Dog spay cost: 2026 survey of 179 published clinic prices

It costs a median of $220 to spay a dog, across 179 published clinic and shelter prices collected in September 2026, ranging from $70 at a shelter clinic in Kansas to $1,045 at a private clinic in Connecticut for a dog over 100 lb.

We checked 136 provider websites in 46 states and Washington DC: 81 published a dog spay price, and 73 published one open to any owner. Half of the counted prices fall between $153 and $335. Twenty-two further published prices, from 12 providers, were open only to income-qualified or resident owners; they are listed in the sources but left out of every figure on this page.

Every price below was read on the provider’s own website, with the link and the date it was read, and every source was reopened on 10 October 2026: two prices had risen, and the median and middle half did not move.

If you already have a quote in hand, is $475 too much to spay a dog? shows where any figure sits against this survey.

How much does a dog spay cost at a nonprofit or shelter clinic?

Across 151 nonprofit clinic prices the median dog spay is $215, and across 17 shelter clinic prices it is $180; the lowest general-public price in the survey is $70 at Great Plains SPCA in Merriam, Kansas, for a dog under 25 lb, and that price includes a rabies vaccination and a microchip.

Nonprofit does not mean cheap everywhere. The nonprofit prices run from $70 to $700: Monmouth County SPCA in New Jersey lists $700 for its largest dogs. The Northeast nonprofit and shelter clinics in this survey start high. Kent Animal Shelter on Long Island lists $350 to $560 by weight, Nutmeg Spay/Neuter Clinic in Connecticut $350 to $575, and Animal Welfare Society in Maine $400 to $550.

The prices at or under $100 sit almost entirely in the South and the Plains: Tennessee (SNIP-IT $80, PPAW Knoxville $80 to $95, Sumner Spay Neuter Alliance $70), Alabama (North Alabama Spay Neuter Clinic $80 to $110), Kentucky (Franklin County Humane Society $95, HOPE Spay Neuter Clinic $100), Oklahoma (Tulsa SPCA $95), Kansas (Great Plains SPCA $70 to $90) and South Dakota (PAWS Animal Rescue $100).

How much does a dog spay cost at a private veterinary clinic?

Only 3 of the 73 providers with a price open to any owner were private clinics, and their 11 prices have a median of $475, from $187 at West Georgia Spay Neuter Clinic in Douglasville, Georgia, to $1,045 at Value Pet Vet in Connecticut for a dog of 101 to 150 lb.

That thin private-clinic sample is the finding, not a gap in our searching. A May 2026 study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science of 177 small-animal clinics in eight US states found that 1.91% of clinic websites published any price at all, so nearly every private practice will only tell you its spay price on the phone or in a written estimate. Treat the $475 figure as what three transparent private clinics charge, not as the national private-practice rate.

The private prices also show how much the headline number can hide. Value Pet Vet’s $475 for a dog under 25 lb is a base price: the page lists antibiotics at $70 to $100 or more, bloodwork at $119 or $229 depending on age, a $7 medical-waste fee and a $40 to $45 cone on top.

Sweetspire Vet Clinic in Summerville, South Carolina, lists starting prices of $320 to $510 by weight. West Georgia’s $187 includes the exam, a rabies vaccination, the e-collar and five days of pain medication and sedatives.

How much more does a large dog cost to spay?

In this survey the median is $200 for dogs under 20 lb, $188 for 20 to 50 lb, $245 for 50 to 80 lb and $275 for dogs over 80 lb; within a single provider, the step from the smallest to the largest band has a median of $75, from $10 to $570, across the 46 providers that publish more than one band.

The under-20 lb median sits above the 20 to 50 lb median only because of which clinics split their prices at 20 lb; those are mostly the higher-priced Northeastern ones. Inside one provider, weight always costs more.

SNAP in Houston runs $180 to $375 across four bands, Brandywine Valley SPCA $180 to $320 and Humane Animal Partners in Delaware $185 to $375. The widest steps are Sacramento SPCA, $200 for a dog under 20 lb to $500 for 120 to 139 lb, and Value Pet Vet, $475 to $1,045.

Several clinics leave the top band open-ended. Nutmeg charges $575 for 100 lb and above plus $25 for each extra 10 lb, SNIP-IT in East Tennessee adds $10 per 10 lb over 40 lb, and Cache Humane Society in Utah adds $3 per pound over 65 lb. Others simply stop: Heaven Can Wait in Nevada does not accept females over 70 lb.

