Short answer
How much allowance by age? Greenlight's 2025 app data puts the average weekly allowance at $7.22 at age 8, $8.53 at 10, $13.13 at 14 and $21.47 at 17 (Greenlight). The old "$1 a week per year of age" rule runs slightly high for ages 8 to 13, is about right at 14 and 15, and runs low for older teens. Pick a number near your child's age line, then make sure it can fund one goal they care about.
Your child asks for money at every checkout, or a friend just mentioned getting $20 a week. You want a number, and you want to know it is normal.
Allowance by age: what parents actually pay
The cleanest per-age numbers come from Greenlight, a family money app. They cover app users only, with no sample size given. Treat them as a reasonable middle, not a rule.
| Age | Average per week | $1-per-year rule | Rule vs average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | $7.22 | $8 | A bit high |
| 9 | $7.86 | $9 | A bit high |
| 10 | $8.53 | $10 | A bit high |
| 11 | $9.35 | $11 | A bit high |
| 12 | $10.37 | $12 | A bit high |
| 13 | $11.59 | $13 | A bit high |
| 14 | $13.13 | $14 | Close |
| 15 | $15.26 | $15 | Close |
| 16 | $17.89 | $16 | Low |
| 17 | $21.47 | $17 | Low |
The $1 rule has no traceable origin. In 2012, Beth Kobliner called it "the old rule of thumb" and warned it "may be wildly high or low" (Kobliner). Scholastic quotes a softer version, 50 cents to $1 per year of age (Scholastic). It is a folk guideline, handy as a starting point and nothing more.
Younger kids? Greenlight's data starts at 5: $6.18 a week at 5, $6.44 at 6 and $6.79 at 7. None of the sources here names a right age to start. Paying monthly instead? Multiply the weekly amount by 52 and divide by 12, so $13 a week is about $56 a month.
In the UK, pocket money is lower. Among Rooster Card users it goes from £2.88 a week at 8 and £4.01 at 12 to £6.68 at 16 and £7.95 at 17 (NatWest Rooster Money, 2026).
Why the average allowance looks so different everywhere
Search "average allowance" and you will see $19, $37 and $17. None is wrong. They measure different children in different ways.
What the research says
T. Rowe Price surveyed 2,138 parents and their children aged 8 to 14 in early 2022. Parents reported an average of $19.39 a week per child. The spread was wide. 13% gave $5 or less and 22% gave $6 to $10. 35% gave $11 to $20, 24% gave $21 to $50 and 6% gave more than $50 (T. Rowe Price, 2022).
Wells Fargo's 2025 survey of 1,587 parents covered kids from 5 to 17. Of those parents, 71% give an allowance, averaging $37 a week (Wells Fargo, 2025). That mean includes older teens.
Till Financial looked at 9,135 US families setting up an allowance on its app. The average was $17 a week, but the median was $10. A few families giving much more pull the average up (Till Financial, 2026).
The typical family pays less than the headline number. If your 10-year-old gets $8 and a classmate claims $30, you are near the median, not stingy. We are collecting our own numbers: add yours in the 60-second survey below.
How much allowance do you give? (60-second survey)
Six taps. We don't ask your name, email or income.
Thank you. We'll post the results by age here once 150 US parents have answered. Meanwhile: check that your child's goal fits their allowance.
What an allowance teaches at each age
In the Wells Fargo survey, 85% of parents said they believe an allowance helps children learn about spending. The evidence is thinner than that confidence.
In T. Rowe Price's 2015 survey, kids who got an allowance were twice as likely to feel very or extremely knowledgeable about managing money: 32% against 16% (T. Rowe Price, 2015). That is self-rated and correlational.
A small 2024 study compared about 100 children aged 12 to 16 with pocket money and about 100 without. Pocket money did not reduce excessive spending on fast food and sweets, and it increased peer influence on purchases. Children decided better when they believed their parents decide well, and when parents shared household money decisions with them (Garyn-Tal, 2024, International Social Science Journal). It is a one-time snapshot, not an experiment. Still, it hints that the conversations matter more than the cash.
Age changes what the money means. A Cambridge review for the UK's Money Advice Service notes that young children often see pocket money as approval or kindness. The idea of an allowance as something like a wage tends to click only in early adolescence (Whitebread & Bingham, 2013).
| Age | How often | What it covers | First goal length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8‑10 | Weekly | Treats and small toys | 2–6 weeks |
| 11‑13 | Weekly or every two weeks | One category, such as snacks or games | 1–3 months |
| 14‑17 | Monthly | A real cost, such as lunches or clothes | 3–12 months, plus earnings |
Whether to tie allowance to chores is a separate debate. In the T. Rowe Price survey, 64% of parents said their child has to earn it, while 16% gave it with no conditions. Family Checklist has a thorough look at whether to tie allowance to chores, with the pros and cons.
Size the allowance so a savings goal fits
An allowance with no goal tends to evaporate at the next checkout. In the 2022 T. Rowe Price survey, 49% of kids said they would save a hypothetical $100. Of those savers, 79% would save for "something I want to do or buy later". Only 26% chose college (T. Rowe Price, 2022). Among UK Rooster Card users, around 56% of saved money goes into pots with a specific goal attached (NatWest Rooster Money, 2026). The app itself nudges kids toward those pots.
The limit is time. Seven-year-olds cannot judge future distances beyond about a month. By around eight, children can consistently place future months (Whitebread & Bingham, 2013, citing Friedman, 2000). A goal that takes a year is invisible to most young kids.
