How Much Does Wag Cost? 2026 Walk and Boarding Prices

Wag prices are not fixed. Each caregiver sets their own rate within a range, so what you pay depends on your city, the service type, and who accepts the booking. As a rough guide, expect walks around $12 to $30, drop-in visits around $13 to $16, and overnight boarding or sitting around $48 to $75 a night, plus a flat per-booking fee unless you carry a Wag Premium membership. Here is how those bands break down, what actually moves the price up or down, and where a commonly misunderstood fee actually lands.

Walk pricing bands

A standard walk on Wag generally falls between $12 and $30, according to current listings on Wag's own site, with most owners in mid-size markets paying somewhere in the middle of that range for a 20 to 30 minute walk. The exact number depends on walk length, your neighborhood, and how many caregivers are actively taking bookings nearby. Dense metro areas with heavy walker competition sometimes land at the lower end of the band, while smaller markets or rural zip codes with fewer available walkers can run noticeably higher, occasionally pushing past $30 for a longer walk or a large, high-energy dog that requires more attention. Peak times, like weekday mornings and early evenings when everyone in the neighborhood wants the same one-hour window, also tend to nudge prices up simply because demand for available caregivers spikes at those hours.

Wag does not publish one fixed national rate for a reason: pricing is caregiver-set and demand-driven, similar to how Rover pricing works on a comparable marketplace model. Neither app operates like a taxi meter with a company-set fare; both function more like a two-sided marketplace where the caregiver names a price and the owner accepts, declines, or looks for a different walker. If you want a general sense of what dog walking costs across services rather than one single app, how much does a dog walker cost lays out the wider market range, including independent local walkers who are not on any app at all.

Drop-in visit pricing

Drop-in visits, short check-ins where a caregiver feeds, lets your dog out, refreshes water, or plays for a few minutes without a full walk, tend to run cheaper than walks, typically landing in the $13 to $16 range for a short visit. These are popular for cats, senior dogs who cannot manage a long walk, dogs recovering from surgery, or owners who just need someone to swing by during a long workday between a morning and evening walk. As with every Wag service, the caregiver sets the exact price and can adjust it based on visit length, so two drop-ins booked in the same city on the same day can differ by a few dollars depending on who accepts the job and how long the visit runs.

Multi-pet households should expect an add-on charge for each additional animal on a drop-in, since caring for two or three pets in one visit takes longer and involves more responsibility than a single dog. Always confirm the per-pet breakdown in the booking screen before confirming, rather than assuming the listed price covers every animal in the home.

The booking fee and Wag Premium

On top of the caregiver's rate, Wag applies a flat booking fee to most reservations. That fee is waived for members on a paid Wag Premium subscription, which also typically includes a service discount on top of the fee waiver. Whether Premium pays for itself depends entirely on how often you book: an owner who uses Wag occasionally, say once a month while traveling, probably will not recoup the membership cost from fee waivers alone, while an owner booking multiple walks or visits a week likely will come out ahead fairly quickly. Confirm the current Premium price and exactly what it waives or discounts directly in the app before subscribing, since subscription pricing and inclusions are the kind of detail that can change without much advance notice, and a stale number from an old review is not something to budget around. Some owners also assume the booking fee is refundable if a caregiver cancels; check the app's current cancellation policy rather than assuming, since refund handling for fees versus the caregiver's own rate can differ.

Cats and other pets

Wag is best known for dog walking, but drop-in visits are also commonly used for cats and other small pets that do not need a walk but do need feeding, litter box attention, or a medication reminder while an owner travels. Pricing for a cat drop-in generally sits in a similar band to a dog drop-in, though caregivers may price it slightly differently since a cat visit skips the walking portion but can involve more time indoors depending on the animal's personality. If you have multiple cats or a mixed household of dogs and cats, expect the per-pet add-on to apply the same way it does for multi-dog bookings.

Overnight boarding and sitting bands

Boarding, where your dog stays overnight at a caregiver's home rather than a kennel, generally runs about $48 to $69 a night. Overnight sitting, where the caregiver stays in your home instead, averages around $51 a night and can climb toward $75 depending on the caregiver, the number of pets in the home, and any add-on requests like administering medication, extra walks, or additional playtime sessions. Multiple dogs, holiday travel dates, and last-minute or short-notice bookings all tend to push the price toward the top of the band, since caregiver availability tightens around holidays exactly when demand is highest.

If you are weighing Wag boarding against a traditional facility, how much does dog boarding cost covers the kennel and daycare-boarding comparison, which is useful context because in-home boarding through an app and a commercial boarding facility are genuinely different products with different price structures, not just two ways to buy the same service. Wag's own dog boarding page outlines how in-home boarding listings work and what caregivers set as their nightly rate.

The walker application fee (this is a fee walkers pay, not owners)

One detail that confuses new users: Wag charges a one-time application fee, historically about $50, to people applying to become walkers or sitters on the platform. This fee has been reported as covering part of the caregiver's background check and onboarding process, and it is paid by the person joining Wag as a service provider, not by pet owners booking care. If you are an owner just looking to book a walk or a night of boarding, you will never see this charge on your account at any point. It only appears during the caregiver sign-up flow, well before that person can accept a booking from you. Gig-platform fee and worker-classification terms can change over time and vary by state, so anyone considering becoming a Wag walker should confirm the current figure directly on the sign-up page; the FTC's gig-economy worker guidance is also a useful general reference for what platforms owe workers before they start.

