Aged care cost calculator
Aged care in Australia is means-tested and the fees can be confusing. Move the sliders to estimate what a care home — or Support at Home — might cost you, using the 2026 Aged Care Act fee structure.
Your situation
Your assessable assets (everything except your home) at the time you ENTER care — that's when aged care means-tests you. If care is years away, use what you expect to have left then, not today's balance.
A kept former home is counted in the means test only up to $214,884 (and is exempt for the first 2 years if a partner still lives there).
The typical stay is around 2.6 years.
Advanced: assessable income
Usually the assets test binds; leave at 0 if unsure.
You'd pay the maximum means-tested fees. Below $61,500 in assessable assets you pay none; at/above $290,453 you pay the most.
General information only, a 2026-vintage estimate in today's dollars — not personal financial advice. Clinical care is fully government-funded and not charged here. Your actual fees depend on the full statutory means test, your provider's room price, and current rates.
How aged care is charged
Residential care has four charges: a flat basic daily fee everyone pays, a means-tested hotelling fee for meals and cleaning, a means-tested care contribution (NCCC) that is capped, and the cost of your room — paid as a refundable lump sum (a RAD), as a daily payment (a DAP), or a mix. Clinical care is fully government-funded.
How much of the means-tested fees you pay depends on your assessable assets and income — the same test behind the Age Pension, with your former home counted only up to a cap. A refundable deposit is exempt from that test, which is part of why the RAD-vs-DAP choice matters.
See it in your whole retirement plan
The free planner models a care phase inside your full projection — how the fees, the RAD and your Age Pension play out over the years, and what it leaves to your estate.
Open the planner