How Much Does Rover Cost? Pricing by Service Type (2026)

Rover does not publish a single price list, because every walker, sitter, and boarder on the platform sets their own rate. What you pay is a mix of that individual's price, the type of service, your location, and a booking fee Rover adds on top. The honest bottom line: budget roughly $15 to $30 for a walk or drop-in visit and $25 to $75 a night for boarding or house sitting, then expect your checkout total to run a bit higher than the sitter's listed rate once Rover's fee is added.

This guide breaks the price down by service type, explains the split between what you pay and what the sitter actually earns, and walks through the specific things that push a quote up or down so you are not surprised at checkout. None of the figures below are a guarantee. Rover is a marketplace, not a fixed-rate service, and the only reliable number is the one you see when you enter your own dates, pet details, and zip code.

Walks and drop-in visits

Dog walks and drop-in visits are Rover's cheapest, most common bookings, and they typically land in the $15 to $30 range for a standard 20 to 30 minute visit, though sitters in expensive metro areas or with heavy demand can price above that band. A drop-in visit (feeding, a bathroom break, some playtime, no full walk) usually sits at the lower end of that range, while a longer or more active walk sits at the higher end. Multiple pets, a special request like medication administration, or a same-day booking can push the price up further. For a broader comparison of what dog walkers charge across services (not just Rover), see our dog walker cost guide.

Most owners who book a single daily walk end up paying somewhere in the middle of that band once a walker with a solid review history is factored in. Brand-new walkers building their profile sometimes price near the floor to attract their first bookings, while walkers who are consistently fully booked can charge closer to the top of the range and still fill their schedule. If you need a recurring weekly walk rather than a one-off booking, some walkers offer a modest per-walk discount for a standing schedule, though this is set by the individual walker and is never guaranteed.

Boarding and house sitting

Boarding, where your dog stays overnight at the sitter's home, and house sitting, where the sitter stays overnight at yours, are priced per night and generally fall between $25 and $75, with the wide range driven almost entirely by location and the individual sitter's experience level. A first-time sitter in a lower cost-of-living area might charge near the bottom of that band; an experienced, highly reviewed sitter in a major city can charge well above it, especially around holidays. House sitting tends to price close to boarding, sometimes slightly higher, since the sitter is committing to stay in your home rather than their own. These bands are broadly in line with general market data on pet-sitting rates outside any single app, where industry cost surveys show overnight in-home pet sitting spanning a similarly wide range depending on region. Our broader pet sitting cost guide breaks down how these nightly rates compare to traditional boarding kennels and independent sitters outside the app.

Length of stay also matters in a less obvious way. A single-night booking is often priced at a flat per-night rate, but a week-long or multi-week boarding stay sometimes comes with a modest per-night discount from sitters who prefer longer, more predictable bookings over a string of one-night stays. On the other end, very short-notice bookings, especially around a holiday, are the least likely to get a discount and the most likely to be priced at the top of a sitter's range simply because demand is highest exactly when supply is tightest.

Doggy day care

Day care bookings, where your dog is dropped off and picked up the same day rather than staying overnight, are priced per day and usually run somewhat below the overnight boarding rate, since there is no overnight supervision involved. As with every Rover service, the exact number depends entirely on the individual provider's listed rate for that service in your area, so treat any specific figure you see as a starting point to confirm on the app, not a guarantee. Day care is most often booked by owners who work long or irregular hours and need daytime supervision and exercise rather than an overnight stay, and many sitters who offer boarding also offer day care as a lower-cost add-on for existing clients.

The owner booking fee: why your total is higher than the sitter's rate

The price you see on a sitter's profile is not the final number you pay. Rover adds a booking fee at checkout, calculated as a percentage of the total booking and capped so it cannot exceed a set dollar amount, according to Rover's own help center page on service fees. This fee funds the platform (payment processing, customer support, the Rover Guarantee, and the app itself) and is separate from what the sitter actually earns. On the sitter's side, Rover also takes a service fee out of the sitter's payout before it reaches them, which is a different percentage than the owner's booking fee. In practice this means two things: the number on a sitter's profile is not what you will pay at checkout, and it is also not what the sitter takes home. Fee structure can vary by state; Rover's California-specific fee page, for example, describes a different marketplace fee percentage than the standard national structure. Always check the final total at checkout before confirming a booking, and see Rover's own explainer on whether Rover itself is free to use for the full fee overview.

Put in plain terms: if a walker lists a $25 rate for a 30-minute walk, your checkout total will be $25 plus the booking fee percentage, subject to the cap, not a flat $25. Meanwhile the walker does not receive the full $25 either, since Rover's separate service fee is deducted from their side before payout. Both fees exist for the same underlying reason, funding the platform's vetting, support, and guarantee infrastructure, but they are charged to two different parties and calculated differently, which is a common source of confusion for first-time users comparing a sitter's listed rate to their actual checkout price.

A quick example of how the math works

Say a sitter lists boarding at $40 a night for a three-night stay, for a $120 subtotal. Rover's booking fee is then calculated as a percentage of that subtotal and added on top, bringing your checkout total above $120, with the exact dollar amount depending on the current fee percentage and cap described on Rover's fee page for your state. If you add a second dog to the same booking, most sitters charge an additional per-pet rate on top of the base $40, which also increases the subtotal the booking fee is calculated against. None of this is unique to Rover among marketplace apps, but it is worth walking through once so the final number at checkout never feels like a surprise.

What actually moves the price

A handful of factors explain most of the spread between a $15 walk and a $30 walk, or a $25 boarding night and a $75 one.