What does the published price usually include?

Most published prices cover the surgery, the anesthesia and a pain injection given at the clinic; take-home pain medication, an e-collar, a nail trim and a vaccination are included by some providers and sold separately by others, which is why two prices $100 apart can cost the same by the time you leave.

SNAP Houston’s $180 to $375 includes surgery, take-home pain medication and the e-collar. Iowa Humane Alliance’s $100 includes a brief exam, sedation with pain medication, general anesthesia and the tattoo.

Great Plains SPCA’s $70 includes a one-year rabies vaccination and a microchip, and Franklin County Humane Society’s $95 includes rabies, a DAPP booster, flea treatment and pain medication. At the other end, the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado sells a $270 spay package and a $365 package that adds rabies, DAPP, kennel cough and a microchip.

What costs extra on a dog spay?

The most common add-ons in the survey are pre-surgical bloodwork for older dogs, priced between $50 and $229, an in-heat surcharge of $10 to $135, and a pregnancy surcharge of $20 to $200; a minority of clinics also charge separately for take-home pain medication and the cone.

Bloodwork is usually tied to age. Louisiana SPCA requires it at $75 from seven years, York County SPCA at $70 to $100 from six years, Kent Animal Shelter at $70 from five years, Virginia Kincheloe at $220 from six years, and Value Pet Vet at $119 for dogs of one to three years and $229 above that.

In-heat surcharges run from $10 at North Alabama Spay Neuter Clinic through $25 at York County SPCA, $30 at Brandywine Valley SPCA and Nutmeg, $35 at SPCA of Anne Arundel County, $45 to $125 at Hanna’s Clinic in Maryland, to $90 to $135 at Kent Animal Shelter. Pregnancy costs $20 extra at North Alabama, $45 at Brandywine, $55 at SNAP Houston and $200 at Kent.

The small extras add up at the clinics that unbundle. CAHS in Lansing, Michigan, requires a $10 e-collar and $10 of extra pain medication on top of its $145 to $250. SOS of Ohio, which said in October 2026 that it was discontinuing most of its operations, charges $10 for take-home pain medication and $8 for the e-collar on top of $130 to $170. Cache Humane Society’s $134 includes a three-day pain prescription but sells the cone for $10.

Deposits are common too: Virginia Kincheloe takes a $50 non-refundable reservation fee, Central California SPCA $100, Hanna’s Clinic $85. Flat-faced breeds cost $25 more at Anne Arundel, $50 at SPCA of Wake County and $50 to $75 at Central California SPCA.

Why do dog spay prices vary so much?

The $70 to $1,045 spread comes from three things: whether the provider is a subsidised nonprofit or a private practice, where it is, and how much of the aftercare is bundled into the number.

Region shows up clearly. The New England and New Jersey nonprofits in this survey start at $250 to $450 for their smallest dogs (Lucy Mackenzie in Vermont $250, Providence Animal Rescue League $450, Monmouth County SPCA $405), while the cheapest Southern and Plains clinics start at $70 to $100. The state table below shows this directly; a state appears in its own row only when it has at least three prices.

The sample is also weighted toward nonprofit and shelter clinics because they are the providers that publish. If your only nearby option is a private practice, expect to be quoted above the $220 median, and use the private-clinic row and the what-is-included list above to judge the quote rather than the headline figure.

How do I get a comparable written estimate for a dog spay?

Ask every clinic for the same six things in writing, so the quotes you compare cover the same dog and the same aftercare.

1. The price for your dog’s weight band.
2. Whether bloodwork is required at her age, and what it costs.
3. The in-heat and pregnancy surcharges.
4. Whether take-home pain medication and the e-collar are included.
5. Any deposit or reservation fee.
6. Whether the clinic has a weight limit.

To judge a quote you already have, see is your spay or neuter quote reasonable?, and for why two clinics quote so differently for the same dog, why dog spay prices differ. The same survey method covers the dog neuter cost, cat spay cost and cat neuter cost.

Prices change without notice, and a published price is not a quote for your dog. Get a written estimate from your own vet or the clinic you choose before booking. Nothing on this page is medical advice; whether and when to spay is a question for your veterinarian.