Paw Plan is a free planning tool for UK pet owners. Enter the type of pet, its size and your circumstances, and it works out an estimated annual cost, a monthly figure, and a projection over the years ahead, broken down by category.
Why Paw Plan Exists
Pet cost information online is usually presented as a single national average. That is not much help when planning an actual monthly budget, because costs vary considerably by species, breed, size and location, and the one-off costs of the first year look very different from the ongoing annual cost.
Paw Plan asks for those details and returns a breakdown rather than a single number.
What Paw Plan Covers
The calculator handles dogs, cats, rabbits and other common UK pets. It factors in breed-specific costs, because a French Bulldog and a Labrador are very different propositions when it comes to insurance and vet bills.
It also includes the costs that catch people out: holiday boarding, professional grooming, dog walking, and replacing everything a puppy chews during teething.
Where the Numbers Come From
The figures in Paw Plan are estimates built from typical UK prices for food, routine veterinary care, insurance, grooming and boarding. They are a starting point for budgeting, not a quote, and you should check current prices with your own vet, insurer and groomer.
For published UK research on pet ownership and the affordability of pet care, see the PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report. For pet insurance claims data, see the Association of British Insurers.
Free, Private, and No Nonsense
Paw Plan is completely free to use. We do not require an account. Your data stays on your device. We run ads to keep the lights on, but the calculator itself will always be free and accessible to anyone thinking about getting a pet or trying to budget for the one they already have.
If you have found Paw Plan useful, the best thing you can do is share it with someone who is thinking about getting a pet. Because the more people who go into pet ownership with their eyes open and their budget planned, the fewer pets end up surrendered to shelters because their owners could not afford to keep them. And that is something worth working towards.