What will a babysitter actually cost?
Put in your state, how many children and how long you will be out. You get the real range for 2026, what pushes it up, and what is normal to add on top.
Work out tonight’s costYour evening, priced honestly.
Built on a national base of $24.50 an hour for one child, adjusted by state, family size, the sitter’s experience and the kind of night it is. The same engine sitters use on our rate page, so both sides of the conversation see the same number.
Why two families in the same town pay different rates.
| What changes | What it does to the hourly rate |
|---|---|
| A second child | Adds roughly 15 percent, not double. A third adds less again. |
| A baby under one | Adds a couple of dollars an hour almost everywhere. It is a different job. |
| Where you live | The widest single factor. A high-cost metro can sit 20 to 25 percent above a rural state. |
| Booking on the day | Two to three dollars an hour. You are asking someone to cancel their evening. |
| New Year’s Eve and major holidays | Time and a quarter is normal. Some sitters charge more and are worth it. |
| Driving your children | Adds to the rate and needs a separate conversation about insurance and car seats. |
| Training and first aid | Costs more per hour and is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy. |
The five things worth agreeing in advance.
- The hourly rate, said out loud. Not implied, not “we will sort it out”. Say the number when you book.
- What happens if you are late. Agree the overtime rate before you leave. Most awkward doorstep conversations are about this one thing.
- How you will pay. Cash on the night, or an app before you get home. Sitters chasing payment by text is the single biggest complaint in this job.
- Your cancellation terms, both ways. If you cancel at four in the afternoon, a good sitter has lost the evening. Half rate is a fair standard.
- Whether they can reach you. A number that is actually answered, and one nearby adult as backup.
Babysitter cost, answered.
How much does a babysitter cost per hour in 2026?
Nationally, most families pay somewhere between $20 and $30 an hour for one child with an experienced sitter. The calculator above narrows that by state, family size and what you are asking for. A trained teenager on their first jobs sits meaningfully below it; a sitter with years of experience who drives sits above.
Do you tip a babysitter?
Not routinely, and no sitter expects it. What is normal is rounding up to the nearest ten or twenty when they have stayed later than planned, done something extra, or the evening was harder than you warned them it would be. Around the holidays, a lot of families give a regular sitter one evening’s pay as a thank you.
Should I pay more for two children?
Yes, but not double. Fifteen percent on top of the one-child rate is the usual convention, and a bit less again for a third. Two children is more work than one, but not twice the work, and a sitter who tries to double the rate for a second child is out of step with the market.
What about an overnight?
Overnights are usually priced as a flat block rather than by the hour, commonly $200 to $325 depending on your state and how many children. If the sitter is genuinely on duty through the night rather than asleep in a spare room, price it hourly instead. There is more on this in our guide to overnight babysitting rates.
Am I supposed to pay taxes on this?
For occasional evening babysitting, almost never. It becomes a real question when you pay one person more than the IRS household employee threshold in a year, which is where a regular nanny arrangement ends up. If you are booking the same sitter several days a week, that is worth checking properly rather than guessing.
Is a cheaper sitter a false economy?
Sometimes. The gap that matters is not age, it is training. A fifteen-year-old who has done a proper course and can tell you what they would do if a child choked is a safer bet than an untrained adult, and costs less. Ask what training they have and whether you can check it.
Hiring a sitter? Ask to see their certificate.
Every sitter certified here gets a page on this site with their name on it, showing what they passed and when. You can look it up in seconds, before they ever come to your door.
Check a sitter’s credential