So run the arithmetic: goal price ÷ weekly savings = weeks. Say your 10-year-old gets $8.50 a week and saves half. A $25 set of art markers takes about six weeks, which fits. A $150 scooter takes about 35 weeks, which does not. Pick a smaller goal, save a bigger share, or offer a capped match. Teens saving for months may want a first savings account. Our guide on teaching kids to save money with one goal covers matching, and breaking a big goal into steps helps with the scooter.
Visible progress is the idea behind DreamBig, our goal piggy bank app (on Android now, iPhone soon). Your child picks a dream, the price splits into equal squares, and every saving reveals a piece of the picture.
If you want an app that handles the allowance money itself, family money apps such as Greenlight and Till do that. DreamBig does not handle money; it shows your child how close the goal is.
Our read
The right allowance is less about matching a national average and more about matching a time horizon. Pick an amount near your child's age line. Then check that a goal they chose fits: a few weeks at 8, a few months at 12, most of a year at 16. If it cannot, adjust the goal or the split before you adjust the amount.
Try this at home · first week
- Day 1: ask your child to name one thing they want to buy or do. "Nothing yet" is a fine answer.
- Day 2: look up the price together and divide it by what they could save each week. Let them choose the split (children delay more successfully when they help decide).
- Day 3: draw the goal and split it into one square per week, or print a 64-square savings chart.
- Day 7: pay the allowance, color a square, and ask how it felt. Compare only with their own starting point.
What does not work, and why
Matching the loudest number. A headline mean is pulled up by a few big payers, so it overstates what a typical family pays.
Paying for what your child already loves. A meta-analysis of 128 experiments found that expected tangible rewards lowered free-choice interest in tasks people already enjoyed. The effect was stronger for children than for college students (Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999). The evidence is mixed. Cameron argues the effect is "limited to a specific set of circumstances" (Cameron, 2001, Review of Educational Research), and the debate is unresolved. These were also lab tasks, not allowances.
Our take: paying a child to read for fun is a gamble you do not need to take. Our piece on whether reward charts work goes deeper.
Money with no say. If you decide every purchase, the allowance is just a delayed shopping trip. In the 2024 study above, children decided better when parents shared household money decisions with them (Garyn-Tal, 2024).
Key takeaways
- Greenlight's 2025 averages run from $7.22 a week at 8 to $21.47 at 17.
- The $1-per-year rule is a folk guideline, not a finding.
- Averages are skewed upward by a few big payers; the typical family pays less.
- The conversations around the money seem to teach more than the cash itself.
- Size the allowance so one chosen goal fits your child's time horizon.
Frequently asked questions
How much allowance should I give by age?
Greenlight's 2025 user data runs from about $7 a week at 8 to $13 at 14 and $21 at 17. The $1-per-year rule runs slightly high for ages 8 to 13, is about right at 14 and 15, and runs low for older teens. Compare your number with the table above.
What is the average allowance right now?
It depends on the survey: $19.39 a week for ages 8 to 14 (T. Rowe Price, 2022), $37 for ages 5 to 17 (Wells Fargo, 2025). Till's median family pays $10 against a $17 mean.
Where does the $1 per year of age rule come from?
No one has traced it. Finance writers have called it "the old rule of thumb" since at least 2012. Treat it as a starting point.
Does an allowance actually teach kids about money?
Kids who get one rate themselves more knowledgeable, but that is a correlation. How parents involve kids in money decisions seems to matter more than the cash.
What should my child save their allowance for?
Something they want to do or buy later, which is what 79% of child savers in the T. Rowe Price survey picked.
Sources
- Greenlight (2025 data, updated 2026). Average weekly allowance by age for Greenlight kids and teens. Greenlight Learning Center.
- T. Rowe Price (2022). 14th Annual Parents, Kids & Money Survey – Detailed Results. T. Rowe Price.
- Wells Fargo (2025). New Wells Fargo Study Shows Parents Give Their Kids an Average Weekly Allowance of $37. Wells Fargo Newsroom.
- Till Financial (2026). The Average Allowance for kids and teenagers in 2026. Till Financial.
- NatWest Rooster Money (2026). Pocket Money Index 2026. NatWest Rooster Money.
- T. Rowe Price (2015). 7th Annual Parents, Kids & Money Survey. T. Rowe Price.
- Whitebread, D. & Bingham, S. (2013). Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children. University of Cambridge for the Money Advice Service.
- Deci, Koestner & Ryan (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6).
- Kobliner, B. (2012). 3 new rules for giving your kid an allowance. Beth Kobliner (Mint reprint).
- Scholastic Parents Staff (2021). Allowance, Age by Age. Scholastic Parents.
- Garyn-Tal, S. (2024). Giving children pocket money to help them understand economic principles in personal budget management and reduce gender gaps in financial matters: Does it work? International Social Science Journal. doi:10.1111/issj.12494.
- Cameron, J. (2001). Negative Effects of Reward on Intrinsic Motivation—A Limited Phenomenon: Comment on Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (2001). Review of Educational Research, 71(1). doi:10.3102/00346543071001029.
Ilya Makarov is the founder of DreamBig, a visual savings-goal app for kids and teens. DreamBig Parenting articles separate what research shows from our interpretation and from practical experiments, and link every source. This article is general information, not medical, psychological or financial advice for a specific child.
