Tax-Free Childcare Calculator United Kingdom

What the tax-free childcare calculator does

The calculator turns your expected childcare bill into two figures: how much the government adds through Tax-Free Childcare, and how much you pay yourself. Childcare is one of the largest costs a working family faces, and the figure after support is far more useful for budgeting than the headline price.

The scheme runs through an online childcare account. You pay money in, the government adds a top-up and you pay your registered provider from the account. Because the top-up arrives automatically each time you pay in, many parents never see the saving as one yearly figure. This tool shows the top-up and your net cost side by side before you commit to a nursery place or a childminder.

How the government top-up works

For every £8 you pay into your childcare account, the government adds £2. That is 25% on top of your own payment, and it means the government pays 20% of the total that goes to your provider while you pay 80%.

The calculator works from your total childcare bill and takes the government’s 20% share of it. On an £8,000 bill the top-up is £1,600 and you pay £6,400. To put it the other way round, you pay £6,400 into the account and the government adds a quarter of that.

The annual cap per child

The top-up is capped at £2,000 per child each year, which you reach when total spending hits £10,000 (£8,000 from you plus £2,000 from the government). Beyond that, extra spending gets no government money, so on a very high bill every additional pound is yours.

A disabled child has a higher cap of £4,000 a year, reached at £20,000 of total spending. The calculator applies the higher cap when you select that the child is disabled.

Reading your result

The result shows three figures. The government top-up is the money added to your account. Your annual cost is what you fund after the top-up. The effective discount is the top-up as a percentage of your original bill.

The effective discount stays at 20% until the cap applies, then falls, because the top-up stops growing while your cost keeps rising. A £15,000 bill for a child without a disability gets the full £2,000, an effective discount of about 13%, and you pay £13,000.

What you need to enter

Enter your expected annual childcare cost. If your provider quotes a weekly or monthly figure, convert it to a yearly total first. If you already receive funded hours, such as the free early years entitlement, enter only the cost you still expect to pay, because Tax-Free Childcare applies to what you actually spend.

Then say whether the child is disabled, since that changes the cap. For more than one child, run the tool once per child: each child has a separate account and cap. Add the results together for your household position.

When to use this tool

• To estimate the Tax-Free Childcare top-up on a nursery, childminder or after-school place.
• To work out your net childcare cost for a household budget.
• To see how the disabled child cap changes the support available.
• To compare providers on a like-for-like basis after the top-up.

The top-up rate and caps are set by government and can change, so recalculate when your arrangements or the rules change. Treat the output as a planning estimate and confirm your eligibility through the official Tax-Free Childcare service.

How it fits with other support

Funded early years hours reduce the bill you pay from the account, so they lower the amount this calculator works from rather than adding to the top-up. Universal Credit childcare support cannot be claimed at the same time as Tax-Free Childcare, so families have to choose the route that leaves them better off.

Which is better depends on income, hours and the number of children. Use this calculator for the Tax-Free Childcare position, then compare it with any childcare element you could claim through Universal Credit or an employer scheme before deciding.

This is general information only and not financial advice.

About This Tax-Free Childcare Calculator

Use this Tax-Free childcare calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official GOV.UK guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.