What should I charge for babysitting?

Build your rate from the going rate for one child in your area, then add for the things a flat quote quietly gives away: each extra child, the duties beyond watching, and the late hours when the children are asleep and you still cannot leave. The going rate is yours to bring, because it is set street by street and no calculator knows your town. The rest is arithmetic, and it is the part sitters get wrong in the same direction every time, which is short.

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Going rate for one child, per hour (dollars)

The rate a sitter in your area charges to watch a single child for a standard evening. The default is ours and editable, and your own town's figure is the one that matters.

This is the number the whole page turns on, and it is the one no calculator can supply, because it is set locally: a rate that is ordinary in a large city can be high in a small town, and the other way around. Find it the way a family does. Ask two or three sitters you know what they charge, look at what local sitter listings ask, and take the middle of what you hear. Put that here as the rate for one child on a plain evening, and let the boxes below add for everything that makes a given job more than that.

Number of children

How many children you will be watching at once. This is the multiplier a flat rate quietly ignores.

One child and three children are not the same job, and pricing them the same is the commonest way a sitter gives work away. A second child roughly doubles the watching, a third turns an evening into crowd control, and the risk climbs with the number in ways that have nothing to do with how well behaved they are. Families understand this when it is put to them plainly, because they know their own house. The per-child add below is how you price it without simply charging a large flat number that looks like a lot on its own.

Add per extra child, per hour (dollars)

What you add to the hourly rate for each child beyond the first. The default is ours and editable.

This is the line that separates a rate that pays and one that does not. The first child sets the base; every child after that adds this figure to the hourly rate, because every child after that adds work. A few dollars a child per hour is a common shape and it is a placeholder for your own, and note what it does over an evening: three children at this add, over a five-hour night, is real money that a single flat quote would have folded away to nothing. Set it to what feels fair for your area and the children you know, and let the arithmetic carry it.

Extra-duties bump, per hour (dollars)

Added for work beyond watching: cooking a real meal, a sink of dishes, laundry, pet care, homework or a full bath-and-bed routine. Zero if the job is plain supervision.

There is a difference between keeping children safe and running the household while you do it, and the difference is worth pricing. A job that is order a pizza and watch a film is not the job that is cook dinner, bathe two children, read to them, tidy the kitchen and start a load of washing. The second is a housekeeper's evening with childcare on top, and a sitter who charges the same for both is doing the extra for free. Put a figure here for the duties you are actually being asked to do, and if it is genuinely just supervision, leave it at zero.

Late-night or after-bedtime bump, per hour (dollars)

Added for hours after the children are asleep, or a job that runs late, or a holiday. Zero for an ordinary early evening.

The hours after bedtime look like the easy ones and they are the ones sitters most often discount, which is backwards. The children being asleep does not release you: you cannot leave, you are still responsible if one of them wakes or is ill, and you are giving up your own evening or your sleep to sit in someone else's quiet house. A job that runs past a reasonable hour, or falls on a holiday, or lands at the last minute, is worth more per hour than the same job at six in the evening, not less. This is where you say so.

What to charge, an hour

$23

Going rate, one child$18
Additional children, at the per-child rate$3
Extra-duties bump$2
Late-night or after-bedtime bump$0
Total$23

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This is the ordinary shape of a babysitting rate: a local going rate for one child, with sensible adds for extra children and the harder hours. Say it as an hourly figure rather than a flat total, keep the per-child logic ready to explain, and hold the late-night bump for the jobs that earn it. If you sit for the same families often, agreeing the rate and the terms once, in writing, saves the awkward conversation every time.

PlanningSitter scheduling and invoicing tools↗Keeps the hours, the rate and the extras in one place across regular families.AdminSimple sitter-family agreement↗Rate, hours, duties and what happens if the night runs late.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

PRICE PER CHILD, NOT PER NIGHT, BECAUSE A FLAT RATE GIVES THE EXTRA CHILDREN AWAY.

