Vaccines are the rare veterinary cost you can see coming, which makes them the one worth pricing before you walk in. They are also the cost most often used to sell a wellness add-on, so knowing the real per dose figures is what lets you judge whether that rider is worth its price. Every number below carries the publisher that reported it, and the one figure the industry does not publish is named rather than estimated.
How much do dog vaccines cost?
Core dog vaccines are commonly quoted at $20 to $60 a shot, according to Money's cost guide citing CareCredit. The same guide gives an overall span of $27 to $96 per vaccine once the less common ones are counted.
| Dog vaccine | Reported price | Typical schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Rabies | $35 per dose | every one to three years |
| DA2PP or DHPP | $42 per dose | core series, then boosters |
| Bordetella (kennel cough) | $38 per dose | every six to twelve months |
| Leptospirosis | $49 per dose | two doses initially, then annually |
| Lyme | $50 per dose | two doses initially, then annually |
All five figures come from Money's "How Much Are Dog Shots?", citing CareCredit, and billed costs vary widely by region and clinic. Note the schedule column, because it changes the annual arithmetic more than the price does. A $35 rabies dose that lasts three years is a smaller yearly cost than a $38 bordetella dose that may be repeated twice in one year.
How much do cat vaccines cost?
Cat vaccines are commonly quoted at $10 to $50 a shot, per MetLife Pet Insurance's cost guide, which is the only source we found that also gives a series total.
| Cat vaccine | Reported price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rabies | $20 to $30 | MetLife Pet Insurance |
| FVRCP | $20 to $40 | MetLife Pet Insurance |
| FeLV | $25 to $45 per dose | MetLife Pet Insurance |
| Bordetella | $10 to $30 | MetLife Pet Insurance |
| Rabies, national average | $31 | CareCredit |
| FVRCP, national average | $34 | CareCredit |
MetLife's guide puts the full kitten course at around $200, and CareCredit's two national averages sit inside MetLife's bands, which is the closest thing to corroboration available in this category. Billed costs vary widely by region and clinic.
What does the full puppy vaccine series cost?
No source publishes a single total for the puppy series, so the honest answer is the per visit schedule instead of a headline figure. Money's guide, citing CareCredit, gives the visits this way.
- 6 to 8 weeks: $20 to $60
- 10 to 12 weeks: $20 to $60
- 14 to 18 weeks: $40 to $105
- Annual booster thereafter: $40 to $105
We deliberately do not add those bands together and present the sum as a sourced total, because the publisher does not. Any site showing you one confident number for "the puppy series" has done that addition itself and dropped the working, and the result depends entirely on which optional vaccines it assumed. For kittens the position is different: MetLife's cost guide does state a course total, around $200, and we publish that as MetLife's figure rather than as a fact.
The practical takeaway is the visit count. A puppy series is usually three to four visits between six and eighteen weeks, then a booster schedule, so budget by visit and ask your veterinarian which non core vaccines your region actually calls for.
Does the vaccine price include the office visit?
Read a quote as the shot price plus the visit price unless the clinic says otherwise, because every cost guide we cite prices vaccines per dose and prices the examination separately.
A basic office visit is commonly quoted in the $50 to $150 range. CareCredit puts routine visits at $56 to $129 for dogs and $57 to $130 for cats. Pawlicy Advisor puts wellness exams at $65 to $150 for dogs and $50 to $150 for cats. AVMA survey data shows what the whole appointment tends to cost, at an average of $214 paid per visit for dogs and $138 for cats in 2024. That figure is higher because most visits include more than the exam. Billed costs vary widely by region and clinic.
Where are pet vaccines cheaper?
A nonprofit clinic is the cheapest sourced route, and it can be dramatically cheaper. Kitsap Humane Society in Washington publishes a rabies vaccine at $15 including the certificate and tag, and other vaccines free alongside a spay or neuter, at prices effective 15 January 2026.
That is a published price list rather than a cost guide estimate, which makes it the strongest vaccine number on this page. It is also one clinic in one state. No national average price for low cost clinic vaccination is published anywhere we could cite, so do not treat $15 as a benchmark your own area will match. Low cost clinics vary by region and by whether they are grant funded, and many tie the free vaccines to a surgery appointment, which is priced in our guide to spay and neuter coverage.
Does pet insurance cover vaccines?
No base accident and illness policy covers vaccines, because a shot is a scheduled purchase rather than an unexpected event. The same logic sends spay and neuter surgery, routine dental cleanings and annual wellness exams to the same side of the line.
Vaccines reach owners only through an optional wellness add-on, which some insurers sell and some do not. Which insurers include shots in that rider, and which sell no rider at all, is set out in does pet insurance cover vaccines and shots.
Does a wellness add-on pay for the shots?
Only if the caps you would actually use add up to more than the rider costs, and for vaccines alone that is a hard test to pass. Four steps settle it in about ten minutes.
- List the shots actually due for your pet this year, not the full schedule the rider advertises.
- Find the per item cap beside each of those shots in the benefit schedule.
- Add only those caps, ignoring items you will not use.
- Compare that total to the rider's annual price.
Run it on a real example. An adult cat due one rabies at $20 to $30 and one FVRCP at $20 to $40, on MetLife's figures, is claiming back two low value items. The rider has to be priced very low to beat that. A puppy in a three to four visit series at $20 to $105 a visit has considerably more on the schedule, which is where riders make more sense. Our own dated rider prices are pending first quote run, so run the test on the quote screen in front of you. The full method is in pet insurance wellness add-ons, and the riders worth reading are shortlisted in best pet insurance wellness plans.
One limitation on all of this: vaccine schedules are a veterinary decision, not a price decision. Leptospirosis and Lyme are regional calls, bordetella depends on boarding and daycare, and none of the prices above tells you which vaccines your dog or cat needs. Prices are also per dose rather than per year, and the doses per year differ by vaccine, so a shot list is not an annual budget. If the wider question is whether to buy coverage at all, the comparison sits in insurance versus a wellness plan. The rest of the sourced veterinary ranges are in what vet care actually costs.