatives, a home daycare, a nanny, a nanny-share, and the age ladder that makes the bill fall as the child grows, so the number you carry into the decision is the whole number, not the weekly rate on the quote.

Sources: Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis (Tables I and II) and 2025 Price and Supply analysis (released May 2026): national average $13,128 a year in 2024 and $13,184 in 2025; center care $300 a week for an infant, $273 for a toddler, $242 for a 4-year-old; licensed home daycare $220, $206, and $200 a week for the same ages. Care.com 2026 Cost of Care Report (2025 posted rates): daycare $332 a week for an infant, $308 for a toddler; nanny $870 a week for an infant, $936 for a toddler; parents spend an average of 20 percent of household income on child care, and 78 percent spend 10 percent or more. U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025: median household income $87,460 in 2025 and $85,210 in 2024 (released September 15, 2026). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services affordability benchmark: child care should cost no more than 7 percent of family income. One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21, July 4, 2025): Dependent Care FSA limit $7,500 from 2026, the first increase since 1986; Child and Dependent Care Credit top rate 50 percent, expense caps $3,000 for one child and $6,000 for two or more. Model: weekly is the weekly rate times days divided by 5, times children; annual is weekly times weeks plus extra fees; the 7 percent line is 7 percent of household income; the tax saving is the smaller of the annual bill and $7,500, times the marginal rate. This is a planning estimate, not financial or tax advice.

Step 1 — The care

The presets are the Child Care Aware of America 2024 state-average figures: center care $300 a week for an infant, $273 for a toddler, $242 for a 4-year-old; licensed home daycare $220, $206, and $200 for the same ages; and the nanny is Care.com's 2026 posted rate of $870 a week for one infant, with the nanny-share at half that, $435, because two families split one nanny. Care.com's posted daycare rates run higher than the state averages, $332 a week for an infant and $308 for a toddler, which is the difference between what centers post on a marketplace and what state surveys average across every program. Either way, the rate is the input that matters most, and the quote in front of you beats any benchmark: enter it, and the rest of the ledger re-prices itself.

Step 2 — The schedule

Five days a week for 52 weeks is the default, because that is full-time care, and full-time care is what the benchmarks measure. Three days a week at $300 is $180 a week and $9,360 a year, which is 10.7 percent of the median income instead of 17.8 percent, and which is the saving available to a family that can cover two days at home, though the saving is smaller than it looks, because most centers charge a part-time rate higher than the pro-rata share, and some charge the full-time rate regardless. Fifty weeks instead of 52, for a center that closes two weeks a year, is $15,000 instead of $15,600, a $600 saving that is real and that the quote should state plainly. The extra fees default to zero, which is optimistic: registration, supplies, meals, and activities commonly add $500 a year, which is $16,100 instead of $15,600, and which is the line that turns a quote into a bill.

Step 3 — The household

The ledger

A SECOND RENT

One infant in full-time center care costs $15,600 a year, which is 17.8 percent of the $87,460 median household income, or $9,478 over the 7 percent line. Two children cost $31,200 a year, which is 35.7 percent of the same income, and the FSA saving stays $1,650, because the $7,500 limit is per household, not per child. A licensed home daycare for the same infant costs $11,440 a year, which is 13.1 percent of the median income, saving $4,160 a year against the center. A nanny costs $45,240 a year, which is 51.7 percent of the median income, and a nanny-share costs $22,620, which is 25.9 percent.

What age does to the price

Six benchmarks on the same household, full-time, 52 weeks, one child, at the Child Care Aware of America 2024 state-average rates. The bill falls at every age milestone, because the staff-to-child ratio rises as the child grows: an infant needs one adult for every three or four children, and a 4-year-old needs one for every ten or more. The center infant at $15,600 falls to $12,584 at preschool age, a saving of $3,016 a year, and the home infant at $11,440 falls to $10,400, a saving of $1,040. The gap between the center and the home is widest at the infant stage, $4,160 a year, and narrowest at preschool, $2,184, which is why families who cannot afford the center for an infant often can afford it for a 4-year-old.

Center, home, nanny, or nanny-share

Four ways to cover one infant, full-time, 52 weeks, on the same household. The center is $15,600 a year and the home daycare is $11,440, a gap of $4,160 that buys a licensed facility, a curriculum, and backup when a teacher is sick, against a smaller setting in a caregiver's home. The nanny is $45,240, which is $29,640 more than the center, and which buys care in your own home, one adult to one child, and no sick-day scramble when the center closes, at a price that is 51.7 percent of the median household income. The nanny-share is $22,620, which is the nanny split between two families, and which is $7,020 more than the center for care in one of the two homes. The invested column is the five-year bill paid monthly into an account earning 7 percent, which is the number that makes the trade visible across time: five years of center care is $78,000 paid and $93,071 if it had been invested instead.

What state does to the price

The same infant in a center, full-time, priced by state. Mississippi is the cheapest state at $640 a month, or $7,680 a year, which is 8.8 percent of the median household income, the only row on this table that sits near the 7 percent line. The national average is $1,301 a month, or $15,612 a year, which is 17.9 percent. Massachusetts is $2,195 a month, or $26,340 a year, which is 30.1 percent of the median income, and Washington DC is $2,183 a month, or $26,193 a year, which is 29.9 percent. The spread between Mississippi and Massachusetts is $18,660 a year for the same care, which is more than the whole Mississippi bill twice over, and which is why Child Care Aware says to benchmark against your state and your city, not the country: the national average is a number no family actually pays.

The number to carry out of this page is the annual one, not the weekly one, because the weekly rate is the quote and the annual bill is the cost, and the quote is designed to sound small. Three hundred dollars a week sounds manageable, and $15,600 a year is a second rent, and the difference between those two feelings is the difference between the quote and the bill. The second number to carry is the share of income, because the share is the verdict: 17.8 percent of the median income is over the 7 percent line by $9,478, and it is the average experience, not the exception, because parents surveyed by Care.com in 2026 said they spend an average of 20 percent of household income on child care, and 78 percent spend 10 percent or more. The third number is the tax saving, because the 2026 rules are the most generous in forty years, and $1,650 from the FSA plus $574 in payroll tax is $2,224 back on a $15,600 bill, which is 14.3 percent of it, and which is money that is available to any household whose employer offers the plan. The calculator on this site prices all of it on your quote, your schedule, and your income, in the time it takes to type them.