Childcare Cost Calculator

Estimate the cost of childcare based on type (daycare, nanny, au pair), child age, and hours needed. Compare different options.

This calculator prices childcare differently depending on Care Type, because daycare centers and family daycare providers price per child while a nanny is paid a single household rate regardless of how many kids they watch. For Daycare Center and Family Daycare, Weekly Cost scales directly with Number of Children on top of Hours per Week; for Nanny, Number of Children shifts the flat hourly rate itself (a nanny watching two or more children commands a modestly higher rate), while for Au Pair it changes nothing at all — an au pair is a single household placement at a fixed stipend and agency fee regardless of how many children are in the family, which is exactly why the arrangement gets cheaper per child as the family grows. Au Pair is also the one type not priced by the hour: it is the federally set $195.75 weekly stipend plus an agency fee of roughly $10,500 a year, so its total does not fall when you use fewer hours — which is what makes it the cheapest option per hour at high hour counts and the most expensive at low ones. Au pairs are federally capped at 45 hours a week and 10 hours a day under 22 CFR 62.31, and hours above 40 for a nanny are FLSA overtime at time and a half — the calculator flags both but does not price the overtime premium. Est. Hourly Rate also varies with Child Age under Daycare Center specifically, since infant care commands a higher rate than care for older toddlers or preschoolers, while the other three care types use a flat rate regardless of age. When you enter more than one child, the same Child Age rate is applied to each of them and no sibling discount is taken — real centres charge each child at their own age tier and typically discount the second and subsequent child by 10 to 15%, so a mixed-age sibling group will price out differently from what this shows. Total Until School (Age 5) projects Annual Cost forward using the years remaining before the child turns 5, holding the current rate and hours constant rather than adjusting for the daycare age-based rate typically dropping as a child gets older. The rates are back-solved from published national figures at a 2,000-hour care year: Child Care Aware of America's 2025 Price & Supply analysis ($13,184 average annual price of child care, about $14,760 for center-based infant care), the Department of Labor's family child care home figure of about $11,992, and Care.com's 2025 Cost of Care Survey for nannies. They are averages across the whole country, not a quote from any specific provider -- actual local rates vary by a factor of two or more between rural and major-metro markets.