In-home care cost calculator

What the calculator prices

This calculator puts an in-home caregiver cost on the help family often gives for free: the ride home after a procedure, the hospital visits, the first nights back home, at published prices. Answer a few short questions, or skip any to use the typical answer, then change any number you like.

How we got these numbers

Every price is what a client pays a business, not what the worker earns. We checked them in October 2026 and kept each one at its own year instead of adjusting for inflation. We refresh them each March, when CareScout publishes its new survey.

The example year

This is the year the calculator starts with: one outpatient procedure under sedation and one hospital stay of average length, no pet, at typical US national prices.

• With a pet, add 5 nights of pet care at $96.99 a night: $6,049.94.
• At all-low prices: $3,548.00. At all-high prices: $8,327.99 (the check-in stays at its typical price, because no high price is confirmed).
• By state, only the helper hour changes: $4,926.99 in Mississippi, $6,202.99 in Wyoming.
• Average year, counting the hospital stay at its 13.9% yearly chance: $3,412.49.
• Canada, the same year in Canadian dollars: C$3,415.00, or C$3,939.80 with a pet. It leaves out mail, bills and forms and small fixes at home.

Where the prices come from

The paid helper hour. Hospital visits, help at home, overnights and errands are priced at what an agency charges for an hour of non-medical help. In the US that's the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 median for each state: $35 an hour nationally, from $24 in Mississippi to $46 in Wyoming. The survey's state tables don't include DC, so DC uses the national median. Canada has no national survey of home care prices, so we use the middle of three 2026 agency prices: C$37.50 an hour (C$34.09 to C$45).

Everything else is a price one or a few businesses published, so it's a published price we found, not an average. Pet care prices are Pet Sitters International member averages. Where the evidence is thin, the calculator marks the price Rough estimate: patient advocates, daily money managers, the Canadian helper hour, the wheelchair van, and the Toronto taxi example for Canadian rides. The low pet care price is dog boarding from one industry analysis.

Low and high. The low and high totals use the lowest and highest published price for each item. Where nobody published a low or a high, we keep the typical price. When you pick a state, the helper hour is that state's median at both ends.

The quantities. Most are our own starting guesses, and the calculator marks them. Two come from data: an average hospital stay of 5.2 days for people 65 to 84 (AHRQ HCUP), which sets 5 nights of pet care, and 6.6 office visits a year for people 65 to 74 (National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 2019) for appointment rides.

The average year. Most years have no hospital stay. In 2019, 13.9% of people 65 to 74 had one (CDC hospital stay table). Counting the hospital stay at 13.9% instead of a sure thing gives the average year. One procedure a year is still our guess. We show the average year for the US only, because the figure is American.

Why our hour isn't AARP's. AARP's Valuing the Invaluable 2026 update values an hour of family care at $20.41, and the BLS puts an aide's median wage at $17.21 an hour (May 2025). Those measure the worker's side. This calculator prices what you'd have to buy, so it uses the client price of $35. The 58 helper hours in the example year cost $2,030 at $35 and $1,183.78 at AARP's rate.

Canada. The Canadian total leaves out mail, bills and forms, small fixes at home, and the wheelchair van, because we couldn't confirm a Canadian price for them. So it isn't comparable to the US total. Appointment rides use the Toronto taxi meter as a one-city example, not a national figure.

What the number is, and isn't

It's what this help would cost at market rates. It isn't a care plan, an insurance figure, or a medical estimate of how much help you'll need, and it isn't what you will spend.

• Many agencies bill a minimum of 2 to 4 hours a visit, even for a 1-hour job.
• Free options exist for some of this help: free check-in programs, volunteer drivers, and community escorts.
• Prices vary by city, agency and time of day. Your real cost may be higher or lower.

This calculator is general information, not financial advice.