Allowance by age calculator

A common rule of thumb for allowance by age is $1 a week for each year of a child's age, so an 8-year-old gets $8 a week. The calculator below works that out for each of your children at any rate you choose, shows what it comes to per month and per year, and splits each payout into spend, save and give.

Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. The numbers are worked out in your browser.

How the allowance calculator works#

I built it on the same split arithmetic The Margin uses inside the app when one allowance pot is shared between children, so the jars come out exact.

• Weekly amount: age × the rate. At $1.50 per year of age, a 7-year-old gets $10.50 a week.
• Each payout: the weekly amount, twice it every two weeks, or a year's worth divided by 12 when you pay monthly.
• Per month and per year: a year is 52 weeks of the weekly amount, and a month is a twelfth of that, rounded to the cent once.
• The jars: each payout is split by your percentages, and the three jars always add back to the payout, to the cent. A split that does not reach 100% is refused rather than rounded.

Weekly allowance by age: what other families pay#

Greenlight, a debit card for kids, publishes the average weekly allowance its families paid in 2025, by age (its figures, updated May 2026). They come from its own customers rather than a survey of all US families, and it does not say how many, so read them as one data point:

The rule of thumb lands close to what these families pay: a little under it from 8 to 14, a little over at 5 and at 16.

Choosing a rate#

Decide what the allowance has to pay for before you settle on a number:

• Treats only: a lower rate works, say 50 cents per year of age.
• Treats plus small wants: around $1 per year of age.
• Real costs too (school lunches, a phone plan, clothes): more, and usually monthly, so the child learns to make it last.

If you raise it on birthdays, the rule keeps itself up to date. Whether chores earn the allowance is a separate choice; the chore chart by age has a starting list for each age if you want to tie the two together.

Paying it without the cash#

The Margin keeps a running balance for each child that nobody can quietly edit. An allowance credits itself on payday, one pot can be shared between children by a rule, and a savings goal holds real money back until it is reached. See allowance and chore points.