See what the government pays toward child care, and what you still pay.
How this works in 3 steps
1. Type the family income Use pay for the year, before tax.
2. Type the care The kind of care, the hourly fee, and the hours.
3. Read the result What the government pays, and what you pay.
Example: Sam’s family earns $80,000. One child is in centre care for 72 hours a fortnight at $12 an hour.
3 Result
The government pays about $739 a fortnight. You pay about $125.
Government pays$739
You pay$125
CCS %90%
Government pays
You pay
See the detailed breakdown
A day
Subsidy $77.76 · paid $73.87 · you pay $12.53
A week
Subsidy $388.80 · paid $369.36 · you pay $62.64
A fortnight
Subsidy $777.60 · paid $738.72 · you pay $125.28
A year (26 fortnights)
Subsidy $20,217.60 · paid $19,206.72 · you pay $3,257.28
You pay the fee minus the amount actually paid to the service. A day splits the fortnight by the days you entered. It does not change the subsidy.
Child 1 is on the standard rate of 90%. The subsidy uses $12.00 an hour, the lower of the fee and the $15.19 cap, for 72 of the care hours.
The percentage steps down in blocks of income. That step is how this page reads the guide. Services Australia does not publish a cent-by-cent formula. Rates last checked 22 October 2026.
Questions
What is the 3 Day Guarantee?
From 5 January 2026, families can get at least 72 hours of subsidised care a fortnight, about 3 days, without an activity test. More than 48 hours of recognised work or study, an exemption, or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child raises that to 100 hours. Volunteering and looking for work count only up to 16 hours. Type the hours that count. This page does not apply that 16-hour cap for you. The subsidy is a share of the hourly fee, up to a cap. Services Australia pays the service and holds back 5% until the year is balanced. You pay the rest.
Who gets the higher Child Care Subsidy percentage?
A second or younger child aged 5 or under can get a higher percentage than the standard rate. The eldest child stays on the standard rate. In-home care does not get the higher rate, and the higher rate ends at a family income of $370,727.
Why is 5% withheld?
Services Australia withholds 5% of the entitlement and reconciles it after the financial year. The amount paid to the service during the year is the entitlement minus that withholding. This page shows both.
What if my fee is above the hourly cap?
The subsidy is calculated on the hourly rate cap, not on the higher fee. You pay the whole of the gap above the cap, plus your share of the fee under the cap. School age changes the centre-based and outside-school-hours caps only.