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College Cost Calculator

Projects tuition, housing and food, and books and other costs forward year by year at a cost-inflation rate you set, from the year the student starts through to graduation. Shows the year-by-year table, the first-year and final-year costs and the total, in your currency.

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Open College Cost Calculator and you get an answer straight away, with no account to create. Its place is under Savings & budgeting; 529 College Savings Calculator and Cost of Raising a Child Calculator answer the questions closest to this one.

How to use it

  1. Open the tool — no signup or install needed.
  2. Enter your input or adjust the available options.
  3. Get your result instantly, then copy or download it.

Frequently asked questions

What is College Cost Calculator?

Projects tuition, housing and food, and books and other costs forward year by year at a cost-inflation rate you set, from the year the student starts through to graduation. Shows the year-by-year table, the first-year and final-year costs and the total, in your currency.

When would I actually use this?

Planning a deposit, a safety net or a large purchase: how much to put aside each month, and how long a target takes at a given rate.

What is the most common mistake?

Reading a nominal rate as if it were real. Inflation is subtracted from the return, not from the capital, so a 3% account during 4% inflation loses purchasing power every year.

How is College Cost Calculator different from 529 College Savings Calculator?

They sit next to each other but answer different questions: 529 College Savings Calculator is the one to open when you need it to project a 529 balance to college and compare it with the inflated cost, with the monthly needed to fully fund. Pick whichever matches what you're starting from — both are free.

Is there a tool for the next step?

Cost of Raising a Child Calculator is the closest one after this: Builds on the USDA Expenditures on Children by Families tables (2015 data, the last edition published), restated in today's money and projected forward at your inflation rate. Applies the economies of scale the source measured — an only child costs 27% more, a third child 24% less — and optionally adds four years of college.

What else is worth having open alongside it?

Cost of Living Calculator and Acid-Test (Quick) Ratio Calculator — they come up in the same task often enough to be worth a second tab.

Where do the figures come from?

Compound interest is arithmetic, so the maths is exact for the rate you enter. Real accounts vary in compounding frequency, tax treatment and whether interest is credited before or after a deposit.

Further reading

All guides →
ExplainerCollege Costs Compound for Eighteen Years Before Anyone EnrolsA four-year public in-state budget is 30,990 dollars today. Eighteen years out at 4 percent cost inflation the same four years cost 266,593 — 2.15 times the sticker you can see now. And the sticker was never the price: the average net cost of attendance is 21,340.ExplainerWhat a Child Costs Is a Marginal Cost, Not a BillThe USDA's figure of 233,610 dollars for a middle-income child born in 2015 — 317,315 restated in 2025 money — is not a sum of receipts. It is allocated household spending, and the housing line is measured as the cost of one more bedroom.ExplainerThree Different Rules Get Called "The 529 Rule"Qualified expenses, the K-12 cap and state tax treatment are three separate rules, and only the first two are federal. The K-12 cap doubled to 20,000 dollars for tax years from 2026; a federally qualified withdrawal can still be a state recapture event.ExplainerChild Support Is a Shared Cost, Not a Slice of One SalaryIncome shares asks what two parents together would have spent, then splits it. On $5,000 and $3,000 with two children the schedule says $2,257.37, the shares are 62.5 and 37.5 percent, and after 90 overnights the order is $1,301.47 a month.GuideWhat a Deposit Ladder Actually Costs: $141.92 Over Five YearsSplit $50,000 into five rungs instead of one five-year deposit and you end year five with $61,573.20 instead of $61,715.12. The whole liquidity option costs $141.92, once, during the ramp — and it is worth $1,049.24 if rates rise a point.ExplainerThe Alimony Formulas Agree on the Amount and Not on the DurationTwo of the three published US alimony guidelines are the same formula written twice: on 150,000 and 30,000 dollars of gross income both give 3,250 a month. What separates them is duration — 2.1 years or 10.5 — and that turns one marriage into 81,900 or 409,500.