ESTIMATE · YOUR FAMILY · ANNUAL COST
Childcare cost calculator
Add each child’s age and care setting, enter your household income, and see your estimated yearly childcare cost and how it compares to the federal affordability benchmark. Prices come from the U.S. Department of Labor’s official 2022 data.
Data: U.S. DOL NDCP · 2022 (latest official data)
Affordability calculator
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ESTIMATED COST IN THE U.S.
$12,675
per year · $1,056 per month (÷ 12)
- Share of income
- — enter income
- Benchmark (7% of income)
- — enter income
HOW THIS IS CALCULATED
- Prices are the national median for each age group and care setting — the population-weighted median of every county’s median price, so counties count in proportion to the families who live in them. This is a labeled derivation, not an official per-county figure. For your own county’s official prices, browse by state.
- Annual and monthly figures are converted from the weekly price: annual = weekly × 52; monthly = weekly × 52 ÷ 12.
- We measure your cost against the 7%-of-income benchmark — the cap federal CCDF rules placed on subsidized families' childcare co-payments from 2024 until it was rescinded on July 13, 2026. A cost at or below it is counted as affordable; above it, over the benchmark. The 7% figure was always a cap on what states could charge subsidized families as a CCDF co-payment — not a federal finding that childcare is affordable at 7% of income for every family. The 2026 "Restoring Flexibility" final rule (91 FR 25796) removed that cap effective July 13, 2026; federal rules now require only that co-payments not be "a barrier to families receiving assistance". We still draw the 7% line as a familiar reference point, but it is not a current federal rule, and it never defined affordability for families paying full price.
- Any age and setting with no official price is left out of the total rather than estimated. Read the full methodology.