How Much Allowance Should a Kid Get? Allowance by Age

The average weekly allowance goes from about $6 at age 5 to about $21 at age 17. Here are the numbers by age, where they come from, and how to decide what is right for your family.

Updated October 9, 2026 · by Riccardo Lapi

Average weekly allowance by age

These numbers come from families who use Greenlight, a kids' debit card app. They show what parents actually transfer, not what they say in a survey.

Source: Greenlight, average allowance by age. Greenlight users are not a random sample of US families.

What the table shows: until about age 15, the real averages are close to the "$1 per year of age" rule, a little below it. After 15, allowance grows faster, because teens start to pay for more of their own things.

Why other surveys show bigger numbers

A 2025 Wells Fargo survey of 1,587 parents found that 71% of parents of kids aged 5 to 17 give an allowance, and that the average is $37 a week (Wells Fargo, 2025).

That is three times the Greenlight average. Two things explain the gap:

• Averages are pulled up by a few high payers. A small number of families who give $100 a week raise the average for everyone. The typical (median) family gives much less.
• A survey measures what parents remember. An app measures what they send. Some parents count money for clothes or phone bills as allowance.

For planning, the Greenlight table is the better reference for a typical family.

How to choose an amount

1. List what the allowance must pay for. Is it only treats and toys, or also clothes, school lunch or a phone plan? More responsibility means more money.
2. Start from the rule of thumb. $1 per year of age per week is easy to explain to kids. Use 50 cents if the allowance covers only small things.
3. Raise it on the birthday. One raise a year, on a known date, stops weekly negotiations.
4. Split it. Many families divide the allowance into spend, save and give. Money apps like Greenlight and BusyKid do this automatically. A set of three jars does it for free.

Should allowance be tied to chores?

Parents disagree, and there is no single right answer. Most parents lean toward "yes": in a 2017 T. Rowe Price survey, 83% of parents who give an allowance said kids should earn it by doing chores (Concord Monitor). Three common systems:

For siblings, money makes fairness questions louder. If one child earns more because they took the paid jobs first, the other child will notice. A fixed rotation of paid jobs, or a "first to claim" rule that everyone knows, prevents most fights. Read our guide to fair chore rotation for siblings.