Location. Rates in major metro areas with a high cost of living run noticeably higher than rates in smaller towns, the same way any local service does.

Holidays and peak demand. Thanksgiving week, the winter holidays, and other high-travel periods see sitters raise rates or add a holiday surcharge, and availability tightens, so booking early matters as much as budget.

Number of pets. Most sitters charge an additional per-pet fee for a second or third dog or cat in the same household, rather than a flat household rate.

Add-ons. Extra services like additional walk time, medication administration, daily photo updates, or a longer drop-in visit are typically priced as add-ons on top of the base rate.

Sitter experience and demand. A newer sitter building a review history usually prices below the market average; a highly rated, frequently booked sitter can charge a premium and still stay full.

Because every one of these factors is set by an individual provider rather than a corporate rate card, the only way to know your actual price is to search sitters in your area, on your dates, and read the total at checkout rather than relying on any single published number, including the bands in this article.

Tipping on Rover

Tipping is optional on Rover, not built into the price, and sitters do not automatically expect one, according to Rover's own guide to tipping pet sitters. If you choose to tip, the informal norm mirrors other service tipping: roughly 10 to 20 percent of the service total for a job well done, and the sitter keeps 100 percent of any tip you leave through the app. Tipping is a courtesy for exceptional care, not a requirement to secure good service, and skipping it does not affect your future bookings.

How to get an accurate quote for your situation

Because every number in this article is a band rather than a fixed price, the only way to know what you will actually pay is to run a real search. Enter your zip code, service type, exact dates, and pet details (species, size, and how many pets) into Rover's search, and compare several sitters rather than booking the first result. Read a few full profiles rather than just the headline rate: some sitters price a base rate low but charge meaningfully more for add-ons like extra playtime, additional pets, or holiday dates, so the all-in total can end up higher than a sitter whose base rate looked higher at first glance. A short message to two or three candidates asking about their total price for your specific dates, before you book, is the fastest way to avoid a surprise at checkout.

It is also worth booking earlier rather than later whenever your travel dates are known in advance. Sitters with strong reviews fill their calendars first, especially around holidays, and the sitters still available a few days before a peak travel date are disproportionately likely to be either new to the platform or pricing at the top of the local range simply because they can. Booking a few weeks ahead gives you a wider pool of sitters to compare, which in practice tends to produce a better price as well as a better match for your pet.

How Rover pricing compares to other options

Rover's marketplace model, where individual sitters set their own rates and Rover adds a booking fee on top, is one of several pricing structures in the pet-service app space. Wag, for instance, prices on-demand walks somewhat differently; see our Wag cost breakdown for a side-by-side sense of the two models. If you are weighing Rover boarding against a traditional kennel, our dog boarding cost guide lays out how nightly kennel rates compare. And for the full picture of our own experience booking through the platform, start with the Rover review.

Is the price worth it

Whether Rover's price is worth it depends on what you are comparing it against. Against an unvetted arrangement with a stranger found through a classified ad, the booking fee buys a background-check layer, a review history, in-app messaging, and the Rover Guarantee's coverage terms, which are real value for many owners even if the exact dollar amount of that value is hard to pin down. Against a trusted neighbor, friend, or family member willing to help for free or a small favor, Rover will almost always cost more, since you are paying for a marketplace and a stranger's time rather than a personal favor. Against a traditional boarding kennel or daycare facility, the comparison is closer and depends heavily on your dog's temperament, since a one-on-one in-home sitter and a group kennel environment are genuinely different products, not just different prices.

Rover cost by service type

The table below summarizes typical 2026 price bands by service. Treat every figure as a starting range, not a quote: your actual price depends on the individual sitter, your location, the dates, and any add-ons, and it does not yet include Rover's booking fee at checkout.

Service type | Typical price band | Billed | What changes the price
Drop-in visit | $15 to $25 | Per visit | Visit length, number of pets, medication
Dog walk | $15 to $30 | Per walk | Walk length, location, number of dogs
Doggy day care | $20 to $50 | Per day | Location, provider demand, add-ons
Boarding (overnight at sitter's home) | $25 to $65 | Per night | Location, sitter experience, holidays, pet count
House sitting (sitter stays at your home) | $30 to $75 | Per night | Location, home size or number of pets, holidays

Frequently asked questions

Does the price shown on a sitter's profile include Rover's fees?

No. The rate on a sitter's profile is the sitter's own listed price. Rover adds a separate booking fee at checkout, calculated as a percentage of the total and capped at a maximum dollar amount, so your final total will be higher than the number on the profile. Always review the full breakdown before confirming.

Is Rover more expensive than hiring a local sitter directly?

Not necessarily. Rover's booking fee funds background checks, the Rover Guarantee, payment processing, and customer support, which an informal arrangement with a neighbor or friend does not include. A sitter found entirely outside any platform may charge less, but you also lose the vetting and protection layer Rover provides. Compare both against our broader pet sitting cost figures before deciding.

Why did my Rover quote change between two different sitters for the same dates?

Because every sitter sets an independent rate. Experience, review count, location within your metro area, and current demand all factor into what an individual sitter charges, which is why two sitters a few miles apart can quote noticeably different prices for the same service.

Do I have to tip on Rover?

No. Tipping is optional and is not built into the checkout price. Many owners tip 10 to 20 percent for excellent care, and the sitter keeps the full tip amount, but it is a courtesy rather than an expectation.

Are Rover boarding prices higher around holidays?

Often, yes. Demand rises sharply around major travel holidays, and many sitters raise their rates or add a holiday surcharge during those windows while availability also tightens. Booking well in advance is the best way to control both price and availability.