Cat neuter cost: 2026 survey of 46 clinic prices

The median published price to neuter a male cat is $80. That is the middle of 46 prices collected in September 2026 from clinic, shelter and nonprofit websites in 33 states. The full spread runs from $30 to $199, and half of the sample sits between $60 and $104.

Prices vary by clinic, by region and by what the fee covers. Nothing here is a quote. Ask your own vet for a written estimate before you book.

How much does it cost to neuter a cat?

Across the 46 published prices, the median is $80 and the middle half runs $60 to $104. A quote inside that band is ordinary. One above $104 is not automatically wrong, but it puts you in the top quarter of what these providers publish, and it is worth asking what the higher fee covers.

The cheapest price in the sample is $30 at Great Plains SPCA in Merriam, Kansas, a shelter. The dearest is $199 at Value Pet Vet in Connecticut, a private clinic. Between those two sit 44 prices, and where a provider falls in that spread has more to do with its region than its label.

The $30 comes with a caveat that shows why the published figure is rarely the invoice. Great Plains SPCA also charges a $20 reservation fee that is non refundable and is not applied to the surgery price, so the cheapest cat neuter in this survey actually costs $50 to complete.

Why is the range so wide?

Region explains more of the gap than provider type does. The eight Northeast prices have a median of $138. The four in the central states have a median of $50. That is a difference of 2.75 times for the same surgery on the same animal.

Four of the five regions carry fewer than ten prices each, so treat the regional medians as indicative rather than settled. The Southeast figure rests on 22 prices and is the firmest of the five. The Northeast and central figures are the two that move the headline range, and both are thin.

Every table and chart on this page rounds to whole dollars. The Midwest median is $97.50 before rounding and the West median $84.50, which is why those two read as $98 and $85 above.

How does a cat neuter compare with a cat spay?

The neuter is the cheaper of the two almost everywhere. Our cat spay survey of 75 prices puts that median at $100 against $80 here, a gap of $20 at the midpoint.

Four providers in this sample publish both prices side by side. Alaska SPCA lists $150 to neuter and $225 to spay. Heaven Can Wait in Las Vegas lists $80 and $110. Alabama Spay Neuter Clinic lists $95 and $120, and West Georgia Spay Neuter Clinic lists $108 and $118.

Nine of the 46 providers publish one combined figure covering either surgery. Where a clinic does that, the owner of a male cat pays the blended rate rather than the cheaper one.

Species matters far more than sex. Our dog neuter survey of 249 prices has a median of $205, about two and a half times the $80 here, because a dog neuter is priced by weight and a cat neuter almost never is.

What does the published price include?

Usually the page does not say. Only 6 of the 46 providers state on the cat neuter price line itself what the fee covers. Four of those name pain medication and three name a rabies vaccination.

Heaven Can Wait in Las Vegas is the most detailed in the sample. Its $80 covers a pre-surgical examination, an IV catheter, anaesthetic monitoring, pain medication before and after surgery, and a nail trim, with retrovirus testing charged separately at $35.

Animal Rescue Veterinary Services in New Hampshire is the other bundler. Its $140 covers the surgery, pain medication, a nail trim, flea and ear mite treatment, and both a rabies and a distemper vaccination, for cats between two months and five years old.

This pass recorded inclusions only where the clinic stated them on the neuter line. A fuller inclusions and exclusions pass is scheduled for the refresh, and the figures above will be restated then rather than quietly widened.

How many clinics publish a price at all?

We checked 113 providers for this survey. Fifty two of them published a cat neuter price, which is 46 per cent. The other 61 either publish nothing, publish for dogs only, or put the fee behind a phone call or an intake form.

That matches the wider picture. A peer reviewed study of 177 US small animal clinics across eight states found that 157 of them had a website, and that only 3 of those 157, or 1.91 per cent, listed any pricing information at all (Adams and colleagues, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 4 May 2026). The providers in this survey are a self selected minority that chose to publish.

Who is missing matters more than how many. Only two private clinics in the whole sample publish a cat neuter price, at $108 and $199, which is too few to draw a median from and is why no private clinic row appears in the table below. Private practice is where most owners actually go.

Read the median on this page as a floor, then. It is the middle of what low cost and nonprofit providers advertise, not an average of what American owners pay.

Which prices we left out

Six published prices appear in the sources below but are excluded from every figure on this page. Each one is real, and each one is restricted to people who qualify.

Four are income qualified. The MSPCA-Angell price of $25 is for Worcester residents. All About Animals Rescue lists $10 for low income Warren, Michigan residents with proof of state assistance. Spay and Neuter Kansas publishes $50 or $70 depending on income, and Kansas Humane Society states its service is for low income families.

Two more are for community and feral cats rather than owned pets. Lynchburg Humane Society publishes $55 for a feral or community cat with an ear tip included, and Friends of Southern Ocean County publishes a $10 voucher rather than a surgery price.

How to get a comparable written estimate

The single figure on a price page is rarely the figure on the invoice. Ask for the total in writing before you book, and ask these five questions so the numbers you are comparing are the same numbers.

1. Is this the price for a male cat, or a blended spay and neuter rate?
2. Does it include pain medication to take home, or is that billed separately?
3. Is a rabies vaccination included, required, or extra?
4. Is there a surcharge if either testicle has not descended?
5. Is pre-surgical bloodwork included, optional, or required above a certain age?

The fourth question is the one most owners do not think to ask. A cryptorchid cat needs a longer abdominal surgery, and clinics that mention it at all price it as a surcharge on top of the published fee.

If you already have a number and want to know where it sits, our guide to judging a spay or neuter quote works through the same question across all four surveys and 548 prices.

Prices on this page were collected in September 2026 and change without notice. This is cost research, not veterinary advice. Your own vet is the only person who can tell you what your cat needs.