Childcare cost calculator: what it costs after tax help
What the childcare years cost after federal tax help, and what they do to the date you reach your FIRE number.
Put in a month of care and the answer appears below.
The net cost of childcare
Put in a month of care
The box for a month of care is empty on purpose: this page states no average price. Put in what one child's care costs a month, in today's money, and the answer appears here, or start from a round example.
The care
Tax help
How you file
The credit's rate steps down at a higher income on a joint return.
You
Not modeled: state credits, Head Start and subsidy eligibility, the child tax credit, the household employer's (nanny) tax, the limit that expenses cannot exceed the smaller earner's income, and the credit being non-refundable (it cannot take your tax below zero). The IRS limits are kept as stated, in today's money.
The link carries your figures, so you can save or share it. Your figures are not sent to us.
The tax rules, as the IRS states them for 2026
- The credit. For tax year 2026 the Child and Dependent Care Credit is 20% to 50% of qualifying expenses, depending on adjusted gross income. You can use up to $3,000 of expenses for one qualifying person and $6,000 for two or more.
- The rate. The rate is 50% at an adjusted gross income of $15,000 or less. Above that it falls by 1 percentage point for each $2,000 (or part of it) to 35%. Above $75,000, or $150,000 on a joint return, it falls again, by 1 point for each $2,000 ($4,000 on a joint return), and never below 20%. The credit is non-refundable: it can reduce the tax you owe, but you cannot receive a refund for any part of it above your tax.
- The employer benefit. From tax year 2026 an employee can exclude up to $7,500 of employer dependent care benefits from income, up from $5,000 ($3,750 for a married employee filing separately). These may include contributions to a dependent care flexible spending account.
- Not both. You cannot use the same expenses to claim both the credit and the exclusion. Excluded benefits generally reduce the amount of expenses you can use to calculate the credit.
- Who counts. The expenses are for the care of a qualifying person, generally a dependent under 13, so that you (and your spouse, on a joint return) can work or look for work. The care provider cannot be your spouse, the child's parent, or your own child under 19, and you must identify the provider on your return.
Sources: the IRS, Child and Dependent Care Credit information, and the step size from 26 U.S.C. 21, which the IRS page does not spell out. The IRS credit page and the law both cover 2026 returns, filed in 2027. Rules change; check the IRS pages before you act.
Questions people ask
- How much does childcare cost?
- This page does not say, because a published average describes other people's choices and places. You put in what one child's care costs a month where you live, in today's money, how many children are in care and for how many years. The page adds it up, takes off the federal tax help, and raises the cost each year above inflation by a rate you can change.
- What does childcare do to my FIRE date?
- The net cost of each care year comes out of what you would otherwise save, a twelfth each month. The page runs your own path twice, month by month in today's money, once without the care and once with it, and shows how much later you reach your number (the yearly cost of the life you chose divided by the 4% withdrawal rate, a figure from US market history over 30-year retirements; a longer retirement may need a lower rate).
- Can I use the credit and a dependent care FSA on the same expenses?
- No. The IRS says you cannot use the same expenses to claim both the Child and Dependent Care Credit and the exclusion for employer-provided dependent care benefits, and that excluded benefits generally reduce the expenses you can use for the credit. The page takes the benefit off the credit's expenses first.
- Is daycare worth it, or should one of us stop working?
- This page prices the care. It does not say which choice is right. The other side, what one parent pausing work costs in pay and in the date you reach your number, is on the career break calculator, linked below. Put the net cost here beside that result and compare them for your own household.
- What does this page leave out?
- State credits and deductions, Head Start and other subsidy eligibility, the child tax credit (the cost of a child page covers it), the household employer's (nanny) tax, the rule that expenses cannot exceed the smaller earner's income, and that the credit is non-refundable. Each can change what a family really pays.
Every cost on this page is the one you put in. The cost rise and the returns are assumptions you can change, not forecasts or averages, and the income is an example until you change it. This is not tax or financial advice; a tax professional can say how the rules apply to you.