State of Pet Costs 2026
What it costs to keep a dog or cat across 341 breeds (266 dog, 75 cat), and what is pushing those costs up.
Executive summary
N = 341 breeds- Annual cost
- $2,452 / yr for dogsCats average $1,015 / year, 58.6% less than dogs.
- Lifetime cost
- $32,302 dog averageThe average cat costs $15,371 over a lifetime.
- Cost spread
- 4.6x cheapest to priciestAnnual spend runs from $797 (Korat) to $3,674 (Great Dane).
- Vet price inflation
- +5.7% YoY to August 2026Vet prices rose faster than all consumer prices (+3.4%).
All figures in 2026 US dollars, calculated from the PetBudget breed database.
Cost by size class
Size is the clearest cost driver: bigger animals eat more, dose more and need more expensive surgery.
| Size | Breeds | Avg per year | Avg lifespan | Avg lifetime | Relative to toy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ToyUnder 12 lbs, e.g. Chihuahua | 20 | $1,798 | 13.6 yrs | $26,713 | Baseline |
| Small12–25 lbs, e.g. Beagle | 73 | $1,846 | 13.4 yrs | $26,555 | +2.6% vs toy |
| Medium25–55 lbs, e.g. Border Collie | 141 | $1,896 | 13.1 yrs | $26,434 | +5.4% vs toy |
| Large55–90 lbs, e.g. Labrador | 82 | $2,516 | 12.3 yrs | $32,574 | +39.9% vs toy |
| Giant90+ lbs, e.g. Great Dane | 25 | $3,366 | 9.6 yrs | $34,970 | +87.2% vs toy |
Cheapest and most expensive breeds
Annual cost is heavily skewed: the priciest breed costs 4.6 times the cheapest.
Korat
$797/ year- First year
- $1,869
- Lifespan
- 17 yrs
- Lifetime
- $14,621
Great Dane
$3,674/ year- First year
- $6,522
- Lifespan
- 8 yrs
- Lifetime
- $32,240
Looking for your own breed? Browse all 341 in the breed directory or use the comparison tool.
The biggest health cost drivers
The conditions listed for the most breeds, with the typical sourced cost to treat them.
- 1
Hip Dysplasia
A loose, poorly formed hip joint that develops arthritis; unusually common in the Affenpinscher for a toy breed.
Breeds181Typical cost$6,687 - 2
Patellar Luxation
The kneecap slips out of its groove and causes a skipping gait; moderate to severe grades need surgical realignment.
Breeds77Typical cost$2,774 - 3
Progressive Retinal Atrophy
Breeds69Typical costn/a - 4
Hypothyroidism
Breeds52Typical costn/a
- 05Gastric dilatation-volvulus (bloat)51 breeds · $4,709 typical
- 06Ear infections47 breeds · $156 typical
- 07Periodontal Disease46 breeds · $627 typical
- 08Elbow dysplasia27 breeds · $2,750 typical
Typical cost is the mean of sourced one-time treatment figures for breeds that list the condition; it excludes diagnosis, imaging and rehab.
Vet price inflation vs. overall CPI
Vet prices rose 5.7% over the past 12 months, 2.3 percentage points faster than overall inflation.
Monthly detail on the Pet Cost Index.
Want the breed-by-breed dataset?
We will email you the full CSV: one row per breed with first-year, annual, monthly and lifetime cost.
Method and changelog
Breed figures come from the PetBudget cost model behind each breed page, built from published vet fee schedules, food prices and insurance data. See the methodology. This page is calculated from the live breed database, so it can drift slightly from the v1.0 PDF, which is a fixed September 2026 snapshot. Vet inflation is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U.
Cite this research
Free to use with a link back. Cite as:
PetBudgetCalculator. (2026). State of Pet Costs 2026 [Report, v1.0]. https://petbudgetcalculator.com/research/state-of-pet-costs-2026