How much allowance should you give? A no-stress guide by age.
A rule of thumb, an age-by-age table, and the question to ask before you raise the rate.
The most common question new parents ask about allowance is the simplest one: how much? The honest answer is that the number matters less than picking a number and sticking to it. A consistent $2 a week beats a sporadic $20.
That said, parents want a starting point. Here is the rule of thumb most family-finance writers land on, plus a table you can use today.
The rule of thumb
$1 per year of age, per week. A 6-year-old gets $6. A 12-year-old gets $12. It scales naturally with their age, their spending appetite, and your willingness to actually fund it. Round down if your family is uncomfortable with the upper end; round up if your kid is taking on more responsibility.
This is a starting point, not a law. Some families do half a dollar per year. Some do twice that. The math is less important than the rhythm.
By age
| Age | Weekly allowance (low → high) | What it typically covers |
|---|---|---|
| 4–6 | $1–$5 | Small treats; the lesson is that money exists and runs out |
| 7–9 | $5–$8 | Modest toys, candy, small gifts, the first real saving target |
| 10–12 | $8–$12 | Books, video-game add-ons, occasional outings with friends |
| 13–15 | $12–$20 | Phone bill share, clothing accents, weekend spending |
| 16+ | $20–$40+ | Gas, lunch, dates — the year a debit card starts to make sense |
Tie it to chores, or not?
Two camps, both defensible. Tied-to-chores teaches that money is earned. Unconditional allowance teaches that money is a tool you practice with, separate from family responsibilities that everyone does because they live there.
A common compromise: a small base allowance that is unconditional, plus optional "extra jobs" that pay on top. The base teaches stewardship, the bonuses teach effort.
When to raise it
The question isn’t calendar age. It’s whether the money is doing work:
- Are they running out before the week ends, on real purchases?
- Are they actually saving anything, ever?
- Is there a category of expense you want them to start covering themselves?
If the answer to all three is no, the amount is fine. If one or two are yes, bump it. Birthdays are the natural cadence — review every year, adjust if needed, then leave it alone.
The part most parents skip
The amount almost doesn’t matter if you forget to actually pay it. Cash gets messy. Mental ledgers get worse. The trick is automation: set the amount once, set the rhythm, and have something else handle the payment.
That is what we built KidCash for — a private allowance tracker that credits the money on schedule, even in the background, without a bank account or a debit card. Pause it, skip a week, change the rate. The math stays clean. See how it works.
One more thing: pay interest
If you want your kid to actually save, give them a reason. A 1% weekly interest rate on their balance turns saving into a visible win. We wrote a whole post on this: Teaching kids compound interest without a savings account.