How Much Does Childcare Cost in NSW?

Few household costs are as confusing as childcare. Centres quote daily fees for sessions of different lengths, include different things, and the government subsidy that pays most of the bill depends on your income, your activity and how many children you have in care.

This guide cuts through that. It starts with what NSW families actually pay on average, using the latest official data, then explains why fees differ so much between centres, what an all-inclusive fee saves you, and how the subsidy turns a sticker price into the gap you really pay. Three worked examples follow, then a list of extras worth checking before you sign anything.

We are a long day care centre in St Ives, and we use our own fee in the examples because it is a real, published number. The method works for any centre. For more practical guides, see our resources for parents.

Source: the Department of Education's Child Care Subsidy data report for the March quarter 2026.

Averages hide a wide spread between suburbs, regions and individual centres, so treat the state figure as a starting point rather than a price guide.

Closer to home, full-day fees listed for St Ives long day care centres on the government's StartingBlocks site ranged from $135 to $216 when we checked on 24 September 2026.

If a centre quotes a weekly or fortnightly price instead, divide it back to a daily and hourly figure before comparing.

Our own fee is $170 for an 11-hour day, which is about $15.45 an hour, including meals, nappies and programs.

Read the averages with care. They blend every age group and every session length, and they are fees before any subsidy, so they tell you about the market rather than your bill.

Multiply the NSW hourly average by the average weekly hours and you get about $504 a week before subsidy. That is the figure the subsidy then works on.

NSW children in long day care attended 34.2 hours a week on average in that quarter, roughly three days. That is why most families think about cost per week rather than per day.

At our centre, the kitchen serves five meals and snacks a day, so children arriving at 7am have breakfast and those collected at 6pm have had a late snack.

The subsidy applies to the whole fee, up to the hourly cap. Food and nappies you buy yourself get no subsidy at all.

That is the quiet advantage of inclusive fees. Paying for nappies inside a subsidised fee can cost less than buying them at the supermarket.

To test the saving yourself, list what you would spend on lunch, snacks, nappies, wipes and sunscreen for one day, then compare that with the difference between an inclusive and a basic fee after subsidy.

Time counts too. Not packing lunch, snacks and a nappy bag every morning is worth something on a busy workday.

Inclusive does not mean identical. One centre's "meals included" might be lunch only, while another provides breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack. Ask exactly which meals are covered and who prepares them.

The same goes for classes. Weekly sessions run by the centre's own team are different from occasional visiting programs, and some centres charge separately for the latter.

Ask each centre for a written list of inclusions. See ours in full on our daily fee inclusions page, which also has a savings calculator.

None of these families is receiving Start Strong funding or the Additional Child Care Subsidy, both of which would lower the gap further for eligible children.

These examples use one centre's fee on purpose. Swap in any other centre's fee and session length and the same steps give you a fair comparison.

Family A pays less than a third of the full $340 a week, because the subsidy covers 90% of the capped fee.

Family A is typical of a household with one parent working part-time. With income under $88,520, the maximum 90% rate applies, and the gap is closer to the price of a family takeaway meal than a full day of care.

Family B shows the sibling effect. The younger child's higher rate cuts that child's gap to about $21 a day.

Family C shows how the subsidy tapers. On a quarter of a million dollars the rate is still above half, so the gap is far from the full fee, but it is nearly three times Family A's daily cost.

Family C needs the 100-hour entitlement. Four 11-hour days use 88 hours a fortnight, above the 72-hour baseline.

Across a 48-week year, those weekly gaps come to about $2,605 for Family A, $9,756 for Family B and $15,055 for Family C.

Part of each withheld amount can come back after balancing, so the true yearly cost may be slightly lower.

Or skip the arithmetic. Our online cost estimator does every step, including siblings and the 72 or 100-hour limit.

Here is the method in action for a family on $180,000 with one child. The rate is 71.70%. On the capped $167.09 that gives $119.80, or $113.81 after withholding, leaving a gap of $56.19 a day.

For four-year-olds, the NSW Government's Start Strong program can reduce fees again at long day care services that take part. See our Start Strong explainer for the 2026 amounts.

Your subsidy estimate is only as good as your income estimate. Update Centrelink if your income changes during the year.

• Using gross fees instead of the gap after subsidy
• Forgetting the 5% withholding when budgeting week to week
• Booking more hours than your fortnightly entitlement covers
• Leaving out food and nappies when a fee does not include them
• Not updating Centrelink when income or work hours change

Those five slips cause most of the surprises families tell us about, and each is easy to avoid once you know to look for it.

Remember to include the whole year: a 48-week estimate, plus any public holidays that fall on booked days, gives a realistic annual budget.

Want to talk through your numbers? Call us on (02) 7238 8668 and our accounts team can walk you through them.