Pet cost calculator: what a dog or cat costs per year and over its life

Enter your pet's monthly, yearly and one-time costs. See a typical year, the first year, the monthly average, and the rest of its life at today's prices.

✓ TestedSame calculation as the tested spreadsheet

A typical year–

Monthly costs
Yearly costs
First year (with one-time costs)
Rest of its life, at today's prices
Suggested vet emergency fund

Typical year = 12 × monthly costs + yearly costs. Rest of life = a typical year × (lifespan − age), plus one-time costs for a pet under a year old. No inflation. The emergency fund is a rule of thumb: $2,500 without insurance, $1,000 with it.

How it works

A typical year is twelve months of the monthly costs (food, insurance, parasite prevention, litter) plus the costs that come once a year (checkups and vaccines, grooming, boarding, license, toys). The first year adds one-time costs like adoption, spay or neuter and setup. The rest of its life is a typical year times the years left, at today's prices, so the real figure will be higher with inflation and with any extra vet care as it gets older. The spreadsheet does this for up to four pets and tracks what you actually spend against it.