What drives the price up or down

A handful of factors consistently move Wag pricing in either direction: service length (a 60-minute walk costs more than a 20-minute one), how many pets are included in a single booking, your city's overall cost of living and local caregiver supply, same-day or last-minute booking versus scheduling several days ahead, and any add-ons like extra playtime, medication administration, or holiday surcharges that caregivers commonly apply around major travel dates. Breed and size can factor in too, since a large or very high-energy dog sometimes commands a higher rate from caregivers who price by effort rather than a flat per-walk number.

Tipping is separate from the listed price and is optional but genuinely appreciated across the pet-care app space, not just on Wag. See how much to tip a dog walker for typical ranges if you are unsure what is customary. Because rates are caregiver-set rather than centrally fixed by the company, the same service can cost noticeably different amounts a few miles apart within the same metro area, and even from the same caregiver on a holiday weekend versus a regular Tuesday.

Sample cost scenarios

A single dog getting one 30 minute walk on a weekday in a mid-size city might run somewhere around $18 to $24 plus the booking fee, before any tip. A household with two dogs booking a daily drop-in while both owners are at work could land closer to $16 to $22 per visit once the second-pet add-on is factored in, multiplied across however many visits a week are booked. An owner traveling for a five-night trip who books in-home overnight sitting rather than boarding at a caregiver's house might see a total in the rough neighborhood of $255 to $375 for the stay, before tip, and meaningfully more if medication administration or extra midday walks are added on top. These are illustrative ranges built from the price bands above, not quotes, and your actual total will depend on the caregivers available in your specific area on the dates you need care.

Getting an accurate quote before you book

The only way to know your real price is to open the app, enter your dog's details and the service you want, and look at the quotes from caregivers who are actually available on your dates. Listed price ranges in any article, including this one, are a planning tool for budgeting, not a substitute for checking current, location-specific pricing. Filtering by caregiver rating, response time, and experience level alongside price is worth the extra minute, since the cheapest available walker is not automatically the best fit for your dog, especially if your dog has specific handling needs, reactivity, or medical requirements that call for a more experienced caregiver.

Ways to keep your Wag bill lower

Booking recurring walks on a set schedule rather than one-off same-day requests often unlocks a steadier, sometimes lower rate from a caregiver who values predictable income over occasional gig work. Scheduling ahead of holidays and peak travel windows instead of waiting until the week of also helps, since last-minute demand is exactly what pushes boarding and sitting prices toward the top of their bands. If you book often enough that Wag Premium's fee waiver and discount would offset its cost, running the math once at the start of the year can save more than shopping caregiver to caregiver for a slightly lower quote each time.

How Wag pricing compares to Rover

Rover and Wag both use a caregiver-set, marketplace pricing model, so the ranges overlap more than they differ: expect roughly similar walk and drop-in pricing on either platform, with the real difference usually coming down to which caregivers are actually active and well-reviewed in your zip code, not some structural pricing gap baked into either app. See how much does Rover cost for the side-by-side range, and confirm actual live quotes in both apps before booking since caregiver availability and pricing shift week to week, sometimes day to day around holidays.

Wag's 2025 restructuring, in one line

Wag! Group Co. filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 reorganization in July 2025 and completed it in September 2025, emerging as a privately held company owned by its secured lender, Retriever LLC, according to the company's own completion announcement. The company has stated that operations continued through the process, and the app remains live for booking walks, drop-ins, sitting, and boarding today. This was a change in corporate ownership and balance sheet, not a shutdown, and it has no direct bearing on the price bands described above. Owners who booked care through Wag before, during, and after the reorganization have generally reported no disruption to active bookings, though as with any company that has gone through a financial restructuring, it is reasonable to keep an eye on official Wag communications and the company's Better Business Bureau profile for any future changes to fees or terms. For the fuller picture on the app itself, including features and honest downsides, read the Wag review.

Service | Typical price band | Notes
Walk (20 to 30 min) | $12 to $30 | Set by caregiver, varies by city and walk length
Drop-in visit | $13 to $16 | Short feed, let-out, or check-in visit
Overnight boarding (caregiver's home) | $48 to $69 per night | Higher for multiple pets or holidays
Overnight sitting (your home) | about $51 to $75 per night | May include add-ons like meds
Booking fee | Flat fee per booking | Waived with Wag Premium membership
Walker application fee | Historically about $50, one time | Paid by caregivers joining, not by owners

Frequently asked questions

Is Wag cheaper than Rover?

Not consistently. Both platforms let individual caregivers set their own prices, so the ranges overlap heavily. Which one is cheaper for you depends on which caregivers are active in your area that week, not a fixed pricing difference between the two apps. Compare live quotes in both before booking.

Does Wag charge owners the application fee?

No. That fee applies to people applying to become a Wag walker or sitter, historically about $50, covering part of their background check and onboarding. Pet owners booking a walk or sitting appointment never pay it and will not see it anywhere in their account.

Is Wag still operating after its 2025 bankruptcy?

Yes. Wag! Group Co. completed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 reorganization in September 2025 and now operates as a privately held company owned by Retriever LLC. The app has continued booking walks, drop-ins, sitting, and boarding throughout and after the process, and it is not defunct.

Is Wag Premium worth the cost?

It depends on how often you book. Premium waives the flat booking fee and typically includes a service discount, so frequent users can recoup the membership cost quickly, while occasional users may not. Check the current Premium price directly in the app before subscribing.

Why did my Wag quote change between two bookings?

Because pricing is caregiver-set, not fixed by Wag. Availability, demand, service length, number of pets, and timing, such as same-day versus scheduled well ahead, all shift the quote you see, even for the same service in the same neighborhood.