This is the line the page exists to surface. One flat hourly rate for a household treats a third child as free, and a third child is not free: it is more watching, more to go wrong, and more that falls on you if it does. The fix is not to charge a large flat number that looks greedy on its own, it is to let the first child set the base and have every child after that add the per-child line. Families follow that reasoning easily, because they know their own house better than anyone. At the defaults, the going rate of eighteen dollars for the first child, plus three for the second and a two-dollar duties bump, is twenty-three dollars an hour, and a five-hour Saturday night comes to one hundred and fifteen dollars.

The hours after bedtime are a premium, not a discount.

The children being asleep is the part that feels like the easy money, and it is the part sitters most often knock the rate down for, which has it exactly backwards. Asleep or awake, you cannot leave, you are still the responsible adult if a child wakes frightened or is unwell, and you are spending your own late evening or your sleep in someone else's house. A job that runs late, or falls on a holiday, or is booked at the last minute, is worth more per hour than a plain early evening. The late-night bump is where you charge for the thing you are actually giving up, which is your own night.

The going rate for one child is yours to bring, and it is set street by street.

No calculator can tell you what a sitter charges in your town, because it is a local number: a rate that is ordinary in a large city can be steep in a small one. Find it the way families do, by asking a few sitters you know and reading the local listings, and put the middle of what you hear in the first box. Everything else on this page is arithmetic on top of that number, and it is only as good as the number you start it from.

This builds a rate rather than a night's bill, on purpose. What you charge is a rate, and it is the number a family asks for and the number you have to be able to say out loud without flinching. Multiply it by the hours to get an evening's total when you need one, but decide the rate first, because a rate you have reasoned your way to is one you can hold, and a total you reverse-engineered from a number you hoped for is one you will discount the moment you are asked.

What you charge is not what you keep, and it is worth remembering on both sides of the quote. Out of the rate come the evenings you turn down to hold one open, the travel to and from the house, the tax on what you earn, and the years it took to become someone a family trusts alone with their children. A rate that looks high beside a minimum wage is not high beside that. This page does not model any of it, and it is not arguing a quote is unfair: it is showing you how the number is built, so the rate you name is one you can stand behind.

Frequently asked questions

What should I charge for babysitting?

Start from the going rate for one child in your area, which is a local number you find by asking a few sitters you know and reading local listings, then add for what makes a given job more than a plain evening: each child beyond the first, any duties beyond watching, and the late or holiday hours. This page builds that sum for you. The single most useful thing it does is stop you quoting one flat rate for a whole household, because a flat rate treats the second and third child as free when they are the opposite of free. Put your own going rate in the first box, set the number of children and the bumps, and the rate at the top is the number to say when a family asks.

Should I charge more for more children?

Yes, and it is the correction that changes a babysitting rate the most. One child and three children are not the same job: a second child roughly doubles the watching, a third turns the evening into managing a small crowd, and the responsibility grows with the number regardless of how good the children are. Pricing them the same is the commonest way a sitter quietly gives work away over an evening. The clean way to charge for it is to let the first child set your base rate and add a fixed amount per child after that, rather than naming one large flat number that sounds like a lot on its own. Families understand the per-child logic when it is put plainly, because they know their own household.

How much should I charge for babysitting after the kids are asleep?

More per hour than the early evening, not less, even though it feels like it should be the reverse. The children being asleep does not let you leave, does not end your responsibility if one wakes or is ill, and does not give you your own evening back, so those hours are worth a premium rather than a discount. The same is true of a job that runs late, lands on a holiday, or is booked at the last minute. Put a figure in the late-night bump for what those hours are actually costing you, which is your own night, and charge it without apology. A family booking a sitter until well past midnight knows they are asking for something, and the rate should say so.

Is it better to charge an hourly rate or a flat rate for the night?

Decide the hourly rate first, then convert to a night's total only if a family wants one, rather than the other way around. A rate you have reasoned your way to, from a base plus a per-child line plus the bumps, is one you can explain and hold when you are asked to come down on it. A flat number for the night that you worked backwards from a figure you hoped for is one you will discount the moment there is any pressure, because you cannot show how it was built. Use this page to settle the rate, multiply it by the hours you expect to be there for the total, and keep the hourly figure in your head as the thing you are actually agreeing to.

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